What Skills to Look for in a Quality Control Candidate
Posted June 20th, 2016
Quality control professionals are essential to what you do. If mistakes in manufacturing begin to comprise your product, you will quickly alienate your customers and damage your corporate reputation. That’s why you need to carefully vet anyone you’re considering to fill this role and seek out the top talent available in the job market. The best of the best have the following skills:
- Communication – Quality control professionals work with a number of stakeholders both above and below them on the corporate ladder. They will need to be able to effectively communicate complex information to all stakeholders in a variety of mediums.
- Calculation – Determining whether or not a product meets standards for quality requires a variety of careful calculations. The person filling this role will need to have an expert understanding of these calculations, understand their limits, and have alternate methods for measuring quality.
- Empathy – As we noted earlier, quality control specialists will interact with workers on the factory floor, as well as mangers in the corner office. They will need to feel comfortable in both settings and be willing to collaborate with a variety of personality types.
- Tact – These professionals are often the bearers of bad news. And in some cases, the conclusions they reach create a lot of extra work for the people around them. They must be able to highlight quality problems without offending or even enraging co-workers.
- Observation – It’s essential to be able to spot and calculate the smallest imperfections, to effectively inspect a high volume of products, and to conduct inspections quickly yet carefully. In every instance, that requires an extreme attention to detail.
- Patience – The work for a quality control specialist is often repetitive, and in some cases the inspection process is very slow and minutely detailed. Candidates who easily grow restless and quickly lose focus will not thrive in this position.
- Accuracy – The smallest margins can determine the difference between a quality product and an inferior product. In all things, the quality control specialist must be able to take careful, accurate measurements and to record those measurements faithfully.
- Fluency – There are many specialized technologies used to measure quality. Top candidates will have previous expertise using these technologies, the ability to learn new technologies quickly, and a drive to identify ways to improve processes.
You will likely encounter job seekers who possess some of these skills, by finding, attracting, and recruiting those with all of these skills is a real challenge. Partner with a specialized staffing firm like Bayside Solutions to help you expand the depth and breadth of your candidate pool.
