I've spent the last 20 years recruiting top talent for over 500 companies. Here are the 4 most important hiring criteria every company should prioritize.

Candidates who bring transferable skills to the table are often the most impactful to your business. The ability to adapt to new and evolving marketplaces and businesses are key in this day and age.

Key skills to look for include: leadership, communication, problem solving, drive, ability to multitask, and — more importantly — creativity, all of which can be cross-applied between positions and different sectors.

When looking at a candidate, it's beneficial to ask them what they see as their transferable skills.

Do they:

• Like new challenges or prefer steady building?
• Communicate effectively — whether it's one on one, in meetings, on the phone, or via email?
• Work well in a group, or prefer to work alone?
• Manage their time well?
• Seamlessly juggle two or more tasks at a time?

When candidates have transferable skills, they can often jump the learning curve when it comes to adapting to your company and mission.

Looking for the right fit requires far more than a checklist of skills and experience. It is important to categorize company culture, and map how candidates do or don't fit within the context of that cultural blueprint. That is a complex and critical process. It requires deep clarity and understanding of your own company culture, a due diligence process to ensure the candidate can fit into that landscape, and benchmarking and keeping track of talented potential hires early in the recruitment process.

Part of prioritizing company culture is integrating diversity (of gender, race, and more) into the hiring equation. Beyond the moral imperative of treating people fairly and giving everyone their best shot, there is a business case to be made for diverse hiring. Study after study shows that the best performing businesses have much diversity in the executive suites and around the boardroom table. And bringing these diverse perspectives to the table and giving everyone a voice will help build a more healthy company culture.

According to Gallup, only 34% of employees are engaged at work, and 13% are "actively disengaged" as of 2018. Though a huge part of engagement is what happens within a workplace, work loyalty is often formed over years of work prior to a candidate applying for a role at your company.

For instance, constantly moving from top company to top company can be a red flag — but also too much time at one company can lead to stagnation or complacency. Loyalty should be measured by a combination of engagement and length of service, but never tenure alone. A loyal employee is engaged. They act as a corporate ambassador by recommending the company to other prospective employees and go the extra mile for clients.

Paying attention to employee engagement can help your company avoid the unnecessary hurdles and costs associated with high churn rates.

Jay Rosenzweig, the founder of Rosenzweig & Company, is an expert in designing, building, and attracting world-class teams and emerging tech advisory, and a long-standing advocate for human rights.