Judging Your Hiring Efforts

It is common for businesses to evaluate procedures and processes on a regular basis, but the need to judge and analyze hiring strategies and efforts is a crucial component of a company's success. Determine the strengths and weaknesses of your recruiters and interviewers to identify how your business can increase efforts to fill every position with the right fit for productivity and the company culture.

Companies often interview candidates who seem to fit, only to find out later that the candidates' skills, expertise and attitude are not in line with the company's goals and mission. Recruiters must understand and evaluate how new hires fit the company culture and apply hiring strategies to investigate and analyze candidates throughout the hiring process. Although it may be difficult to assess employee qualities prior to employment, one key downfall is that hiring managers tend to focus on technical skills and assume the candidate fits within the company culture.

Successful hiring strategies include asking specific questions to identify whether candidates work well in teams or primarily alone. Ask for concrete examples with workplace scenarios that are typical in your company culture. Ensure harmony within the office by assessing the candidate's personality, mannerisms and tone when answering questions. Seek out employee qualities that mesh well with potential colleagues.

Key qualities such as intelligence, ambition and confidence are also indicators that a candidate is a good fit for your company. Cater hiring strategies during an interview to include insightful questions specific to the job or industry. Pose preliminary testing to final candidates to measure knowledge of software applications or business strategies to gauge intelligence. The interview should also provide evidence of a candidate's ambition. People with ambition and confidence may be more likely to go above and beyond to fulfill job duties and satisfy clients, which ultimately impacts productivity and profit. Applicants who are enthusiastic and provide concrete ideas and suggestions during an interview may be more likely to complete tasks and projects with the same ambition.

Hiring strategies should not end with the interview. Evaluate your company's processes and procedures for new employees to analyze the success of hiring strategies. Employers should put as much vigor and effort into the orientation process as the interview and screening process. A poorly planned orientation process can taint the enthusiasm of new hires and damage the company culture and reputation before the new employee even begins work.

Set up meet-and-greet sessions for new hires during the first few days, and avoid piling on the paperwork right away. Assign a mentor or co-worker to serve as a guide for the first few weeks to make the new hire feel welcome and comfortable with asking questions.

Evaluate your company's hiring strategies several times throughout the year by assessing the success of new employees. A properly screened candidate and a well-trained employee can adapt to the company's goals and culture.

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