You spend a lot of time and money on recruitment. So why does it seem like such a hit-or-miss proposition?
After weeks of sifting through resumes, conducting interviews and gathering opinions from various departments, you still end up with someone ill-suited to your corporate goals. Now, you have a tough decision: Settle for a less-than-perfect situation or start the process over again.
Small mistakes during the recruitment process can add up to a suboptimal outcome. You can make the best choice you can, given the options you have, but structural issues can put you in a situation where the best possible choice isn’t available.
There are ways to avoid this situation. Here are four things you can do to help ensure best candidate is there when the final hiring decision is made:
1. Have a Comprehensive Game Plan
The process of running a candidate search can become so routine that you stop thinking about it. Place the job post, review resumes, conduct interviews, repeat if necessary.
But doing things the same way every time can make things haphazard. Mistakes get repeated. Nuances get missed.
Each time you go to fill a position, think about what you are looking for. Make sure your criteria fits the specific position. Review whether the company’s goals have changed since the last hire (Growing more or less? New skills/technology becoming more necessary?) and incorporate the evolving business situation into your process.
Make all the pieces of the job search fit together and know exactly what you are looking for.
2. Craft a Great Job Posting
Let’s rush through some food metaphors. If you want to make a great meal, you need the freshest ingredients. If you want to catch the right fish, use the right bait.
And (switching back to HR for a second) if you want to find the right hire, start with the right candidates. That process starts with the job posting.
Having a strong hiring plan involves optimizing every part of the process. Many companies will put a great deal of thought into things like resume sorting or interview preparation, but then throw together the initial job posting. However, this is your first communication with prospective hires. Use it to send the message you want and draw in the type of people you want to hire.
3. Pre-interview
Interviews represent the most time-consuming part of the recruitment process. Taking steps to limit the impact frees up resources for other things.
Find ways to prescreen candidates prior to an in-person interview. You can use online questionnaires and tests to help whittle down the number of viable candidates. Or conduct short phone or Skype interviews to narrow the field further.
4. Concentrate on Culture
It’s relatively easy to tell whether someone meets the basic skills requirements for the job. An honest resume will tell you that. Most failed hires happen because of culture issues.
Make communicating culture a priority during every stage of the hiring process. Outline your expectations in the initial job posting, make culture a prominent topic of conversations during interviews and review what you expect as you begin the onboarding process.
If you are looking to optimize hiring for culture, it helps to have a partner. Pridestaff is a leader in the temporary staffing industry. Use their expertisse to help get you the right candidate from the start. Contact our top Central Oregon recruiterstoday to find out how.
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