The competition you face for great job candidates has never been more intense. Technology allows job candidates to find information about potential jobs and company managers with just a few clicks. You need to streamline the process of interviewing and hiring people. If not, the job candidate who is a great fit will go to another firm. Hiring your staff is a huge financial commitment. Use the following tips to find the right candidates:
Making a bad hiring decision
Your company’s most valuable asset is the people you hire. It’s people who add the value to your product or service offering. Valuable workers can help you grow your sales and profits for years.
Making a poor hiring decision can also be expensive. You spend money on the interviewing and hiring process then invest thousands of dollars in training costs. If the worker is not a good fit, you have to move them out of your business and start the process over. You’ll lose time and productivity.
Your process now
The Internet has compressed the length of time a job candidate expects to find a new position. Because of this perception, you need to shorten the length of time it takes to make an offer to a qualified job candidate. To address this issue, start by thinking through your current process:
- You write a job description and post it. You post the description to your website and possibly on specific job boards. If the position is at a high level, you may ask a recruiting firm to find job candidates before you post the job online.
- Candidates find your job online. Technology allows candidates to find interesting jobs quickly. Start Jobs explains that job candidates can search for jobs by industry, by type and by geographic location.
- Job candidates complete an online application and possibly have a phone interview. After that step, you select candidates to interview in person.
- You may ask final candidates to come back for follow up interviews. Most firms ask for references and follow up with those individuals. Your company may also require a background check. Once you decide on the right person, you make a written offer.
How long it takes to move through this entire process can vary greatly.
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Shorten the process
Your process needs to be shorter, so you don’t miss out on good candidates. In today’s job market, candidates have less patience. If your process seems long and complicated, it may make the job candidate feel uncertain about your firm. You may have experienced this yourself in an interview process.
Focus on what you really need to know to determine if someone is the best fit. Consider your job description. Rather than a document that targets a person with very specific experience, you may focus instead on core competencies.
Say, for example, that you need a project manager for your construction company. After some thought, you decide that the best candidate should have great management and organizational skills. You decide that a person with those skills could work successfully in your industry.
Forbes has a list of the “7 C’s” that should be used to find a great employee. These include ‘compatibility’ with others and having ‘commitment’ to the job.
References are probably the most important way to validate a job candidate. However, most firms now also require some level of background check. If you’ve contacted all of the references, consider a national background check. This process is faster than verifying education degrees and local background checks (city of county).
Think carefully about what information you truly need, and how long it will take to get that information about the candidate.
Finding great employees may be the most critical decision you make. Take steps to simplify your interviewing process. If you can shorten the process, you can hire valuable people who will help your business grow.
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