Many companies struggle to fill their open positions because they don’t know where to look or how to filter through candidates who aren’t the perfect fit. What should they look for in potential hires? How can you tell whether someone has the skills needed for the position?
The hiring process is often complex and time-consuming. You may spend hours reviewing resumes before deciding whom to interview. Then comes the interview itself. It can take weeks or even months to decide whether to offer a new employee a job. During this time, every minute counts. There are several ways to narrow down a pool of applicants. In addition to resume screening, you may want to consider seeking third-party help to filter the best possible candidates. A third-party review can reveal important information about candidates’ abilities, personality traits, and attitudes towards the company.
7 effective ways to identify the right candidate for a job
There are many different factors to consider when identifying the best prospective candidates for a particular role or project. A few include:
- How well does the person communicate with others?
- Does he/she have good leadership skills?
- Is he/she able to work under pressure?
- Can they handle the responsibility?
- Do they follow instructions?
However, finding the answers to these questions can be difficult. Below are some expert tips on how to get the most out of potential employees throughout the interview process and even prior to interviews. Follow these tips to ensure you find the ideal candidate.
1. Create a good job description
If you want to attract the best prospective employees from the talent pool, then you should start with a well-written position description. A great way to do this is to begin writing the description while thinking about the specific skills, knowledge, abilities, and personality traits you’re seeking in the ideal candidate.
A well-written job description clearly describes the skills required, the duties and responsibilities of your position, what education and experience are expected, and what qualities make someone successful in the position. It should also include information about the work environment, company culture, and any additional benefits offered.
Hire a recruitment agency to find new talent
2. Problem-solving scenarios
A great hiring strategy is to give potential candidates a real-world problem to solve. This helps you understand what problems they are most familiar with and gives them something concrete to talk about. You should begin by asking them what problems they might face in their roles. They should be encouraged to write down brief descriptions of these problems and also explain how they would solve each one in no more than 1,000 words. Then you can ask them to send their answers.
This allows you to evaluate their ability to think critically and communicate clearly. You should be looking for evidence of critical thinking such as:
- A clear statement of the problem
- An explanation of why the current system isn’t working
- How they plan to improve things
- Why they chose their proposed solutions
3. Interview outside of the office
Holding job interviews in the office is one of the most common mistakes interviewers make. While it may make sense to bring candidates into the office to talk to them face-to-face, there’s a better alternative: taking them out of the interview zone.
A considerable number of people don’t remember much about what happens during interviews. What is easier to remember is the person being talked to — and that person’s body language. So, why not just meet the candidate somewhere else? This gives everyone involved a chance to relax and focus on getting to know each other without being interrupted by the office environment.
Having a casual conversation outside of the office allows you to ask questions about things like hobbies, interests, and experiences that might otherwise be difficult to discuss while sitting in the office. In addition, it’s a great opportunity to learn more about the candidate’s personality and values.
4. Suggest a trial period
After going through the motion with resumes, background checks, and references, it may still be hard to judge someone’s skill set. When hiring freelancers, contractors, or employees, requesting an unpaid assessment is not professional and most good candidates will reject such requests. However, asking for a short, paid project shows both your professionalism and your desire to work together.
It also allows candidates to showcase their skills without the filter of a resume. Short tests at the end of a hiring process or job search enable you to quickly identify winners among your short list of candidates. They give you a chance to see how well each candidate performs under pressure and allows you to eliminate people who don’t perform well in stressful situations.
5. Watch them interact with others
Before you make your ultimate hiring decision, bring a few job candidates into the office to watch how they interact with your current employees. Are they willing to work hard? Can they get along with others? Do they understand what it takes to do the job? Be sure to pay attention to how they handle feedback because you don’t want to hire someone who doesn’t take criticism well. You can also take this opportunity to assess their interpersonal skills and whether or not they will fit into the workplace culture you have.
If you’re not conducting face-to-face interviews and instead are interviewing remote workers via video chat or telephone calls, consider asking applicants to take part in a short interview with one of your team members. By getting them out of their comfort zone, you’ll learn more about how they interact with others.
6. Assess their interest
When hiring someone for a position within your organization, it is important to understand what information they already possess regarding your company. This includes knowledge of your industry, competitors, and the challenges your team currently faces. You want to make sure that the person you hire possesses the skills needed to help solve those problems.
7. Listen to their questions
A good candidate will be curious enough to ask intelligent questions regarding your company, its mission, and its vision. To understand their future role better, they will want to know more than just the job description. They’re interested in learning what it’s like working with you, why you care about your customers, and what are your values.
Listening to their questions will allow you to understand the way they address issues and how they process data. While some of them may be asking questions because they don’t understand something, others will have more thoughtful questions because they want to know more about your company.
If they’re asking lots of questions, that could mean they’re trying to figure out if this is really the place for them. On the flip side, if they’re asking very few questions, that might indicate they already have a pretty clear idea of where they want to work. Either way, listening to your applicants’ questions will help you understand the way they think and the way they approach problems.
Recruitment services
When it comes to recruiting high-quality employees, one of the best ways to go about it is to hire an experienced recruitment agency. At Spartanium, our experts specialize in finding the best talent for companies in the fields of insurance, law, and accounting. We know how hard it is to find good employees these days, so we make sure to take care of the entire recruitment process.
Our expert team and extensive database mean that we handpick only the very best people. All you need to do is provide us with a job spec, a brief description of the company culture, and any information that you deem relevant to help us choose the ideal employee for your business. Once our recruiters start working through our extensive database, they’ll soon find the perfect candidate for the job. When working together with Spartanium, you will not have to spend time, money, and resources reading through hundreds of unqualified resumes.
