Employee turnover can cost you valuable time and money. The right interview and screening process can make a huge difference. Here are eight essential tip for hiring the right person, the first time.
Are you looking to hire a new employee for your business?
It doesn’t matter if this is your first time hiring or your fiftieth. Finding a good employee is definitely easier said than done.
Luckily, there are lots of things you can do to simplify the hiring process and find the best person for the job.
Here are eight tips that will help you make sure you’re hiring the right person the first time around.
1. Don’t Hire Friends or Family
This is one of the most important tips for business owners to take note of. Hiring friends or family members to work for you rarely ends well.
Most business owners find it very difficult to treat their loved ones the same way they would treat other employees. This can seriously hurt your company’s performance, especially if you hire friends or family who think it’s okay to slack off because they know you personally.
It’s also likely that, if you try, your loved ones will not appreciate being corrected or told what to do. This can breed resentment and negatively affect your relationship.
There are, of course, times when working with a friend or family member can work out for the best. But, those times are usually few and far between. It’s best to just skip the drama altogether and avoid hiring friends or family members.
2. Manage Your Brand
Brand management is essential for bringing in the right kinds of potential employees.
If your business has a strong brand, you’re more likely to attract interested job-seekers and you’ll have to do less active recruiting. In fact, one survey found that 69 percent of job-seekers are likely to apply for a job when the company’s brand is effectively managed.
Some steps to take to manage your brand properly include:
- Responding to online reviews
- Updating social media profiles
- Sharing updates and information about the work environment and company culture
Remember, the more branding you do, the more people will be interested in working for you.
3. Publicize the Job Listing
Another important step to take is to make sure people can easily find your job listing.
Share information online to let people know you’re hiring. In addition to posting listings on online job boards, this includes posting on social media and utilizing sites like LinkedIn.
It’s also helpful to let your current employees know that you’re hiring. You may be able to hire from within and skip the recruitment process altogether.
Even if internal hiring isn’t an option, your current employees may know someone who’s looking for a job and might be able to vouch for them.
4. Perform a Thorough Background Check
When you’re hiring new people, be sure to perform a thorough background check. This will help you verify that they really possess the skills and credentials they list on their resume. Also make sure to screen for drugs by using a program such as the drug and alcohol test Orlando, Florida, to rule out any potential dangers for the workplace.
You can also find out whether or not they have a criminal history. While this doesn’t necessarily disqualify someone from being a good employee, it’s good to know exactly what the situation is before you hire them.
You can read more here about the components of a good, detailed background check.
5. Pre-Screen Your Candidates
Hiring a new employee can take a lot of time and energy. One way to streamline the process is to pre-screen candidates ahead of time. Talk to them over the phone to learn basic information.
During a phone interview, you can go over things like salary expectations, and you’ll get a general sense of their credentials and personality.
6. Make Sure You’re Hiring the Right Person with the Right Personality
A good skillset matters, of course, but so does the right personality.
When you’re considering a particular individual, think about how their personality traits align with the tasks the job requires. For example, if you’re hiring for a customer service position, you’ll want to make sure the candidate comes across and empathetic and personable.
7. Make Your Interviews Hands-on
A good way to see how a candidate will fit into your business is to make their interview more hands. Plenty of people seem great on paper and can be charming during an interview but aren’t that great when it comes to actually performing the tasks you hired them to carry out.
During a hands-on interview, you’ll have the candidate show you how they will perform tasks related to their potential job. For example, you may have them join you on a sales call or work with a customer service rep to solve a particular problem.
They don’t need to be perfect, of course. But, you can tell a lot about a person and how they’ll do as an employee by how they respond to this kind of pressure.
8. Ask the Right Questions
Finally, make sure you’re asking the right questions during the interview. Some important ones to ask to get to know candidates and see how they’ll fit into your company include:
- What is your greatest work achievement?
- What kind of work environment do you need in order to effectively contribute?
- What kind of oversight and interaction do you need your boss to provide?
- Tell me about a major obstacle you’ve had to overcome at work?
- Why are you interested in this position?
- Why are you leaving your current job/why did you leave your last job?
- What are the three most important skills or attributes that you will bring to this company?
- How do your current skills contribute to this company’s mission?
- What do you do to continue developing your professional knowledge and skills
The answers to these questions will help you get a good sense of the candidate’s skills and goals and how they fit into your company’s larger purpose. Don’t just sit down and ask them to tell you about themselves. Do some planning ahead of time to identify the best candidates.
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