By: Christina Nguyen
If your business is fortunate enough to be growing at this time, you might be hiring some new faces to join your team. Hiring can be a daunting process, as interviews can be nerve-wracking. After all, the candidates are interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them.
Across all roles, the right or wrong hire can make a significant difference to your business, with the impact depending on their role and actions. The presence and influence of the right or wrong person can also affect employee morale, so you’ll have to consider their internal impact as well.
The hiring process isn’t something everyone succeeds at right away. Just like working a job, you learn the dos and don’ts from experience. From our experiences, here are some of our tips on hiring the best employees for your business:
1. Proofread that job description. High-quality candidates with quite a few options won’t settle for a badly written job description with 17-line paragraphs and the grammar of a third grader. A terribly written job description is an immediate turn-off for a lot of applicants even if its details are pretty interesting.
2. Make sure your job description is inclusive and gets to the point. A well-written job description doesn’t just use stellar formatting and grammar, it’s also explanatory, honest, concise, and has a sprinkle of your company’s personality. It should list the required and nice-to-have levels of education, experience, and skills. All of its main responsibilities should be clearly defined. The applicant should get a picture of a typical day in the office, a picture that’ll sharpen up at the interview.
Your job description shouldn’t just be inclusive in its responsibilities, but also of the people applying. It’s common for job descriptions to use language that subtly excludes certain genders, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. Consider having a mentor, colleague, or human resources professional review your descriptions to help avoid this.
3. Be honest. It can be tempting to use grandiose, fancy words to spruce up your description to make it look as appealing as possible, but too much sparkle may be deceptive. Make sure your description still conveys the position’s true expectations as you try to put it in a positive light. Think about it this way: is an applicant likely to be disappointed when you verbally explain the job to them over a phone interview?
If you’re interviewing a candidate and it becomes apparent they had the wrong idea of the job, don’t let fear of a letdown keep you from being transparent. Facing any disappointment during an interview is much more preferable than having a disappointed employee on the job.
4. Ask the right questions. Don’t expect the candidates to reveal every bit of information you need. Know what questions you need to ask to know all the relevant details you’ll need to determine their fit for the position. For example, if interpersonal skills are key to success in the position, ask about how they would deal about common interpersonal challenges that would arise, such as argumentative customers or teammates.
If you’re seriously looking for social media marketing success, ask them about their past success in social media specifically, not just in the entire category of digital marketing. Be specific! You can also give them some hypothetical scenarios and ask for their approach.
5. Look for commitment. An amazingly talented candidate should last. Your experience with them won’t just be impacted by their performance, but by their enthusiasm. Unless there’s no one else qualified for the position, it’s not so optimal to work with someone that’s great at the job but comes into work looking forward to 5 o’clock, ready to escape any minute.
A green flag of enthusiasm is submitting a personalized, well-researched cover letter, so watch out for those! Once you meet with those candidates, ask them why they chose your company and your industry in general.
6. Check for compatibility. Even with a healthy dose of enthusiasm and passion, skill still isn’t everything. Is the person a good fit not just for the role, but for the company? As you interact with them, assess their personality, and watch for any traits that might clash with your overall company culture.
While embracing diversity is ideal, someone with an unusually stiff, inexpressive personality may clash with a laid-back workplace that enjoys joking around. This is especially important if their role is quite collaborative and less important if they’re working more independently.
What challenges have you faced when hiring new employees? What are some signs that someone’s the right fit? Let us know in the comments below or send us an email!
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About Stingray Advisory Group LLC: Stingray Advisory Group LLC is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is a proud member of Local First and the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. We help businesses grow. By creating customized solutions, we empower businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools to further their development.
Email us at info@stingrayadvisorygroup.com to schedule a consultation. Follow us today on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more helpful tips!
To learn more, visit us at www.stingrayadvisorygroup.com.
