LATEST NEWS

Important information to hire better and build your career from the experts in human capital.

Categories

5 Principles of Effective Hiring

As you surely know, the hiring process can be quite complicated – not to mention costly to your organization.

Simply put: The longer it takes you to find the right candidate, the more downtime your company will experience.

Not only does this downtime equate to a loss of true productivity, but it also means a loss of potential productivity, as well. Think about it: if it takes you three months to find that perfect employee – but they were prepared to come on board two months ago – you’ve lost two months’ of manpower that you’ll never get back.

At any rate, the point is that your hiring process absolutely needs to be effective and efficient.

5 Principles of Effective Hiring You Should Consider


Principle #1 : Know Who You’re Looking For

While this probably sounds like a no-brainer, there have almost certainly been times in which you’ve brought a candidate in for an interview – only to immediately realize they absolutely were not the person you had hoped they would be.

Yes, it’s understandable; but it’s still a waste of your time, money, and resources.

That said, best practice is to know exactly the type of person you’re hoping to hire not just before you start bringing people in for interviews, but before you even create the job posting in the first place. That way, you can create the job listing in a way that not only “speaks” to the type of individual you’re looking to hire – but also makes it clear to unqualified individuals that they need not apply.

Principle #2 : Think On and Off-Paper

As we said, too often certain candidates appear to have all the makings of a star employee…only for them to fall completely short of expectations during an initial interview.

On the other hand, it’s always possible for prime candidates to slip through the cracks, so to speak, simply because they didn’t appear to be qualified on paper.

While, of course, you want to be sure your employee candidates have the proper trainings and capabilities to perform the job at hand, you also want to consider the “intangibles” they bring to the table – perhaps even more so than the former.

Some of the things to look out for, here, include:

  • Critical thinking skills
  • Leadership qualities
  • Responsibility and ownership
  • Ability to cooperate and collaborate

Absent these characteristics, even the most talented individual is likely to fall short of your expectations in due time.

Principle #3 : Know Where to Look

Even if you know exactly who you’re looking for, you’re not going to find them if you’re looking in the wrong places.

Basically, you need to have a presence in the areas – both physical and virtual – that your ideal candidates are known to look for employment opportunities.

Aside from the more traditional and obvious methods, such as posting jobs on LinkedIn or on bulletin boards at your local college, think outside the box a bit, here.

Check out local clubs, charities, and non-profit organizations to see if any talented volunteers are looking for paid work. Keep an eye on social media and online forums, such as Meetup, for more passive individuals who might not realize they could find a career using certain talents.

By thinking outside the box when determining where to look for talented employee candidates, you not only stand a decent chance of finding a “needle in the haystack,” so to speak, but you also will likely be looking in places your competitors aren’t – meaning you’ll easily stand out when reaching out to a potential candidate.

Principle #4 : Find Alignment

Aligning your potential candidate’s goals and ambitions with that of your organization is, of course, essential for employee retention – but it also makes the hiring process much more efficient when done right from the get-go, as well.

As mentioned above, you want to learn as much as you can about your candidates as professionals and as people during the initial stages of the hiring process. That way, you can gain a pretty decent understanding of which of these individuals truly “belongs” with your organization before you move forward with any of them.

Furthermore, the candidate who truly fits in with your company’s mission will actively want to hit the ground running, taking ownership of the onboarding process and digging into their new responsibilities as quickly as possible. While, of course, you want to see this sort of initiative from any new employee, you can be sure to see it from those who truly feel aligned with your organization’s overall goals.

Principle #5 : Always Be Looking

Now, even if there currently aren’t any open positions in your company, there’s no guarantee that someone won’t up and quit tomorrow.

If you’re not prepared for this to happen, you’ll almost certainly face some downtime within your organization when it does. At that point, you’ll be left scrambling trying to find anyone who can fill the void for the time being – even if they’re not the best fit for the position.

Of course, all of this can be avoided if you make talent scouting part of your routine operations – whether you have an opening or not.

Not only will this allow you to quickly identify a group of best-fit candidates for a given position should the need arise, but it will also allow you to try different recruitment strategies on an ongoing basis, as well. Needless to say, the better able you are to find new employee candidates, the easier it will be to bring them onboard.

Are you looking for top talent?

With a hands-on approach and a history of building lasting relationshipsThe Panther Group is a full-service firm with an innovative approach. Contact us today to learn how we can help you find top employees.

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on email
Email
Skip to content