It can be difficult to accurately gauge how someone will perform in a role during the recruitment process. Ultimately that’s why probationary periods exist. Hiring and training costs a lot of money though, so it is still a better option all round to hire right the first time rather than have to rehire three or six months later. Read on to find out how you can make sure you’re putting the right person into the right position.
1. Analyse the Position before Advertising
Just because somebody is vacating a role that had particular responsibilities and KPIs, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that is what you need to advertise for. It may be an opportunity to do some restructuring and mold the position into what it needs to be to not only accommodate business needs, but also ensure you attract and hire the right candidates.
2. Have an Internal Succession Plan
Sometimes the right person for the job already works for you – make sure you’re retaining your talent. Talk to your existing staff about their career goals and have a development plan in place to help them get to where they want to be in the business.
3. Consider Aptitude and Attitude over Experience
Previous experience doing a role can be helpful to shortlist candidates but it shouldn’t necessarily be the defining hiring decision. It doesn’t matter if someone has decades of work history in similar roles if their way of working doesn’t suit your company culture. Be open to finding the person who is going to fit well with your existing team and way of doing business by ranking their skills – both job specific and interpersonal – higher than their previous employment placements.
4. Assess Candidates
There are a number of tools and retargets that can help companies take a psychological approach to evaluating potential candidates. Chandler Macleod’s BestFit Recruitment online assessments are a great way for recruiters to really understand the candidate they are considering and identify which roles they’d be best suited to. You can read more about their psychometric and cognitive ability tests at www.chandlermacleod.com.
5. Hold Panel Interviews
This may seem like an obvious suggestion – and potentially something your organisation already does. But who you place on the interviewing panel can have a large impact on the hiring outcome. It can be good to invite a staff member who will have to work closely with the candidate along or a manager from another part of the business. Even if these people don’t actively contribute to the decision making process, their opinions and assessment may give insight into how successful the person will be in the role.
Recruiting staff is often a lengthy, time consuming and at times expensive process but people are the backbone of any organisation so it is essential that the right people are going into the right positions.
What are your tips for making sure that you get the hiring and placement right?
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More tips here in this infographic via parkerlynch.com
