Effective hiring - some handy tips

Every company will have their own recruitment strategy and processes that they will adhere too, some will be successful, others will get by and a lot will fail. Here are some handy tips to help your organisation be successful in your hiring process.

Clear Communication

From the outset, make sure you understand the time frame involved from advertising a live position to an actual appointment. This needs to be portrayed between all parties involved in the interview process, HR, hiring managers and most importantly the prospective employee that you invited for interview.

Simply by working to a time frame, you can plan all future hires well ahead of schedule. Often the person you are interviewing will evidently be interviewing with one of your competitors for a similar opening. Don’t be shy in informing the interviewee that your interview process is a two or three stage interview, the time frame involved to carry out these interviews and what is expected. Interviewing someone and then providing feedback on their interview only a few weeks or months later will often mean you will lose that candidate and potentially receive negative reviews on Glassdoor and other portals which will have a harmful impact on your business.

With all the various software platforms out there for video conferencing and interviewing candidates, there should really be no excuse for a lengthy interview process. Unless you are appointing a senior executive, it’s recommended that a two or possibly three stage interview process is the maximum a company should conduct over the period of two to four weeks.

First Impressions Count

When inviting a candidate to interview, make sure the interview is planned, coordinated properly and is an enjoyable experience for the candidate. Make sure the people who need to be present at the interview are not late. Have a structure on how you will conduct the interview and make sure the candidate is aware of this structure beforehand.

Remember, usually the person you are interviewing already has a job in which they are happy and doing well. You’re trying to headhunt this person to join your organisation, so if you come across disorganised then you probably won’t get a second chance to see that candidate again. Everyone in the interview usually has precious little time, the hiring manager will have a busy schedule, the candidate also, as they have probably taken time of work to attend the interview, so it’s essential the interviewer gives full attention to the interviewee.

Body Language

As much as it’s imperative for the interviewee to have good body language, you as the interviewer, must express an interest in the person sat in front of you. Putting your phone on the desk and looking at it every two minutes throughout an interview or even looking at it and walking out of the room because you received a message, is bad etiquette.

Apart from the obvious don’ts, such as no eye contact, folded arms, yawning, looking at your watch, just remember you are representing the whole company, so one bad experience by a candidate could be extremely damaging for your organisation. That candidate could end up working for a potential client of yours or could have colleagues that you are very interested in hiring. If word of mouth regarding one bad interview experience spreads then it’s very hard to correct, especially if you get reviewed on Glassdoor.

Don’t lose interest from the candidate

Many candidates start to lose interest in joining a company after the third interview, especially if the interviews have been dragged out over a period of months. So, if you are struggling to hire people and have a lengthy recruitment process then I would strongly advise at revisiting how you conduct your hiring process. A hiring process that draws on too long is detrimental to both the business and those seeking new employment opportunities.

Remember, there are other companies out there who are also interested in employing your applicant.  

Don’t be egotistical

You may have recently launched a new venture, the technology has never been seen before, everyone is raving about your company but don’t become egotistical and lazy in your approach to recruitment. You still need to sell the company, culture, and put the candidate first. It’s your future employees that will ultimately make your company a success or a failure.

Realistic Expectations

Every company wants to hire the perfect candidate, someone who ticks all the boxes and has all the skills/experience requested but, in all reality, these people often don’t exist. So rather than wait for that someone to come along who doesn’t exist, look at what is essential and what can be learnt. You will open yourself up to a much wider audience and have better success in filling the opening.

Too many cooks spoil the broth

Having lots of people involved in the interview process will often slow down the recruitment process due to non-availability/location and numerous other factors. Whilst it’s nice to have buy-in from your peers, is it essential for the position you are hiring for and are these additional interviews productive?

If you need three or four people to speak with the candidate, then combining these interviews into one morning or afternoon on the same day works best and is a lot more productive from a business point of view and for the candidate, rather than dragging these interviews out over a period of months.

Work to KPIs

The hiring process a lot of times comes second to the business, if work is piling up, it’s easy to let the time frame get away from you, so you push interviews further back and before you know it, you’re suddenly a couple of months into the process and no closer to securing the prospective employee.

It is strongly advisable that one person takes control of the interview process/scheduling to make sure everything stays on track. Before you begin the interview process, set benchmarks for you and anyone else involved with hiring. If you know that by X date you need to have completed your first round interviews, and by Y date you need to have narrowed it down to your top three candidates, there’s more pressure to keep things moving, thus preventing your hiring from extending on for months on end.

Offer Stage

Unless it’s a senior appointment, once you know who you want to hire, let the candidate know and aim to get an offer out within 2-4 working days from their final interview. Taking weeks to send an offer out, will often put doubts into the prospective employees’ head and give the candidate more time to be approached by other companies/headhunters with the possibility of their head turning for another opportunity.

Remember

Always put yourself in the candidates’ shoes and remember to keep the hiring process an enjoyable experience for the candidate involved. If you are really struggling with your recruitment, then reach out to an Executive Search firm and retain them to recruit the key people you need. Key benefits are that the timelines are locked in, there are key deliverables all throughout the process and more often than not you come out with the key hire you were seeking. If you would like to find out more on how Sapienza can assist your organisation with key hires then please click here or get in touch with Ian Stammers, Head of NewSpace & Satcom Recruitment on [email protected] for a free consultation.