Well, we waved good-bye to 2011 last month and for many companies, things are continuing to look up now that 2012 is here.

Companies across many industries are returning to profitability, growing the bottom line and finding new ways to cultivate business. That means organizations are on the lookout for new hires and talent that will continue to bring those growth initiatives and numbers.

Last year, I spoke to two business leaders of growing companies who expressed the need to constantly look for talent that can not only help your company grow but are the right fit for your business.

I spoke to Steve Shifman, president and CEO of Michelman Inc., a 250-employee global developer of water-based coatings, surface modifiers, additives and polymers, for Smart Business Cincinnati. I also spoke to Andreas M. Schulze Ising, president and CEO of Advanced Polymer Technology Corp., a 200-employee global manufacturer of polyurethane-based materials, synthetic turf products and sports flooring applications, for Smart Business Pittsburgh.

What follows is previously unpublished advice from each leader on the importance of hiring great talent and finding the right fit.

“We’re on an aggressive hiring and expansion path and our challenge continues to be finding the kinds of talent that is necessary for us to serve our customers and to grow,” Shifman says. “We serve a lot of industries and we don’t really have that many people, so it’s incumbent upon us to make sure we’re selecting the kind of talent that has the skills and also matches our values and our culture at Michelman.”

To find the people that have the skills and experiences needed to match your organization, you need to make use of the resources available to you.

“We have a global organization so we look globally,” he says. “We’re looking for talent all over the world. We rely upon our associates to help us to find other colleagues. We use a network of recruiters and many of the traditional means that many businesses use. We’re a technical company so we look for people that have the kinds of skills that we need, clearly that’s very important, but there are a lot of people with skills. Our challenge is to find the people that not only possess the skills that we need, but also have a cultural fit with our organization.”

To find the best fit between potential new hires and your organization, you have to have a full understanding of your business.

“It starts with understanding the history of our business and really understanding why it is that we win,” he says. “You have to understand what makes your company unique. Understand why it is that you win and then make sure that the decisions that you make on a daily basis line-up with those values. We understand what it is that we do and why we’ve been successful and why we have a right to win and therefore we continue to try and organize our business and make our decisions every day around those values and that culture.”

The key to success in any company whether you operate globally or in one specific region is to have the right people.

“We are focused on studying the sciences and on the production side of things, bringing new ideas to the table,” Ising says. “In all businesses, I think the key in my mind really is to create the right teams and the right production environment. and also giving the right job to the right person so that they can use their abilities and aren’t always fumbling in their job, but accelerating in what they’re doing and growing with the team and the company. That seems to be the key; really trying to put people where they are supposed to be so they can really excel with their colleagues and their peers to make an impact in the company.”

To keep your company moving forward and beating the competition, it is critical that employees are doing the jobs that they excel at so the business operates as smoothly as possible.

“People have a precondition,” Ising says. “People have specific, unique abilities that they develop over their education life and it’s very important that you are able to understand and detect that. Certain people are wired to certain tasks, and the key is to recognize that and make sure that particular person can excel and flourish in the company. You don’t want to have a sales guy in a R&D type function. You have to systematically work through that to make sure things are right. You have to make sure that they are placed in their right environment so that they are challenged to their abilities and can flourish to their abilities.”

No matter how many or how few people you are looking to hire this year, make sure you are always scouting for top talent and people who will fit your organization so it continues to grow and prosper.

GREGORY JONES is an associate editor at Smart Business Network. He writes for the Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Cleveland magazines.