7 Ways to Ensure You Hire the Right Person
If you’re a hiring manager, you know looking for the right candidate is just as difficult as looking for a job.
No company desires to have a high turn around number, besides hiring new employees is expensive.
It’s time you learn how to hire the right person. Read on to learn some tips.
1. Avoid a Typical Job Interview
If you want to hire the right person, you might want to steer away from the traditional job interview approach.
Having choreographed and standard questions will most likely get you rehearsed responses. Don’t forget that candidates also prepare and rehearse for interviews and they will tell you what they think you want to hear.
A great way to get creative with the interview is to step away from the desk. You could meet them at a coffee shop or a relaxed environment.
Take them on a tour of the facilities and maybe introduce them to some people. This way you can observe how they interact and respond to the company environment.
If you want to get a sense of how they treat others, take them to lunch and observe how they treat the staff. Observe if they get inpatient or if they complain about their order. Body language says a lot about a person.
2. Give them a Small Assignment
Although this might seem unorthodox, you should give your top candidates a little homework assignment.
Asking them to complete some homework will tell you a lot about the person and weed out those candidates who aren’t serious enough and just want a job.
The assignment will show you a lot about the candidate’s writing and communication skills, as well as their creativity.
You can ask them to come up with a solution to a problem they will face in their new role. Or you can assign them to write a proposal, as well as what they’ll bring to the table in their first 100 days.
It’s important you don’t set a deadline or provide too many instructions to get a feel for how the candidate works.
3. Get Another Set of Eyes
If you have it narrowed to a handful of great candidates and can’t decide, you should ask for another set of eyes.
Getting another colleague to sit in the interview will give you a new perspective on the candidates if you can’t make up your mind.
It’s a good idea to get a manager from another department to screen the candidate with you, a different insight and hiring style will help you with the decision.
Don’t forget about the candidate’s peers. Have an employee of the department sit in the interview and get their opinion.
Afterall, they’ll be the ones working directly with the new hire.
4. Compatibility is Important
Although education, professional background, and skills are important, you need to ensure the candidate is compatible with your company values.
If you have a strong sense of company culture, you’ll want your future employees to know exactly what is.
While you shouldn’t want to fit new employees into a mold, you still want to make sure they will fit well into the company’s culture.
New prospective employees should be willing to adhere to the company culture in order to work well with others and deliver their best work.
A great candidate will show up to the interview knowing your company’s culture if they did their research.
5. Ask Unexpected Questions
Throw some unexpected questions their way that has nothing to do with the job to see how well they think on their feet.
Chances are a candidate can tell you why they want to work for you, how they see themselves in five years, and what are their strengths and weaknesses.
However, there’s nothing wrong with asking unusual questions and throwing them a curve ball.
Try to ask them questions that will subtly reveal things about their character.
Ask them, what qualities did you see in your parents growing up? What is people’s first impression of you? If you were a superhero, which superhero would you be, and why?
These questions will give you a little bit more insight into their personality, and they will make the interview less robotic.
6. Improve Your Hiring Skills
Finding the right candidate also depends on your company’s ability to improve their hiring skills.
The interviewing process begins from the moment you place the job listing. Make sure the listing includes everything you’re looking for and an accurate job description.
You’ll want to attract candidates with experience but not disqualify those who meet the skills but don’t check every box.
It’s important to learn to identify candidates with a lot of potentials who are ready to get mold into a great role.
You should also be open to the idea of hiring interns. This way the interns will have already filled many prerequisites to get the job.
You’ll be able to observe them for a longer period of time and learn their strengths and weaknesses.
7. Get to Know them Beyond the Job Posting
Although you should never open with a personal question, it is a professional job interview, of course, you should try and get a sense of who they are outside the office.
While you can’t get too personal due to legal reasons, you can resort to icebreaker questions. These icebreaker questions will give you a sense of their professional career outside the job posting.
Asking them what they are most proud of their career so far will give them a sense you’re interested in them. Afterall, no one wants to work for a company who is only interested in checking off boxes.
Use These Tips to Hire the Right Person
It’s possible to hire the right person if you step away from the typical job interview, and go the extra mile.
Make sure you always improve your hiring skills, ask unexpected questions, and ask for another set of eyes.
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