In business, nothing will make or break your enterprise more quickly than the kind of employees you are able to hire. If you can hire top-notch workers with experience and a strong work ethic, your business is likely to thrive. If, on the other hand, you can't find driven employees who are ready to succeed along with you, your business will be headed nowhere but down. Here are four steps you can take to find employees with the work ethic your business needs.

Get Your Interview Process Right

Too often, interviews focus exclusively on work experience. While this is important for employers, it's also important to be able to gauge a person's work ethic. Ask questions about individual initiative and times that your interviewee has actively gone the extra mile in his or her professional life. If someone can readily come up with an instance of going above and beyond, he or she will likely make a good employee. Some of the qualities that you might want to look for in the interview process are:

• Dressed professionally
• Having a respectful tone
• Have self-discipline
• Positive Character
• Goal-oriented

Hire From a Professional Staffing Company

All business owners understand the value of outsourcing, but some don't realize that they can outsource elements of the hiring process. Using professional staffing and labor companies can give your business access to a large pool of talent that has already gone through an extensive screening process. In addition to general staffing agencies, there are also industry-specific agencies, such as industrial staffing firms, such as Labor Works , that will cater to businesses with very specific skill requirements. Not only that, but it can help you to open up your hiring pool as well. Here are some of the qualities that people who solicit for work through such companies often have:

• Taking the initiative
• Determination
• A sense of humility

However, Don’t Forget To…

Pay Your Employees Well
Just like you, your employees do what they do for money. The best workers in the world can become demotivated and lazy when they feel they are not being compensated fairly. Pay your employees well, and you will not only be able to retain good talent, but also attract the best workers in your industry.

Keep Developing Your Employees Too many employers hire new workers, train them and then forget about them. If you want your employees to have an incredible work ethic, you need to actively cultivate them beyond basic job training. This means continuing to teach them new skills, but also recognizing and rewarding achievements. If your employees feel like valued members of your enterprise and are continually given opportunities to better themselves, they will be encouraged to put forth their best effort in the workplace.

In many ways, building great work ethic in your business is more an art than a science. These four tips, however, will help you to find motivated employees and bring out the best in them. Always remember, above all else, that happy employees will be more inclined to work harder for you than those who are miserable in their work.

Author's Bio: 

Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, CA. She enjoys kayaking and reading books by the lake.