Introduction
Hiring. The hiring process is your company’s most important avenue of revenue. A solid employee will not only essentially pay for their own salary in the productivity they offer your brand, but they will double or triple their value as time goes forward and their projects take flight. On the flip side, an underperforming employee can cause a company deficit of up to 30% depending on their position and where they lapse.
Therefore, having a certain person on staff who knows how to conduct killer interviews is key to growing your company’s revenue.
However, not everyone has access to this “golden person” who can discern both personal and intellectual merit in candidates. (Perhaps this is the hire you’re looking to find!)
The following 9 strategies will help you learn to implement a hiring process that works for your brand’s culture, values, and revenue requirements.
1. Job Boards
Job boards are an excellent place for employers to create a mill of qualified candidates to choose from. By sifting through key skills and keywords, AI is able to do an objective preliminary screening to determine your candidate’s hireability. Sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn are excellent preliminary places to locate potential employees, but these applications are only the beginning.
2. Preliminary Phone interview
AI cannot judge a person’s character which is why a preliminary phone interview gives you chance to “meet” with your candidate to gauge their personality before actually calling them into the office for an official interview. This process gives you the chance to clarify the job descriptors and to sniff out if the candidate’s resume and skills ring true in real life. This also gives you a chance to get a snippet of the candidate’s personality to see if they are coachable and a team player.
3. Pre-Employment Candidate Testing
In addition to a preliminary phone interview, pre-employment candidate testing is an excellent resource to match potential candidates’ personalities with their skills to give you an objective projection of the candidate’s success rates and productivity. If you use a software of this type for all of your hires, you’ll also see how potential candidates will work with the current members of your team to gain a fuller picture of your team’s potential as a whole.
4. Qualify the Deliverability
During the physical interview process, be sure to qualify your potential candidates by outlining your expectations for the first 30, 60, and 90 days after hiring. Present your goals and potential issues that could cause snafus in the process and ask employees for an impromptu strategy for getting the projects back on track. While their answers will not be comprehensive, they will allow you to see the candidate’s initial problem-solving prowess. This will give you a good idea of how much of a team player they are, as well as how well they adhere to your company’s values, value personal growth, and several other personality traits which will make them a valuable member of your team.
5. Be yourself
The interview is a time for both you and the candidate to get to know one another on a professional but also a personal basis. Everyone wants to work in a pleasant environment which stimulates creativity and allows individuals to thrive with their coworkers. Be professional but be willing to have fun, swap stories, and relax. A relaxed candidate is more likely to show you their true colors, humility, and their zeal for working with your company. If you can help them relax, you may find a real treasure.
6. Ask Culture Questions
Just as you want to get to know the candidate in their most relaxed state, ask them about their personal goals and values. Ask them how these motivators tie into their desire to work for your brand. This will help you understand why they chose your company above so many others and help you decide if you want to choose them above all your other candidates. Matching ethics and passions are paramount for massive success. When the heart is there, there is no stopping a driven individual from achieving everything they set their mind to. You already have their resume on hand and have discussed the “what” of their skill set. Use the personal interview to discuss the “why” and you will certainly see what a person has to offer and what you can offer them.
7. Don’t Hire the One Just Like You
You may have the same personality and drive as your candidate. While this is a strong indicator of compatibility, this is also a pitfall. If your candidate is just like you, you may be blinded to some red flags in their performance capabilities. Appeal to emotion is important in the hiring process, but do not forget the logistical realities behind hiring an employee. Why does your brand need another person just like you? Maybe there is a legitimate reason, but always be sure to measure the candidate against the pre-screening requirements before the hiring process truly begins.
8. Obtain Proper References
Be sure to thoroughly review letters from previous employers and other character references your candidate offers. While these references will likely be congruent with what the candidate puts forward, subtle psychological tidbits might present themselves in the previous employer’s words which will signal an incongruence with the employee’s prior performance and what they’re telling you.
9. Take Your Time
Allow for a few days of reflection time after your interview before deciding to hire. This gives you time to sort out fact from feeling but also gauge potential growth for the candidate throughout their tenure at your company. This time is not only perfect for you to consider the candidate’s true merit but also gives you the opportunity to imagine how they might fit into the current office atmosphere to really create a tailored fit.
Above all the interview process should be fun, informative, and well researched. If your interviewer is diligent, the chances are very high that your new hire will be a good fit.
To learn more about tools like pre-employment assessments, have a look at Berke Assessment.
