Every organization wants to find the perfect employee for their business the first time around, but it’s even more critical for small businesses. Finding and hiring a new worker is time-consuming. It can also be costly if six weeks after making a job offer, you have to repeat the process all over again because the person you hired for the position turned out not to be the “fit” you had thought. To minimize the chances of this happening, it’s crucial that you have a robust hiring policy. In so doing, you’ll have a framework within which you can bring on board all your future hires. Below, we take a look at some of the steps you should be taking and the things you should be looking for to increase your chances of hiring the right employee.

What Are You Looking For?

It’s easy to categorize all your positions into the ones you usually see on the job boards. While you might use the title as a starting point to get people interested in the position, keep in mind that the job you’re advertising for isn’t “cookie cutter”; it’s unique, to your company and its needs. As such, take the time to craft a job description that outlines exactly what you’re looking for. To do this, first, you’ll need to understand exactly what you’re looking for! Before advertising, identify the problem that you’re trying to solve by bringing another person into the team, and how they’ll be expected to solve that problem. You can’t blame a person for not delivering what you’re looking for if you don’t know yourself.

Create a Formula

At all costs, avoid taking a casual approach to your hiring approach. You can be relaxed as an interviewer if that’s what your company culture calls for, but the actual step-by-step process? That should be robust. Consider using an HR automation software, such as the one offered by Data Serv. You’ll have all the critical documents in one place, determine a system by which you’ll filter out unsuitable candidates, and clearly define starting salaries and scope for growth. If they’re watertight and efficient, then you should get more successes than failures.

Entice the Best Candidates

You’ll significantly increase your chances of hiring a first-rate employee if the people who are applying for the position are the cream of the crop of candidates. Of course, every company in the world wants to entice the best workers, so how do you go about getting them to take notice of your job advertisement? Offering a good salary is a strong starting point, but there’s much more to it than just how many dollars are on the table. It’s all about the requirements. If your job description lists a long list of requirements and few benefits, then the most capable candidates will likely move right on by. They know how good they are; they know they can do the job. They want to know what your company is going to do for them. Do you offer a platform for them to showcase their abilities? Can they grow as the company grows?

Weed Out the Duds

Anyone who’s advertised a job before knows that, regardless of what the position is for, you receive more applicants than you expected. Some of these are genuinely interested in and qualified for the role. Others seem not to know what the job is. Find a method for pre-screening your candidates, and be ruthless with your approach. It’s better to have twenty solid applicants on the initial shortlist rather than one hundred.

Fitting in with the Company Culture

You’ll be hiring your new employee for their skills, but in this day and age, there’s much more that’s important when it comes to finding the right fit. For example, let’s think about your company culture. For it to remain intact and strong, it’s imperative that your new employee can fit in with the atmosphere you’re trying to promote. So as you’re interviewing your potential new employee, try to get a feel for how they’ll fit in with the team and culture. Remember, if your culture is even a tad brittle; one bad egg can disrupt everything you’ve spent time trying to build.

Check the Resume

Dishonesty in the hiring process isn’t as rare as you’d think. Sometimes, this is just a matter of a few white lies, but occasionally there’s a bigger, more damaging lie on the resume. As such, it’s essential that you’re conducting your own research and conducting background checks. Are they everything that they say they are? If not, then you’ve got a clear signal that they’re not the right one for you.

Finding their Motivation

You can’t ask too much from your employees, but you’ll probably want to know that they care about more than just money. If that’s all it is for them, then they’re unlikely to bring anything extraordinary to the table. However, if they have a bigger goal in mind, such as making the organization a better place, then you’ll know that there’s a burning fire inside that isn’t going to fade anytime soon.

Your Intuition

Don’t discount your intuition. While most of the decisions will be the result of a rigorous process, it’s worthwhile listening to what your gut has to say. If you get a bad vibe from a potential employee, then there’s probably something to it. Unless they’re world class and you can’t turn them down, it might be worth moving on to the next person. Hiring the right employee is no joke and rarely will your gut let you down – you just have to be willing to listen to it!

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