We often conduct talent audits with our clients and the most common question we ask is: Would you rehire this person? It’s usually a theoretical question, but as the economy is slowly starting to open back up, it’s become real for many companies across the globe.

When answering the rehire question you have to speak to two different areas of an employee’s fit with the company. First, are they the right person for the job? Do they have the skills, desires, behaviors, competencies and ability to fill the role? Second, are they the right person for your company? Do they match your core values and culture? Do they believe in your mission?

Sidenote: Before you can begin to answer these questions about your employees, you must actually have defined these two areas for the role and your company. Every role should have clearly defined expectations and success outcomes that have been laid out and agreed upon by the employee. And you must have clearly defined core values that your company lives, breathes, and relies on to make decisions. If you haven’t defined these things, you can’t objectively say whether the employee is the right fit or not.

Your company’s workload might start to pick back up quickly, but that shouldn’t rush you into rehiring a poor employee. You have an incredible opportunity right now to take advantage of an employer’s hiring market. Many people have lost their jobs due to the COVID pandemic and are actively looking for new work. If you can’t tell me with 100% certainty that your previous employee is the exact right fit for the role, make sure that you look at new resumes.

If you are going to be hiring new employees, make sure that you’re comparing their skills and experience to the clearly defined expectations for the role. Are they well suited to what the job requires? Your job is to hire someone who will be able to use their strengths every day that they come into work. The same goes for the company core values. Use your interviews to understand if the candidate shares your values and approaches to work.

By taking the time to clearly define each role as well as your company’s core values, you’ll set clear expectations for your employees from the start, or re-start. They will know what is expected of them in terms of their job and what’s expected of them in terms of how they go about doing that job.