Employees are the backbone of your organization and determinants of success. Having a well-trained workforce increases the company’s agility and helps you move forward. Therefore, it’s important to find talents who can fit into your company culture perfectly and add to its success appropriately.
Not every candidate will be suitable for your company, and a wrong hire can cost you time and money. So, maintain caution while hiring individuals. A thorough assessment can indeed help you find the best talent for every role. But you must follow a few rules to attract and retain the best talents in your organization.
Below, we have listed some steps to help you find the best fit for your organization during the hiring process.
1. Create a Proper Job Description
A job description is the first impression of your company and what the role entails. A well-crafted job description specifies the responsibilities that an incumbent must take up after joining. It gives the candidates a better chance to align their existing skills with the requirements and decide whether they will be the right fit for the company.
If you have any specific skill requirement, mention that in the job description as well. It will help filter the candidates and attract the most suitable candidates to the interview. It will also help you save time because you don’t have to sift through thousands of applications to find the ones that match your requirements.
2. Use Referrals
Referrals are also a great way to shortlist candidates. You can ask officials in similar roles or the same department to refer people who are good fits. If your company has an employee referral program, you can also find good suggestions within the organization.
When experienced officials refer someone for a role, they usually have an idea of the demands of the position and whether the incumbent will be a good fit. The officials usually have a reputation to uphold, too. So, you can expect them to be as accurate as possible while referring.
However, don’t hire referred incumbents directly. Conduct a proper assessment test before making the final choice, and communicate this with the referee while making the request.
3. Search Professional Networks
Professional networks are another place to find top talents in your industry. These networks can be online or offline groups. You can ask around in your circle, send them the job description, and request them to apply if they’re interested. Social media networks such as LinkedIn are also great places to seek candidates. You can post the job description specifying all requirements or a simple status update asking people to message you for a lucrative opportunity.
The benefit of using a network is the ease of access and circulation of the news. Posts on LinkedIn usually get shared. They also have dedicated groups for hiring, and you can post your job circular there. Even in offline networks, people tend to spread the word, which increases your chances of finding the right fit.
4. Test Cultural Fit
Every company has a set of values and culture, and an incumbent needs to match it to sustain themselves in the workplace. Testing cultural fit is, thus, an important aspect of finding the right candidate for your company. The incumbent must be comfortable with the company culture, values, and working style. Ensuring this will reduce turnover and increase productivity in the incumbent. It will also aid the company’s growth. A culturally fit employee is usually more content and performs better than an employee who is not fit culturally.
5. Use Psychometric Tests
Your hiring process should contain a well-crafted assessment, and have some form of a psychometric test in it. They test the candidate’s decision-making, rational thinking, and other cognitive abilities, and find the best fit for the role. Tests like the Big Five Model are very good at identifying traits in employees and determining whether they can perform well in a challenging role.
You can get help from professional psychometric test development services. Contacting their representatives and sending your requirements is enough for them to develop a test and send it back to you. You can also have it translated to test candidates who speak other languages.
6. Assign a Practical Task
Apart from personality analysis, you should also assess the person’s technical skills related to the role you’re hiring for. Assign them a practical task. As a person to sell something for a sales role. Ask an accountant to prepare a quick balance sheet based on given data. Ask a developer to write a short code. These tasks don’t only demonstrate their abilities but also show how efficient they are with their skills.
7. Assess Soft Skills
Apart from the two skills mentioned above, also pay attention to the incumbent’s soft skills. If they’re working in an organization, they must be team players. They must have clear communication skills. They must know negotiation and be able to take criticism or feedback positively. Workplace conflicts are very common, and a person with great temperament and negotiation skills can help solve them faster than someone who’s not as good at them.
8. Ask and Understand Their Expectations
And finally, let the incumbents ask questions about your organization. While you do it, pay attention to the details – they usually give you an idea of their expectations from the company. Some require more appraisals and raises while some seek development opportunities or mentorships. Of course, you can directly ask them, but many incumbents usually don’t straightforwardly share them to maintain courtesy. But paying attention to their questions makes that job much easier.
Hiring a good candidate for your company might seem like a daunting task, and in some cases, it truly is so. However, with proper management of available resources and a well-structured hiring process, you can find talents who are well-performing, dedicated, and ready to take your company to great heights of success.
