As your company grows, you will be forced to bring in more people. Needless to say, this is a never-ending loop, seeing as how people will quit, get promoted, retire or even get poached by the competition day in and day out. In other words, optimizing your hiring process is a skill that you have to master regardless of the size of your company. With this in mind, here are several suggestions that might come in handy.
Social Media Scouting
In 2018, LinkedIn is, more or less, a standard hiring tool. Apart from being used by 94 percent of recruiters in their candidate vetting process it also connects them with a lot more potential employees, expanding your talent pool by quite a bit. On the other hand, some recruiters feel no need to stop at LinkedIn. There’s nothing wrong with adding or following your potential employees on other social media profiles, as well, in order to see who you’re really dealing with. Sure, even the version you see on Instagram or Facebook doesn’t have to be the real them, however, these profiled are usually not tweaked for potential employers, which tends to be the case with LinkedIn.
Be Prepared
When hiring people, what you want from them is efficiency, so, efficiency is what you have to give in return. The very process of prospecting, contacting and interviewing them has to go flawlessly, which is why you need to be prepared to act quickly when you eventually decide to hire. This, however, greatly depends on the efficiency of your HR. Needless to say, getting an employment letter template online and customizing it to fit your company’s needs is a great start. In this way, you will be ready to send it as soon as you decide to hire a candidate.
Help the Introverts
A lot of people get a job for a simple reason of ‘killing it at the interview’, however, this is a double-edged sword. You see, interviews are tailored to suit extroverts better, which means that you might miss out on a potentially lucrative demographic by unjustly eliminating all your shy candidates. In fact, for a lot of positions in your company, one doesn’t have to be extrovert at all. On the contrary, some of the surveys claim that introverts often make better employees, seeing as how they are less distracted by immediate rewards and more focused on the bigger picture. In other words, if you notice a promising candidate having a hard time at the interview, give it your best to help them show you their potential.
Come Up with Some Unpredictable Questions
While coming unprepared for the interview may seem as a sign of negligence, you won’t get much value from the standard questions that are rehearsed in front of the mirror either. Asking an interviewee to list their strengths and weaknesses, asking them why you should hire them or why they want to work for you are all standard questions that usually result in them giving you some standard answers. Of course, they will say they are hard-workers and team players, so, why not start thinking a bit outside of the box when coming up with these questions. Why not put them in a rough spot and ask them why they’ve quit their last job or place them in front of a hypothetical ethical dilemma?
Make Yourself Presentable
In order to attract top talent, you need to make sure you’re sending the right message to your audience. Star employees are often attracted by more than just money. Even if your competitors can offer a heftier paycheck, a promise of advancement, potential for self-improvement or even additional benefits can easily turn the tide in your favor. Earlier on, we discussed the way in which efficiency of your hiring process can help you look more professional, well, same can be achieved with the choice of the right person for the position of the interviewer. Keep in mind that this person will be the face and the voice of your company during the hiring process.
Ask for Employee Referrals
A CV and a resume can easily be presented as more appealing than they actually are, while an interview can be faked with the right attitude and a bit of luck on your side. However, if someone comes with a recommendation of the valuable member of your team, this should mean a great deal to you as a brand. Of course, if they’re bringing in a friend or a relative, they might be biased, yet, this also means that they will be ready to personally vouch for the person they’re bringing in. The demographic you aim at with this recruitment method are former co-workers and colleagues from college days. In other words, people whose expertise your employees were able to see first-hand.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, no matter how elaborate your hiring process is, it can never be 100 percent accurate. A future employee might have a moment of brilliance right before the interview, while a potential star-employee may have the worst day of their life. Even though this can result in a lot of lost potential, by optimizing your hiring process you can reduce the chance of this happening by a significant margin.
About the Author
Raul Harman is the editor-in-chief at Technivorz blog. He has a lot to say about innovation in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. Connect with him on Twitter.
