5 Steps to Find The Right Candidates for Your Job Openings
When you need to fill a role, or two, or several, it would be fantastic if the best way to hire great talent was automatically known to you. Of course, needing talent and finding talent are not at all the same thing. Every business leader and HR manager will eventually have to hire, but the best methods for reaching, finding, and choosing the right candidates are ever-changing in this fluctuating workforce market.
You know it’s vital to find someone who is at once skilled, enthusiastic, and a great fit for your team. At the same time, you need to be offering a competitive hiring package, great benefits, and a work/life, office/remote balance that appeals to each type of role you are hiring for. That’s a lot to think about! As hiring experts, we have been immersed in what it takes to hire a great candidate and have boiled down the process of finding the right candidate in 5 approachable steps.
Step One: Define Your Position
The first step is to fully define your position.
Start by writing out a concise list of the job’s responsibilities and the skills necessary to complete the job. Accuracy in your job description is essential to drawing in the right candidates, people who see the description and know they have the skills and temperament to thrive.
With so many self-taught professionals today, past experience can be important but try to hone in on the specific traits, work style, and skills needed to work confidently in the role.
Consider personality traits that would help a candidate thrive in the role, as this is often a strong indicator of success. Mention whether this is a good role for an introvert or someone who likes solving puzzles. Talk about the kind of person who would fit in well with their other teammates and mesh with the company culture, especially if you plan for them to stay long-term.
This takes us to the next step.
Step Two: Consult Your Current Employees
According to a study by Get App Labs, employee referrals are the fastest way to hire the most qualified candidates. This means that your current workforce is actually your greatest resource for others who share their level of expertise and professionalism. After all, most professionals have professional friends; past co-workers, ex-roommates, career conference friends, and an extended network of similarly aged and skilled others who may be looking for a good job. If you have a tempting role open, your employees will often gladly pass the word on for the benefit of their friends and family looking for a good job with a great company.
Especially when hiring within a team, consult with your current employees throughout the hiring process. If you’re in HR or a company leader, many times you miss certain details about the job that your other employees will pick up on. They can help find the right candidate with insights into the job itself.
- Ask them for referrals among the skilled professionals they know who are currently job-searching or are in need of a step up from their current role.
- When building the roles, ask your candidates what they think of the job descriptions and if they have anything to add.
- Your candidates may have some great insights on what it takes to succeed and which listed requirements do or don’t really matter.
- Your team may also tell you what they really need in a team member, someone who can cover X parts of projects or X interactions with clients.
- Get your team involved in the interview process. When you find a great candidate, meeting and doing a practice project with the team is among your best ways to ensure good vibes and cultural fit.
Step Three: Advertise Your Opening, and Your Benefits
Once you have a detailed, honed, and team-approved job description, you’re ready to start advertising for candidates. Post your job listing on multiple job boards, including details on salary, location, hybrid status, and hours expectations. You should also post the job on your own careers page on your website. Candidates who love your brand may choose to apply directly.
Don’t forget to highlight not only what the employee will do, but also why they want to work with you. Talk about the work environment and your mission. Spotlight the benefits package and optional perks that will define the candidate’s real experience as part of your team. Add some company voice and flare, sharing the company personality and painting a positive picture of working for the company.
Not only will a lively job listing bring in more candidates, it will bring in the people for whom this sounds like a great time; those who will love the job and last on the team.
Step Four: Structure your Interview Process
Make sure to plan and structure your interview process ahead of time. Organized interviews are essential for getting to know your candidates and seeing them in action. We recommend writing down a simplified, step-by-step process (kind of like this one!) of how you want interviewing to go within your company.
Preparing your processs ahead of time will provide a smoother and more efficient interview stage, and save you a ton of time and energy in the long run. Your organized approach is also more likely to impress on candidates that they are joining a rewarding and well-managed team.
Prepare your questions into categories like Past Experience, Actionable Skills, Career Goals, and Company Culture to help assess each of the most traits of a great candidate that you are assessing for. Most importantly, remember to take notes while you are interviewing, and try to note on the same things for each candidate so it’s easier to later give a fair one-to-one comparison in your selection of finalists.
Step Five: Consult the experts
This last step can simplify or even eliminate all previous steps if you find the right hiring partner. A great employment services partner is more than just a freelance recruiter or headhunting team. A staffing agency will get to know your business and the needs of each role to ensure they find the best people for each position. The agency already has the tools, knowledge, and even the network to find and place the right candidates exactly where you need them.
When you work with a staffing agency, they take care of these steps for you so you can start your process only with the most likely and qualified candidates to test with your team and project types. While there are up-front costs to working with a hiring agency, shortening the hiring cycle and minimizing your effort to sort through a large number of candidates can ultimately reduce the cost of hiring. Not to mention saving you much time and hassle handling hiring internally.
Happy hiring!
If you’re looking to fill a position and prefer to do so internally, hopefully these steps will help you make it a smooth and efficient experience for you and your team. To skip steps 1-4 and start right at step 5, contact us today!