4 Ways to Better Hiring

Finding the perfect candidate for a job is tough enough. But keeping that individual engaged throughout the hiring process and establishing that they want to join your business can be an even bigger challenge. This issue is especially true in the current highly competitive market.

Below are four steps to take to hire better candidates:

1. Set Clear Job Expectations

Finding the right candidate begins with the job you need to fill, not with the person. You need to know precisely what the candidate needs to accomplish in the role to know who the right person is for the job.The best way to achieve this is to conduct a job analysis, a process used to collect detailed information on what a job consists of. A job analysis can include the actions performed, the skills required, the expected outcomes, and the environment where the role will be performed. When completing a job analysis, you should seek to answer the following questions:

• What is the reason the job exists?
• What actions are expected from the hire, both physical and psychological?
• What are the time expectations of the job?
• Where will the job be performed?
• Under what conditions is it to be accomplished?

Once this data is gathered, the company can get a more holistic view of the kind of person they need based on what they expect to be accomplished.

As a hiring team, ensure you’re using all this legwork wisely. Please include this information in the job description, refer to it during the interview, and discuss what this candidate will be asked to do and the results you expect to see.

Clarity of this is beneficial not only for the hiring team but for the candidate, too. When a potential hire reads or hears precisely what is expected, they can determine whether this is the right job for them. Transparency is important for the candidate and your employee retention efforts.

2. Prepare Your Team Ahead

These expectations are not only for the candidates, but helpful to share with the team they would be joining. It’s a good idea to involve the team in the hiring process to avoid misalignment that will hurt your chances of attracting the right candidate and damage your company’s credibility.

Let’s examine the interview. Adding future teammates to the interview process via a calendar invite with no context can lead to misunderstandings and issues. You run the risk of employees asking duplicate questions or questions that might run into legal issues for your organization.

Rather, try scoping out the interviews so each employee involved in the process has a core competency, or element of success that they are gauging. For example. if you’re hiring a new Customer Success Representative, you may want to break the interview down like this:

• One team member asks questions about technical expertise.
• Another asks about problem-solving skills.
• A third delves into communication skills.
• And the last evaluates the candidate’s cultural fit at the company.

3. Assess Candidates with Empathy

This step is extremely valuable to the employee experience. It is surprising how many people have a bad story to tell when they recall past hiring experiences.

Things like candidates being yelled at and completely ignored are just two destructive ways to spoil the experience and have possible top candidates choose to work with different companies.

Consider how to evoke a positive emotional reaction in people during this process, to stand above the competition. Just saying, “Here’s why you should work for us,” is not enough to elicit a positive emotional response in many candidates.

Instead, ask, “Why do you want to work here?” Approaching it this way will allow you to focus the conversation on their needs rather than using blanket comments about why you are a great company. It also lets the candidate better understand whether this is the right fit for them and helps avoid hiring candidates that won’t stick around.

4. Set Them Up for Success

After going through all the effort to hire somebody you think is great, give them a chance to be great!

Provide a small welcome gift when they sign an offer or set up meetings to provide an easier and more welcoming experience when they start. Other strategies you can implement would be creating a short welcome video or assigning an onboarding buddy. Whatever you choose to do, these steps are sure to help you make better hires.