5 Things Every Employer Should Do When Hiring People
Finding the best candidates to fill positions in a company can be the difference between a successful business and non-stop headaches.
Employers need to take multiple precautionary steps to ensure that they are looking in the right places for attracting quality people. Its also important to get to know potential employees as much as possible during the screening process.
Failing to do this can cause an employer to go through more trouble than they bargained for. Check out these steps below to help with your recruiting process if you’ve been having bad luck hiring people.
1. Figure Out What Value Can They Bring to the Company?
The reason why you hire people in the first place is to enhance the company’s efficiency and potential.
In this case, you need to be hiring people who exactly that. There are a few ways to find out what a value a candidate brings to your company.
The first way is to go over their resume and search for keywords and experience that are essential to growing the business. For instance, if you’re looking to increase customer conversion rates then you may want to look for someone with a successful track record in sales and knowledge of customer acquisition.
Another way is to ask candidates during the application process to describe some of their skills in relation to your company’s specific needs. For instance, asking a question like “explain your understanding or experience with SEO” can get you closer to knowing if the candidate would be a right fit for the position.
Overall, an employer should pinpoint specific needs of the company to be able to quickly spot someone who has what it takes to fulfill those needs.
2. Check Their History of Inappropriate Behavioral Patterns?
Background checks are a common device during the hiring process. And this is a part of the process that the employer should not take lightly.
Aside from just settling for an employee passing state issued background checks, you should find out the employee’s history from more personal resources.
Be sure to take the time to call references and question about things that are important for employers yet often overlooked, such as how often are they late or how many times have they not held up their word when they said they would complete a task.
These subtle behaviors can lend some hints to whether the employee might not be the best pick depending on the environment and demands of the job.
3. Do Some Digging on How Well They Work With Others and Independently?
If you have a work environment that is very focused on collaborative work, you may want to hire someone who is actually easy to work with.
The one thing that makes work more dreadful than it has to be is toxic people in the workplace and vice versa.
If you’re not one to micromanage and you know employees will need to be self-motivated and independent then hiring someone who needs their hand held all day may not be in your best interest.
It may even be a good idea to incorporate personality tests for employment into the screening process to get to know the motives and habits of candidates better.
4. Screen For Addictive Substance Usage/Abuse
No human is perfect and, as an employer, you never want to be judgmental of someone else’s life experiences. But hiring people with self-destructive behaviors can destroy your company.
Do your best to spot risky candidates that could end up costing the company more than they’ll bring in.
If you’re a smaller start-up and can’t afford expensive drug-tests at pricey clinics then consider using a safe and proven, at-home test like 9 panel drug test for screenings.
5. Test Them On the Required Skills for the Position
If a candidate claims that they have a certain skill then they should be able to prove it, right?
One of the biggest fears of hiring people is bringing on someone who claims they have a certain level in a particular skill set and finding out it was a lie.
During the interview process, it wouldn’t hurt to give them a small test run of things they would have to do at the job to confirm their level of understanding. For instance, if someone says that they can type at a certain speed and that’s an important part of the job, you could test their speed during a 60-second typing test to confirm the accuracy of their claim.
At best you will get a stellar employee who will be a great asset; At worst you’ll dodge a liar and someone who would have to teach more skills to.
Keep Your Company’s Best Interest in Mind When Hiring People
Before you hire anyone for a company you should have your ideal candidate in mind so that you are able to spot the pros and cons during the application process.
Take as many precautionary steps as needed to find quality people.
Let us know in the comments about some issues you may be having with finding quality employees or some strategies you’ve used to build a great team.