Your hiring strategy will determine how much money your company spends on recruitment and placement activities. It will also affect how much money your company loses to turnover and lost productivity each year, making it an important issue for human resources professionals. One of the best ways to reduce turnover is to hire the right employees in the first place. Use these recruiting tips to create a hiring strategy that gets results.
Many recruiting tips focus on interviewing techniques, which is a good start for human resources professionals. However, some experts are using a recruiting technique that produces better results than hiring candidates based on their grade point averages or answers to complex brainteasers. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic reported on a particularly successful Google employee who was good at selecting employees who meshed well with the company.
Unlike many human resources professionals, this person interviewed candidates within a very narrow specialty area. As a result, he was able to get a good idea of whether each candidate would stay with the company and perform up to expectations. If you want to hire better employees, avoid the common mistake of having the same manager interview candidates for every open position. If you have an accounting expert on your staff, have that person interview all of the candidates for accounting jobs. If you work for a manufacturing company, let the plant manager or another employee who has expert status interview potential workers.
How you interview potential employees is also important. When you ask questions that require a one-word response, you don't have the opportunity to determine how well candidates communicate. Asking open-ended questions during the interview should be part of your hiring strategy. If you ask a candidate to describe a past work problem and explain how he or she solved it, this can also help you assess the person's problem-solving skills. If the open position requires specialized skills, don't be afraid to make skills testing another part of your hiring strategy. Manufacturing recruiters may test candidates to see how long it takes them to assemble products or set up machines. Conducting these tests can help you find the best employees.
As a human resources professional, you may be asked to conduct reference checks. This can help you narrow down a pool of potential employees, but only if you ask the right questions. If you are recruiting for positions in the health-care or financial services fields, reference checks are especially important because they can help you weed out applicants who have histories of theft, fraud, or violence. If a previous employer will not tell you exactly why an employee was let go, ask if the person is eligible for rehire. If the human resources representative says no, then this is a good indication that you may want to remove the applicant from your list of potential employees. Don't underestimate the importance of compatibility when formulating your hiring strategy. Consider including department members in the interview process so that they can meet each candidate and determine who might be the best fit for the group.
As a recruiter, you have the opportunity to reduce turnover and ensure that new employees are a good fit for your company. It is important to use the right strategy for each position, however, as the same hiring strategy may not work for every open job. Adjusting your recruiting strategy will help you find better candidates and make better hires.
(Photo courtesy of Ambro / freedigitalphotos.net)
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