“The most important thing you do as a leader is to hire the right people”. – David Cottrell
How do you hire?
Do you see beyond the horizon of those well-polished resumes and spot things? What is your ultimate collection of the dos and don’ts when you hire the right people? The hiring process is a tricky business– months of searching, analyzing numerous resumes, pulling in dozens of interviews, evaluating and matching them with your company’ alignment and finally picking the right fit.
Beyond a doubt, we put a lot of time, money and efforts in the process of getting the right person.
But what if you are doing it all wrong?
Are you really hiring more creative and effective members for your company or being played on by scripted resumes and too-too overstating candidates?
True, there is no set blueprint or a formula that guarantees you to hire the right people. Plus, forget that one size fits all technique; every business should develop, through trial and error, a process that will yield the best results for them.
And yeah,
Stop trusting résumé – the ill-defined layout of a person’s experience.
There is much more to look forward to.
If you are ready to go on a hiring hunt, keep these steps in mind to ensure that you pick the right person, not the best person for your team, to support your vision.
Understand the position you are hiring for
The first and most important step is to understand the position you want to fill before creating the job description. How will the position shape in the future? Work on that. As you are looking for a long-term relationship with your future employee.
Post at the Right Place
Right places and right platforms are the only ways for reaching out to the right candidates. You can either go for
- LinkedIn Career Section
- LinkedIn Paid Job Ads
- Website Career Page
Or Job Sites and Talent Acquisition Platforms like
- Indeed
- Monster
Or even Referrals from current employees
Break the old rules- say goodbye to the standard hiring process
Make the hiring process a little creative and unpredictable for the candidates. Instead of asking where do they want to be in five years, ask how do they want to grow their career. Know their opinion on common interests. Don’t shower them with commonly ask questions; put them in new situations and observe how they think and act.
Give them the ‘office tour’
Show your work, your team to your potential candidates and observe their behaviour- their curiosity, interest.
Throw something unusual to them
You can develop your own interview questions to better understand what a candidate is really like. Here are some offbeat, but natural questions that might help you.
- What are your Ninja Skills?
- What nicknames you have got and why?
Ask for samples and check out the references
Why do we often ignore the references shared by the candidates when they are the best to reflect you potential candidates’ overall character – from understanding their module of working, work ethics to their behaviour and other angles. Also, never forget to ask for the work samples and portfolios.
Remember: Yesterday is history…
Now, you have analyzed their references, it’s time to focus on the present and future potential of the candidates. It’s time to eliminate questions related to the information given on the resume since they have already shared their past work experience of the piece of paper you are holding. Your focus should be on asking open-end questions or challenging them with situations to test their potential and experience.
Add new features to your hiring process
Along with the traditional process of recruiting, which is evaluating resumes and face-to-face interviews, you should include some questionnaires, personality test or other measurement tools, so that you can get hold of more elements of a candidate’s characteristics, values or interpersonal skills.
Welcome their questions
Make sure your interview process isn’t one-sided. A candidate should feel free to ask thoughtful questions and they look at the hiring process as an open-to-converse process. A good candidate will be interested in knowing the company’s vision, its culture, his team, his leader and much more.
Instead of their weaknesses, ask for their area of improvement
When you ask an applicant about his/her weakness, chances are that they can misrepresent the answer. Nobody likes to accept and be true to their weaknesses. To avoid such situations, ask them to define areas where they want to improve their skills and how they are working on it.
Don’t be a sole decider!
Have a discussion with your team before confirming a candidate. More the opinions, better the choice. Your team members might spot things that you have missed. Try to involve some employees in the hiring process.
Don’t speed up your efforts
Urgent hiring might be poking your shoulder, but don’t rush it. Your quickness and pace to fill that role can lend you in some troubles later on. You don’t want to hire someone who just seems to be a perfect candidate on paper; you need to search for hiring the right person rather than the best person.
Be brutally honest, it won’t cost you anything!
Be clear with your words and actions from the day you start your recruitment procedure.
Let us know how you hire the right person for your company. Write to us at editorial@thecorporatereview.com.
