“We are hiring” is a phrase which lights up many faces with happiness with the hope of finding a job.
Finding and recruiting the right person is a challenging process as it is time consuming and involves a lot of stress. Hiring the right person can either make or break your business.
Now, you must be thinking how to choose the right candidate for the job?
Whether you are new to the process or a veteran of the HR team, you should know a few tips and tricks that will help you throughout the onboarding process. Along with this, making the right decisions will also help your business in the long run. Leaving a positive impact on the work environment, forging successful work relationships, enhancing positive work culture and most importantly, achieving challenging goals are all part of hiring the right candidate.
Now let’s discuss some tips that will help you during the hiring process.
1. Get Creative With the Onboarding Process
It may seem obvious but is extremely important that you get creative with the onboarding process. Try to craft a job description that is focused yet creative enough to attract the right kind of people.
Create a job description that does not only have what you need the potential employee to do for the company but also mention the advantages they will get if they work for you. Perks like the option of remote working, pet sitting, gym allowance, etc. interests people.
If your company offers any of these perks, we suggest you mention them.
2. Trust Your Gut
Interviewing the candidate is an essential part of the hiring process. It allows you to analyze the candidate beyond the resume which helps you in developing a connection. Hence, it is suggested that you avoid structuring the interview too much.
Just try to talk to the candidate, make them feel comfortable and let the conversation flow. This will help you better understand the candidate’s potential.
The bottom line is always trust your gut instincts because it helps you make the best decision.
3. Give Them a Relevant Task
It is extremely rare to find an employee who will admit that he is bad at something. Nor will any of their references come out and say that. Hence, here you need to be a little creative.
To rule out any doubts, it is recommended that you ask them to take a test that will showcase a requirement of their job description. This will help you in making a decision.
4. Prioritize Your Company’s Culture
Work experience is nice, but taking cultural fit into consideration is also important. Consider if the candidate has social skills to get along with others, including managers and supervisors. Also ask about the relationship they have with their current coworkers and employees.
If a candidate is unable to get along with their current or previous coworkers, it may be a red flag for you.
There are certain traits that each company values in its employees. A candidate may seem great on paper but it is still important that you have a holistic view of them. This will help you analyze their other traits like their interpersonal skills, values, etc.
5. Effective Background Check
Even though this step may seem archaic, it is actually very important. Make sure you do a background check to verify that the skills and experience are actually possessed by the candidate.
A background check may involve getting in touch with former supervisors, educational references, coworkers, etc.
6. Get Away From the Meeting Room
This may seem unconventional to some, but moving out of the meeting room and watching how a candidate behaves in an informal setting will help you analyze them better. You can take them for a tour of the office building and notice how they interact with people. Are they asking questions? Are they curious? Are they treating everybody with respect?
A former top Microsoft executive, Ms. Patty Stonesifer, said I can get a really good sense of whether I want to be working with somebody when I walk them through the place, I’ll stop and introduce them to a half-dozen people, and see if it’s just a handshake or whether there’s some curiosity and interest.
7. Throw Some Curveball Questions
Smart candidates come prepared for the usual questions that interviewers ask. They either find clever ways to answer those questions or find a way to turn away the direction of the interview. This helps them turn negative outcomes into positive. Usually, this trick works but with smart interviewers, it does not.
To get beyond rehearsed answers, interviewers have developed some brain-teaser questions. Some of these questions are:
- What is your natural strength?
- If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be and why?
- What is the biggest misperception people have about you?
All of these questions help interviewers assess how well-aware a candidate is about themselves.
8. Get Multiple Opinions
Another great tip for hiring the right candidate is getting multiple opinions. You may think that you are a judge of character but always remember to take other people’s opinion as we all have blind spots.
To go about this process, ask a number of colleagues to meet the candidate. You will be surprised to see how each one of them will notice something different. Your coworkers can meet the potential employee while you are giving them a tour of the office.
9. What Would It Be Like to Work Remotely With This Candidate?
Earlier, working remotely was never an option, but with the advent of Covid 19, things have changed.
During an interview, if you feel like you are trying to guess “what would it be like to work from home with this person?” We suggest you find out, instead of just guessing.
To find out, you can give them some homework. This will help you determine their work ethics as well as their ability to manage time.
10. Ask Them What They Are Not Good At
Even the perfect candidate will be bad at something. Asking them questions like “what are the areas they need to work on” or “which area lacks tangible skills” will help you understand their professional expectations of themselves.
Asking these questions will also give you an insight into whether or not the candidates are open to learning new things, their personal goals and work ethics.
11. Be Clear About Your Expectations
Whenever you are hiring an employee, make sure you are crystal clear about your expectations. The expectations that you have from your employee may vary with the kind of culture your company has or what stage your company is at. For example, if you are running a start-up, you may want the person to wear multiple hats and juggle between multiple departments. If that is the case, it is the duty of the hiring manager to convey it to the candidate.
Communicating the expectations clearly will also help the candidate to decide if they want to take the job or not.
If you are looking for a potential candidate, you can use OLX Pakistan’s platform for it. All you have to do is, post a job ad. Click here, select a category, add all the information and you are good to go.
Do let us know if this guide helped you find the right candidate.
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