Final Great Solution to Hire Best Employees
How do you find and hire the best people?
Whether you are an HR manager in an MNC or a recruitment consultant, this is a common dilemma you will have faced at some point in your career. We all want to hire the best people so we don’t have to do the same drill few months down the line when we realize that the particular hire was a mistake. After all, it is more costly to recruit someone new than to train or even promote an existing employee. Well…having been the recruitment industry for over a decade, here are a few tips that I have learnt that help in hiring the right person.
- Job Posting and Description – First things first, one of the first things you have to get right as a recruiter is to advertise the position with a job posting. Write a clear, correct job description. Talk to the departmental heads to understand the requirement better but this is crucial if you want to find the right people and don’t want to waste your time interviewing candidates who just don’t fit the bill.
2. Ask for Video Resume – A recent trend that is catching up fast, video resume tells you a lot about the candidate’s personality, his body language, communication skills etc that should narrow down your list a great deal
3. Get Creative in the Interview - Don't ask run-of-the-mill interview questions like 'What are Strengths & Weakness', Why do you want to work for us?' etc. They are all over the internet along with answers and candidates these days are clever. They come prepared for the common questions. The idea is to catch the candidate off-guard. That's where their true self will be revealed. Engage in small talk and try to gauge his ability to carry on the conversation. That itself will tell you a lot about the candidate.
4. Give a Test - Try to give a short assignment to person to better judge his abilities. The task should relate to the profile he is being hired for. Work samples are good but you don't know if they've done it themselves or have taken help. The test will tell you how a person can use his skills on the spot.
5. Look for Progression - Check their track record. If they're experienced, check how far have they progressed in their career. You want to be sure that the candidate has a track record of growth.
6. Be Open to Non - Traditional Work history - just because a person isn't from the same industry or hasn't worked in same roles doesn't mean the person cannot grow into the role you've set out to hire for. The important thing is that the person should have the knowledge, skills and most importantly the aptitude for it. Of course not to mention, your team should be equipped to provide the necessary training and guidance to the person.
7. Refernce from Currrent Employees - This is another method of sourcing candidates and a more credible one. When one of your current employees refer a candidate it simply he or she already briefed the candidate about the job profile and the organization. Also you can be sure that since one of your current employees is referring the candidate, he or she will be genuine and the rest you can find out in the interview.
8. Background Verification - Make sure you do a background verification of the candidates just to make sure that whatever information he /she has disclosed in the resume is true. You can check his address by offering to send offer letter by post, doing a reference chek from school / college or past employees.
The above tips are based completely on experience. You can develop your own based on trial and error.
