Finding the best employees is a difficult task, but it’s one of the most important business decisions you can make. Deciding who to hire will affect your business operations for the duration of that person’s employment. A great employee can help your business run smoothly, but a bad one can wreak havoc on a business and its effectiveness. The following tips will help you find the best employees who will be assets to your business.
Look outside traditional channels to find outstanding employees.
Skimming jobs ads and spending hours at career fairs are not the best ways to find great employees. Ask your friends and acquaintances if they can provide a referral to help you fill a vacant position. Networking provides lots of opportunities to connect with great employees that you might not have found otherwise. Because of your mutual connections, they’re also more likely to do a great job once you hire them.
Consider various types of experience.
While degrees in a particular field are obvious indicators that a person is educated about certain things, they are not always the best indicators of experience. There are many non-traditional ways people can have the perfect experience for a certain job without traditional education listed on a resume. Non-traditional education can be invaluable in learning practical skills. Trade schools, apprenticeships, volunteer work, and military experience all provide skills and learning opportunities that can be indicators of high levels of experience.
Pay close attention to details during interviews.
Details tell you a lot about a person. Because job interviews are a time when people tend to put a great deal of time and attention into their appearance, it’s a great time to take note of their attention to detail. It’s also good to keep careful notes about their organization level, their level of preparedness, and their punctuality at interview time.
Encourage the interviewee to talk during an interview.
In order to really get a feel for the person you are interviewing, they need to do most of the talking during an interview. Be sure to ask open-ended questions that require more than a word or two to sufficiently answer. When people are only required to answer yes or no questions during an interview, they’re likely to produce the correct answers. If you want to get a good sense of the interviewee’s personality and communication skills, that person needs to do more talking than the person conducting the interview.
Be transparent about your company and its culture.
When applicants don’t have an accurate understanding of the company and its culture, they may wrongly see themselves as a good fit. If a person realizes during an interview that they are wrong for the job they have applied for, this lessens the likelihood that the person will accept the job. Conflicts can arise when an applicant is hired without fully understanding the needs of company beforehand. Be sure to let the applicant know the general company situation and basic information about its overall culture during the interview. This can actually serve as part of the screening process.
Carefully screen applicants.
Screening applicants using several different methods can provide even more insight into the individual. A credit check can help verify details about their previous jobs. To some degree, it can give you a sense of whether the person is responsible or not. A background check can serve to further confirm the things that appear on a credit check, and it can also alert you to any criminal charges the person may have in their background. As a final precaution against hiring the wrong type of person, drug screening can help verify that the applicant is not using drugs.
Jon Spivey owns USA Mobile Drug Testing of Atlanta, providing 24/7 on-site drug and alcohol testing throughout the Atlanta area. USAMDT of Atlanta helps employers improve workplace safety through tailored drug free workplace programs.