How to Hire the Right People for Your Company

According to a study, 41 percent of businesses estimated the costs of a bad hire to be over $25,000.

With today’s focus on leaner and more efficient organisations, each employee plays a more critical role. Hiring is no longer what it used to be. How well do you perform the task of hiring? What characteristics makes one candidate more attractive than the others? Finding the right person for the job is a complicated process. It can be hounded by favoritism, inadequate training in employee selection, amongst a host of other barriers. But hiring smart enables you to advance your career and build your reputation as a talented manager. It also gives your organization a vital edge over competitors.

Here are our tips on how to hire the right people for your company:

1. Sharpen your interviewing skills 

Interviewing candidates is so much more than merely conducting the interview. There are strategies you can use before and during the interview. Learn as much as you can about the candidate before the interview. For instance, choose to check and contact references before scheduling an interview. The advantage is that when you schedule the interview for the candidate, you will already know much about him or her and can ask better questions to test if he is a good fit for your company. It can also spare you from wasting both yours and the candidate’s time and save you hours from trying to coordinate a common time for everyone on the interview panel.

When conducting the interview, adopt a tool known as situational interviewing to test the potential candidate. Interviewers using this technique describe a scenario illustrating a business problem the candidate might encounter on the job. For instance, “Describe a situation where you had to collaborate with a difficult colleague”. The answer will reveal a lot about the candiate’s communication skills and professionalism in attitude when dealing with others. Solid candidates will also call out their conflict resolution skills and problem solving abilities while less than ideal candidates will shift blame or deny accountability. This technique should not be used solely in interviewing, but may be considered as a valuable addition to a well-thought out hiring process.

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2. Assessing the right fit

Possessing industry knowledge and solid technical skills are no longer enough to be defined as the ‘perfect hire’ for the organization. Potential candidates must be able to fit into the company culture. This implies that they need to demonstrate values your company is built on, together with attitudes and behaviours that will support your organization’s vision and strategy. As organisations are less hierarchical and more global, professionals must have the necessary soft skills to be able to work effectively in teams that brings together people with diverse skills and talents.

In addition, some companies may incorporate the use of psychological tests in hiring. Because of the time and expense involved, these tests are administered to prospective managers and those in leadership positions than lower level employees. Tests are not one-size-fit-all solutions and companies may give different tests at a single setting to test for personality, integrity and cognitive ability, for example. But tests can help to validate your opinions on things gathered from interviews and raise issues or concerns to look further into. If tests are used, it should not be used complementary to the hiring interview.

3. Tapping the right talent pools

Whether they are looking for leaders or new hires, successful companies know where to tap the right talent pools. By doing so, they widen their options significantly and boost their chances of recruiting the best candidates. Many companies already have a fluid talent pool where they outsource or use consultants and agencies. One thing to take note is to ensure that your talent pool is wide and deep. After all, the first person you call to take on a project may not be available when you need them.

Furthermore, there is a need to develop a system for organizing talent based on their performance ability and skills. The truth is that very few people see themselves as long-term employees of a company and those who do may work part-time, work flexible hours or take sabbaticals and come back. You need to find ways to keep track of these people in your databases so that you can fill the gaps when projects require additional staff.

4. Harness the power of social media

Hiring personnel are using the Internet and particularly social media platforms to screen, recruit and hire talent for their organisations. This is done in addition to the usual methods of advertising on job portals online and in newspapers or using search agencies. While most organisations will already have their own corporate websites, few are using it to their full potential. In terms of recruitment, your corporate website should not only be used to advertise job openings, but it should be used to market the company to prospective employees. In short, your company website should be an engaging website where users can interact with the content and leave with a good impression.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Linkedin allow hiring personnel opportunities to connect and interact with candidates. By participating in discussions in work-related forums, recruiters may also identify potential leads and increase your talent pool.

Hiring smart will be even more challenging ahead as the pace of change in the business landscape steadily accelerates. But by thinking through these questions regularly, you can generate a stream of ideas to hire the right people for your company.