Improve Your Hiring With These Six Tips

Your staff can make or break your company. If you're not seeing positive results with your new hires, it may be time to reconsider your current hiring practices. While there's no guaranteed formula to ensure success when hiring employees, there are steps you can take to boost your odds. Here are six tips to help you improve your hiring strategies.

1. Check Social Media Profiles

It's always a prudent move to research candidates before calling them in for a job interview. Most people have social media profiles, and those accounts can tell you a lot about a person's life outside of what you see on the resume and cover letter. When hiring employees, it's important that you get a well-rounded perspective so you can make an informed decision.

2. Ask Better Questions

The interview is your chance to discover the pros and cons of hiring employees. The questions you ask are the key to unlocking those crucial details. In addition to asking typical questions about past experiences and technical skills, ask more open-ended questions so you can get a better understanding of the candidate. You want to make sure candidates are going to be able to assimilate into the company's culture and contribute to a positive environment.

3. Improve Your Job Listings

When hiring employees, it's your duty as hiring manager to provide accurate job listings so you don't waste their time or yours. Make sure it's abundantly clear what skills are required and what duties are expected. At the same time, you want your job listings to entice the right candidates. Instead of focusing strictly on what you expect from the applicant, also cater to their desires and expectations. Let them know what your company will do for them too.

4. Let Them Interview You Too

The interview should be a two-sided conversation, rather than an interrogation. When hiring employees, you can learn a lot about them based on what they ask you. You should be looking for candidates who genuinely want to work for your organization. To accomplish a mutually beneficial business relationship, the applicant should be confident of a good fit.

5. Consult With Other Employees

To maintain high morale, it's essential that your current employees approve of your new hires. Instead of conducting a one-on-one job interview, give a potential candidate a tour around the office and introduce him to your employees. Or, you could invite a trusted associate to sit in during the interview. Having multiple perspectives really helps you to make a better decision that will benefit the company as a whole.

6. Test the Applicants

It's an unfortunate truth that some candidates lie to get the job. In addition to performing background checks and reference checks, it's a good idea to ask them to show their hard skills in action. You can accomplish this with simulated situations, written tests or online quizzes. These tests don't need to be intense, but they should clearly prove whether the candidate has the necessary skills to succeed at the job.

Try to learn from your experiences in hiring employees. As you hire more people, you start to realize what works and what doesn't. Try to strengthen your instincts, and move along when it's not a match.

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