A lot goes into hiring an employee. If you’ve done it, you know that it can be a lengthy process, full of interviews, phone calls, and stacks of resumes. The average time it takes a small business to fill an open position is 23 days. All that effort and you may still be unsure if you’ve found the right person. It can be a daunting process. We want to help simplify it for you and more importantly, share some of the ways that you can be sure you are hiring the best candidate for the job.
We have been assisting in the hiring process and consulting on hiring for nearly four decades. It’s a long time, right? Well, we’ve distilled the process down to three important factors that will make your process more effective and efficient. Hiring is a human process and that means it is never perfect but you can certainly get close and improve your odds of finding the right person.
The following three suggestions are some of the most important factors that we’ve noticed at PaydayHCM when consulting with other businesses.
These factors include:
•Knowing what you want as an organization
•Being extremely honest and upfront about the job and what it entails
•Asking behavioral-based questions that will elicit revealing answers from interviewees
DECIDE AS AN ORGANIZATION WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IN AN EMPLOYEE
Finding the best person to hire for a role at your company takes some serious introspection. You have to reflect on your organization as a whole and what you are trying to achieve. Look to internal documents, like your mission statement and values to help remind yourself what you are striving for collectively.
We have seen so many employers come to us and ask for help in their hiring process but most of the time when we ask what they are looking for in a new employee their answer is something overly simplistic like, “We want someone that will show up and do a great job.” Well, of course, you want that but you need to dive deeper.
Think about what type of employee would not only fit in or meet the status quo but what kind of employee would enhance and complement your company culture. Think about the different personalities that your potential new employee will be interacting with and whether they will fit in well with the established culture.
BE HONEST WITH JOB CANDIDATES ABOUT THE POSITION
We can’t emphasize this enough. A lot of employers get themselves in trouble trying to dress up their job descriptions or using fancy language to dress up what the job really is. Avoid saying anything that makes it difficult to understand the tasks and responsibilities of the job. Just say what the job is. Tell them exactly what they’ll be doing and the trajectory of that position going forward.
Being honest with potential candidates is not only to their benefit, it’s to yours. Here is a scenario that we’ve seen happen frequently. An employee will approach management or HR with complaints that the job isn’t what they were told and what they were presented with before being hired. This is a precarious situation because now you have a dissatisfied employee and a position that may become vacant again.
Enthusiasm means a lot in business. An employee who is enthusiastic and eager to do the type of work that you need is invaluable. Make sure you are not just hiring someone willing to do the job. Instead, look for someone who is motivated to do that particular job. You can find that person through an honest look at what your open position involves and requires.
ASK CANDIDATES PERSONALITY-BASED QUESTIONS
Thoughtful interview questions are the foundation for getting to know a candidate on a deeper level. Thoughtful questions can give you a sense of a candidate’s temperament, knowledge level, comfort level in interacting with others, and so much more. We call these types of questions personality-based questions. You can use them to get in-depth answers from a candidate, giving you a better picture of who they are.
Average interview question:
How do you handle high-pressure situations?
This kind of question, even though open-ended, won’t do much for you in the end. Because it doesn’t call for any specifics, your candidate isn’t likely to share a specific example. Instead, the candidate will probably answer in the most favorable way possible to themselves and who could blame them?
Personality based question:
Tell us about a high-pressure work situation in a previous workplace and how you handled it.
This type of question is much more effective. Not only will it elicit a specific example from your candidate but it will also give you an idea of their ability to communicate and their ability to think on their feet.
The second version does two things. It requires the interviewee to give an honest answer because it is difficult to fabricate a related story on the spot. It also helps to demonstrate their thought process and personality. These are qualities to note when considering how a candidate will fit in with your company culture.
HIRING THE BEST EMPLOYEES BEGINS WITH KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT
“Know thyself,” a centuries-old phrase that is more relevant than ever here. To know who you need for your organization, you first have to take a good look at what your company is all about. What is the culture? What are the other personalities of the employees that would be interacting with a new hire? What skills and traits must they have, and what can you get by without?
Establishing what you are looking for will give you a solid foundation as you begin to look for the best candidates. From there it’s a matter of asking well-thought-out, personality-based questions. Be straightforward and honest about what the job entails and what you are looking for. As you learn more about your organization and define what your needs and culture are, it will become easier to identify good candidates.
Because of human nature and the unpredictability of life, there is no guarantee that a job candidate you choose will work out. But these steps can greatly improve your chances of making a great hire. At PaydayHCM, our focus is simplifying your business. We are happy to discuss with you ways that we can help you simplify and improve your business processes.
Now that you know a thing or two about getting the best employees, read how you can keep them around with 4 Ways to Improve New Employee Retention.
