It’s a wild world out there, with companies growing at exponential pace, hiring good talent that fits into your corporate culture may be the one defining factor that can either make or break your company’s success. Listed below are some best hiring practices you can put to use in your own organization.
Talent comes in all forms. Depending on your type of company, it is important to identify the key areas that need good talent and make every hire count. Given limited budgets and growth plans that require speedy, yet effective hires, it is important to fine-tune your own unique techniques and tactics that work.
Company cultures have become bold and distinctive statements of their unique identities and would attract potential candidates that actually want to work in a particular company purely because of their corporate culture.
By way of an Organizational chart you can plan your hires effectively and ensure you are teams are aptly supported when crunch time hits. We have a fantastic tool that can be used to draw your own unique Org chart or even modify one of our many org chart templates.
Org chart to identify future growth plans ( click on the image to use it as template )
Cut the Clutter: Review every single application
Recruitment costs can be high if your HR has to spend a lot of time ‘interviewing’ applicants. Instead, review every single application and have a basic matrix of criteria that either qualify or disqualify applications based on the role advertised.
This filters the irrelevant and gives you a bunch of candidates that have good credentials on paper. What it also does is, gives you a pulse of the current job seeker market. You might be able to shortlist for a future position that you hadn’t been looking to fill yet.
‘On the Floor’ interviews
After you have shortlisted and weeded out your list it is important to give the candidates a feel of the real work environment. ‘On the floor’ interviews, where you conduct parts of your hiring process on the actual work environment, as opposed to a boardroom or a meeting room, would give the candidates a feel of being part of the company, even before they join.
Generally, companies that have a flexible and fun culture, would become highly desirous and spread the word out to the other job seekers as a ‘cool workplace’.
This may be difficult in larger organizations, but if you can invest the time to do this, it will reduce your staff turnover on the long run, as the new hires would know what they are getting into and they may be less likely to accept the appointment if they feel irked by the culture and vibes of the workplace.
Diamonds in the rough
Some don’t know that they are diamonds, until they get picked and polished to shine flawlessly. Likewise, there are many ways to screen applicants but recognizing their talents that make them unique and eventually a good fit for your company may be harder than it sounds.
You can do this by asking 3 important questions, which leads to answers that clearly give you a reliable sense of the candidate’s impromptu attitude and real self.
- Give an example where your behavior had a positive impact on your team? (followups: main goal, reaction from team, outcome)
- Relate a time you effectively managed your team to achieve a goal? (followups: Target, how was it achieved individually and by team, key take aways)
- How would you handle difficult colleagues at work? (followups: what steps were taken, how did it effect you and the team, outcome)
Be unique: Advertise jobs to stand out
Reflect your company’s unique culture in your job adverts. Include pictures of the team, while at office and also on outings. This would give a feel of the ‘real nature’ of your company as opposed to just some text on an advert. Quality over quantity. Be clear on the role you are hiring and be specific on what talent you are looking. If samples are required, in the case of a creative designer, ask them to include their portfolio in the application.
Referrals: A breath of fresh air.
This is one of the best ways to find relevant and good talent. Nevertheless, run your process, irrespective if the CEO or a peer recommended the candidate.
Hire with a personal touch
When running the process of hiring, make the experience as smooth and personable as possible for the candidates. Try to be flexible with the interview dates and times, as most good candidates would already be working and may not be able to take time off on the fly. Give them the flexibility to choose from a few options to come in and also explain the process in brief so that they would not be caught off guard when they have to sit for a 60-minute test.
Any Others Best Hiring Practices ?
Recruiting isn’t always easy, in-fact, it’s never easy. If it’s easy, you are not doing it right! Improve your hiring process by following the best hiring practices described above and discover fantastic recruits, that may have gone under the radar.
And if you have some awesome tip to improve the hiring process do let us know in the comments section.
