Your employees can make or break your business; if you cannot trust them to do their job roles or they’re not able to perform how you need them, this will reflect poorly on you as a business.
But how easy is it to hire suitable candidates? Whether you’re starting from scratch and are ready to bring on board new employees or you need to build on an existing team, hiring the right people for the job is vital.
Perfect Your Hiring Process
Before you even begin to look at applications or start to collect them, you need to look at the hiring process you have in place. Are you being intentional about the type of person you are looking for, or are your details a bit vague and not enticing to those who are or would be a good fit?
Be clear about the job role you are advertising, what applicants can expect from working for you, what skills they need, the type of company you are in, and the wages for the job role. By being transparent and descriptive, you can expect to find more suitable candidates applying as they’ll know exactly what to expect and be more likely to fit the criteria.
Determine your Company Culture
Whether you have employees currently or not, you need to figure out what type of company culture you want to embrace to help you find the right people to work for you.
Are you looking for a more serious culture with an air of professionalism in a formal atmosphere, or is a more relaxed office environment more suited to what you do? The type of business you run, your client base, and who you are will all play a part in the type of employee and workplace culture you will create and the type of people drawn to wanting to work for you.
Gather Relevant Details
Your application process needs to be able to collect relevant details and documentation pertaining to the job. Do you need them to hold an up-to-date DBS check? Do they need to be qualified to operate specific machinery or drive large loads? Or will they be required to take ADR Training if they already hold similar qualifications?
If you require them to have any qualifications or training, you need to allow for this to be submitted with their application to help you determine if they’re able to do the job and avoid waiting time booking an interview if they’re not suitably qualified.
Pre Screen
If you need help to determine who you should be inviting for an interview, try using a pre-screening process. This allows you to rapidly find candidates who are and aren’t suitable to come in for the next stage.
It can be asking them to submit a video interview to move forward to the next stage; it can be getting them to fill in a short survey or test to assess their knowledge or a quick phone call or Q&A to find out more about them as a person. This is particularly handy if you have received significant volumes of applications with multiple suitable persons interested in joining your company.
Trust Your Instincts
When you reach the interview stage, trust your instincts. While someone might look good on paper, it will all be a waste of time if you’re not getting a good feeling from them as the right fit for your team or business. Pay attention to what they do and down, how they act, and the tone they use when conversing with you and anyone else they come into contact with during the interview.
There are many giveaways as to who a person really is, and if you feel like someing isn’t quite right, trust your instincts and keep looking. This, too, goes for the opposite; if you think someone is a great fit but doesn’t quite have the skills or experience, consider if this can be worked upon and the training given to make them a valuable asset to you.
Look Past The Resume
Experience, qualifications and notable achievements are all well and good, but they don’t always give you much about who a person is and what they did to achieve all of their accolades. Much like the point above, you need to get a feel for the person, not just what they can do. Try to look past their resume and find out about them as a person, how they work in teams, what they offer, and how easily they engage with others around them.
Try to meet them in a more informal setting and talk about things outside of the job role and what they can do to allow you to delve into who they are, not just what they can do.
