Your start-up is hitting its stride and as you grow, you need great people to help you scale. What's the best way to land your next great hire? Thanks to Catapult Chicago corporate sponsor EmpowerHR for this blog post with all the answers.
6 STEPS FOR LANDING YOUR NEXT GREAT HIRE
by Andrewa Goodkin, Managing Partner, Human Capital Consulting, Laurus Strategies/EmPowerHR
It’s widely accepted that people are the most important element of any successful business. Therefore making the right hiring decision the first time is critically important, especially when you’re a small team working to build a company. While there aren’t many guarantees in life, a thorough, complete and thoughtful hiring process will result in more positive hires and help avoid the potential costs and inefficiencies associated with unfavorable hires. When preparing to make your next hire, consider these steps before posting that job.
1) Know what’s great about your company and share it – On some level you know what’s great, or unique about your people and culture, but have you taken the time to write it down and put it into a useable format? Having a clear statement of your company’s vision and core values, manifesto or pillars, gives you a blueprint for job descriptions, interview questions and talent decisions. Hire on competency and behavior instead of just skill set and experience.
2) Create succinct, detailed job descriptions that reflect your organization’s values and culture – This might seem like a basic step, but job descriptions are much more than just a way of communicating job requirements to potential candidates. Knowing why a job description is important will help you write better job descriptions. A well-written description will:
- Help unqualified candidates screen themselves out
- Serve as a guideline for interviewing and selecting
- Provide expectations for candidates
- Serve as a benchmark for reviewing and measuring
When writing a job description, keep the following guidelines in mind:
- Include a list of desired education, experience, qualities and competencies
- Limit job description to two pages or less
- Use gender-neutral language
- Describe knowledge, skills, and abilities required of applicant
- List exact duties of job
- Include physical requirements
3) Organize and document the entire hiring process – The hiring process can be broken down into stages: pre-recruitment, recruitment, interviews, and selection. Having a well-planned approach at each of these stages will allow you to develop an efficient and consistent hiring process. And who doesn’t love that? Often the interview process will be the first interaction the candidate has with your company, so you want to make a great first impression.
4) Recruit the best - You’ve done your homework and figured out what the desired skills and personality for your open position are. So what’s the best way to reach your target audience? To start, a little creativity and persistence go a long way. Write a job advertisement that stands out in the crowd. The job board scene can be a little tired and out of date, but still a good place to market your opportunity. A more cost effective alternative is using social media to let people know you are hiring. An effective social media strategy involves forethought and active building of your follower base. Focus on whatever social media outlet is best for your organization and follow companies that employ the type of talent you seek. Still one of the best methods is old fashioned networking. Think of someone in your network that might be able lead you to your target. Get on the phone with him or her and ask them to help you locate someone they would recommend. Finally, there’s your own organization. You might be surprised at how willing your employees will be to further the cause. We’ll take a deeper look at this approach in step 6.
5) Interview like a champ – In addition to discussing relevant skills and experiences, a good interview gets at the behavior, competencies and desires of the candidate. Creating interview questions with your company’s core values in mind will help uncover if the candidate is a good culture fit. You’ll also want to avoid certain types of questions that are risky, and unlawful. Avoid questions around age, health and disability, race, national origin, religion, marital status, military membership, genetic information and sexual orientation. Be consistent with the questions you ask from candidate to candidate and ask behavior-based questions that are open-ended and promote explanation. A helpful acronym to use when listening to answers is EAR: the EVENT, the ACTION and the RESULTS. Continue questions until you get all three parts, for example - ''what happened then? ''what was the outcome?'' and “how did that work for you?'' If you plan for an interview with these things in mind, better candidates will make it through to the next phase of your hiring process.
6) Turn your employees into a referral machine – You can have the tightest interview process in the world, but it won’t yield much without the right candidates. Chances are your current staff will know and associate with people that are similar to them or share similar values. Each of your employees personal networks are resources for procuring talent. To tap into these sources, establish a clear rewards system that engages your employees and gives them an active role in building your company. In addition to helping you find better talent, this let’s your employees know you value them. The right rewards program will inspire company pride and turn your employees into ambassadors for your company. Plus, they’re more likely to refer people they trust and respect because great that referral will be a reflection of them!
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