I recently watched a few excellent presentations from Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner, a couple of which had an interesting take on employee selection and the
qualities of a great hire. In case you haven't seen the site, here area couple of excepts, with my take on the "highlights".

One CEO's Take on Talent - Jeff Housenbold, Shutterfly

Highlights include:

• Understanding your [and your team's] strengths and weaknesses, and hiring people who help fill the gaps.
• Selecting the "Right person, with the right skills, for the right job, at the right time, with the right attitude."
• Evaluating not only what candidates do, but how they do it, and deciding if their approach fits with the organization's culture.
• Looking for particular attributes, including communication skills,
  problem-solving ability, decisiveness, creativity, people skills, and a
  learning motivation (I wonder if successful entrepreneurs, and their
  early hires, share a certain set of common characteristics...?)

Hiring Great People - David Kelley, IDEO

Highlights include:

• Hiring those who possess core technical skills is certainly important, but they are relatively easy to find in most cases.
• Make sure to select a diverse range of experts and generalists, in order to build a strong team.
• Look for attributes in candidates that account for "Wisdom", being outspoken and confident but also open-minded and democratic.