5 Steps to Hiring Great Employees

Hiring great employees is no easy task. Typically, potential employees portray themselves as who they are on their best day on their resume and during their interviews. However, we all know of some who don’t. There’s strategy, people skills and intuition involved in hiring great employees. If you hire the best employees, you’ll have a better chance keeping them motivated and engaged. To give you the best chances, we’ve put together a few things that will help you start on the right track.

1. Be Specific In The Job Description

If you are unclear of the requirements and job duties you’ll want the employee to perform, you’ll leave the job up for interpretation. That will result in multiple people applying for the job that aren’t the right fit, costing you hours of time going through resumes and conducting interviews of people who are not qualified for the job.

2. Become An Expert At Interviewing

Interviews aren’t easy for the interviewee or the interviewer. However, preparing well for an interview will not only leave you feeling confident but will also set a tone for the candidate walking into the interview.

Here are a few ways to prepare for an interview:

• Know what type of interview you are conducting:
  • Group
  • Situational
  • Behavioral
  • Standard
  • Panel
• Have your questions prepared ahead of time.
  • The worst thing you can do is say, “let me think, is there anything else I should ask you?” It leaves the candidate feel unsure about your skills and reputation as an employer.
• Practice.
  • The only way to get great at something is to practice it. Ask a colleague who is a pro at interviewing to play the “candidate” and you interview them. Doing this will not only improve your skills but give you confidence for the real interview.

3. Check Their References

Some people don’t think this really matters, however, I beg to differ. Like I said before, your candidate is going to present themselves to you as them on their best day. How are you going to know how they are on a daily basis if you don’t do a little research? Calling references gives you a chance to learn more about the person applying for a job at your company and if they would be a good fit or not. Do not skip this step. It is highly valuable for you as an employer.

4. Create A Culture That Attracts Good People

Compensation is more than just financial. Do you know what employees today are looking for? You want to create a good compensation package for potential employees but don’t forget about the less tangible aspects that are driving today’s workforce.

According to a study done by LinkedIn, people tend to leave jobs or switch careers because of lack of career growth opportunities, senior leadership issues and bad workplace culture, not financial reasons. If you can solve and present the solutions to those top 3 issues, your company will attract high quality employees.

5. Put the job description in places good candidates will find it

If you want to get the best employees you have to fish in the right pond. Do you know where people go to look for jobs? How about the people you are specifically looking for?

First off, recruit from within. Nothing makes an employee feel more valued than the chance to move up and challenge themselves with a new position. At the same time, nothing discourages an employee more than the feeling of being stuck. Secondly, get referrals from your own employees for outside people they know.

Now, more than ever, people are finding employees via online job boards as well as social media sites like LinkedIn. Where would you go if you needed to look for a job? You’d probably start with an online search. Going door to door just isn’t the way most job-seekers looks for jobs, especially the highly qualified ones. Do some research and put the job where the best candidates will find it.

Conclusion

It’s important to hire the best employees, not only to help grow your business but to keep turnover costs down. You don’t want to spend time recruiting, interviewing and hiring just to do it all over again in 60 days when the employee didn’t work out. Hiring is an art form, just like your business is to you. When you need to hire, trust it to the experts. Partnering with a reputable employment agency will save you time, money and stress while giving you the peace of mind that the process will be handled correctly.

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