How to Ensure the Staff You Hire are Right for Your Team

Author: Brit Harvey

Hiring the right people is crucial to the success of your team.

Not only can a hire be the difference between the growth or stagnation of your business – and will determine the effectiveness of your team – but the cost of finding and hiring a new employee is huge, so you want to get it right the first time.

With this in mind, here are the steps you can take to make sure you hire the right candidate to join your team.

1. Assess what you need from a hire

Before doing anything, you need to determine the skills and qualities you require from your new hire.

This will help you to attract the right kind of people with your job ad, since you can advertise the attributes you need in a candidate.

When making this assessment, it’s a good idea to take a look at your team to figure out which skills or qualities are missing – and which are necessary to bring you closer to achieving your goals in the short and long-term.

2. Post an accurate and thorough job description

Accurately documenting the responsibilities of the position on your job ad will help to attract candidates that are both qualified and will be engaged with their position once they start.

If you write a misleading job description, you’re likely to draw unsuitable candidates. What’s more, not being transparent about what the job entails can generate dissatisfied, disengaged, or even incompetent new hires.

3. Start your interview casually

When you begin to interview candidates, make sure that you take a little time at the beginning of the interview to make them feel more relaxed.

Engaging in small talk and taking steps to put interviewees at ease will give you the chance to see candidates’ true selves rather than a version of themselves impeded by nerves. As such, you’ll be able to better gauge how they’ll fit into your company culture.

Candidate responses to challenging interview questions are also more likely to reflect their true capabilities if they feel more relaxed.

4. Gauge candidates’ long-term aspirations

When hiring someone new to join your team, you should consider more than just how well they’ll perform their current role. Try to foresee how they’ll grow as the company grows, and whether their aspirations are aligned with what you need from your new hire in the long-term.

By gauging candidates’ long-term aspirations, you’ll be able to determine if they’re a good investment, how likely they’ll be to stay with your company, and how much they’ll be able to contribute towards its long-term goals.

5. Ask illuminating questions

Most candidates will prepare answers to run-of-the-mill interview questions in advance, to maximize their chance of receiving an offer.

Unfortunately, this means it’s more difficult to determine whether a candidate is actually a good fit for your team, or whether they’re just telling you what you want to hear.

So, you’ll want to prepare a selection of questions that paint a more accurate portrait of how a candidate is likely to behave in the workplace, how they’ll deal with situations, and how they’ll work with others.

Presenting scenarios – ones that have happened, or are likely to happen, within your business – and asking candidates how they would deal with the situation will offer a window into how they really think and act.

From their answers, you’ll be able to gauge whether they behave in a way that’s compatible with your team’s culture and values.

6. Take notice of the questions they ask

It’s common knowledge that candidates asking questions in the interview is a good sign.

However, the type of question they ask is even more important. Questions about pay and holiday suggest that a candidate’s main priority is their paycheque, and not the value they hope to find in the work they do.

On the other hand, if a candidate asks about the working culture, the team they’ll be on – including their objectives – and the responsibilities they’ll have, this indicates that their top priority is finding a position that’s right for them, in which they can shine.

These candidates are more likely to be engaged with their work, and will work harder to deliver value to your team. In summary, they’ll care more about the work they do.

7. Go beyond the provided references

When providing you with references, a candidate will always choose those most likely to give them a good review. Alternatively, you might have received a reference from a senior member of their previous company who rarely worked with the individual.

To observe a more balanced portrait of a candidate – if you can – look at more than just the references they handpick for you.

If you check out candidates’ LinkedIn or social media, you might be able to find mutual work acquaintances, whether with you or a member of your team. From here, you can reach out to mutual connections and ask what the candidate was like to work with to obtain a less biased review.

8. Get your team involved

To make sure you hire the right person for your team, it’s a great idea to get the other members of your team involved.

Whether this means they’ll be part of the interview process themselves – and ask questions to candidates – or that they’ll simply meet them briefly after the interview, having more judges to decide whether someone is right for your company will produce better results.

Not only will you be able to see if candidates gel with members of your team firsthand, but team members will be able to confirm your verdict about a candidate or provide a valuable alternate perspective.

Learn more at https://www.agilegroupusa.com/