With the unemployment rate steadily climbing, a greater number of qualified job candidates are battling it out over the same open positions. That can be both a blessing and a curse for companies currently hiring. Identifying the best candidate amid a host of possible posers, pretenders or just plain poor choices can be tricky. Implementing a disciplined process that begins by thoroughly defining the open position and ends with effectively on-boarding and orienting a new hire to your company is vital.
Job Descriptions
When a position opens within your company, resist the temptation to fill it as quickly as possible no matter how prepared you think you are or how desperate you might feel. Instead, start by developing a well-defined job description. Compiling a job description requires you to carefully consider the position you seek to fill and how it impacts other positions. Make sure the job description includes the position’s responsibilities as well as the qualifications, qualities and experience you seek in an applicant.
A thorough job description will serve as a useful tool throughout the hiring process. It can help as you prepare an employment ad and as you develop a list of interview questions. Closely matching an applicant’s skills and experience to the job description ensures that you are zeroing in on the best candidate and – considering the litigious culture in which we live – it can also help prevent any potential claims of discrimination or unfairness.
Applications & Resumes
Applications and resumes are another crucial tool in identifying the strongest candidates and weeding out weaker ones. After all, these devices are a reflection of the candidates. Does his or her resume or application demonstrate quality, professionalism, creativity or leadership potential? While a strong candidate can sometimes appear weak on paper, in most cases applications and resumes are a good initial indicator of an applicant’s strengths and weaknesses.
When reviewing a resume or application, pay as much attention to a candidate’s employment history as you do his or her job qualifications and experience. Are there any inconsistencies that are a concern? These days, frequent moves are to be expected and gaps in employment may be explainable, but take note of such things and be sure to ask about them during an interview.
Interviewing
Once you have sorted through the resumes and identified the candidates you wish to meet, the interview process can begin. Be prepared. Use the job description to develop targeted questions. Use the same questions for each candidate so you can compare responses. Remember to ask any specific questions about a candidate’s work history if you are concerned about gaps on the resume.
Begin every interview by putting the candidate at ease. Spend some time telling the interviewee about the company and the position, but try to adhere to the 80/20 rule. That means the interviewer should only do about 20 percent of the talking while the interviewee should do 80 percent of the talking as he or she responds to the questions.
When posing questions to an interviewee, there are a number of potential pitfalls to avoid. In the course of a conversation, it may seem natural to discuss children or personal interests, but be careful. Certain questions could be considered discriminatory, and if asked, could lead to lawsuits if a candidate believes he or she was not hired as a result of a presumed “wrong” response. Instead, ask open-ended questions that focus your discussion on work experience and qualifications. Below are some basic “Dos & Don’ts” for interviewees.
Do Ask:
- What kind of experience do you have?
- Of all your work experience, where have you been most successful?
- What were the primary responsibilities of your most recent job?
- Describe how your job related to the overall goals of your department and company.
- What would you have changed about your last job? What did you like best?
- What are you looking for in your next job?
Don’t Ask:
- How old are you? When did you graduate from high school?
- What is your nationality/race/religion?
- Are you a U.S. citizen?
- Are you married/single/dating?
- Do you have children, or for women, are you pregnant?
- What is your sexual preference?
- What are your political affiliations?
- Do you have a disability?
- Have you ever filed a workers’ compensation claim?
- Have you ever undergone a psychiatric evaluation?
- What type of discharge did you receive from the military?
Encourage interviewees to ask questions themselves. Not only will their questions help them learn more about your company and the open position, but they can also reveal candidates’ priorities and how they think. The answers to their questions can also help the candidate with their own decision-making process if you ultimately offer a position. Before completing the interview process, it may be helpful to have co-workers or other supervisors interview a final slate of candidates so you can get different opinions and perspectives before making a decision.
Selection
When it comes time to decide which candidate is the best fit for your company and the position, there are a number of considerations and common mistakes to avoid. Be careful not to favor a candidate too strongly because he or she followed a weaker candidate during the interview process. Conversely, you may need to give extra consideration to a candidate you perceived weak if they followed an especially strong candidate in the process. Could there be more there than what you perceived initially?
Human nature causes many of us to favor candidates most like ourselves – we tend to connect with those whom we share a common background or similar experiences, but those individuals are not necessarily the most qualified for the position. However, there is something to be said for selecting a candidate who not only fits the position, but also fits the company’s culture. A seasoned and successful techie from IBM may not adapt well to the unconventional cultures of Apple or Google.
The best guide for picking the best candidate is the job itself. Refer to the job description and evaluate candidates based on how you believe they measure up relative to all the skills and experience required for the job. Don’t fixate on one criterion or one characteristic you may have been looking for – consider the whole job as well as the whole candidate and all they have to offer.
Extending a Job Offer
Once you have identified the ideal job candidate, the obvious next step is to extend a job offer, and while that sounds simple enough, there are potential pitfalls throughout the offer process. Job offers should be made orally, either in person or over the phone. A written offer letter or package can follow, but you would hate to lose Mr. or Ms. Right because he or she accepted another offer while yours was traveling via snail mail.
When you extend a job offer, include the following information about the position: title and department; work location and schedule; salary (of course, this may be open for negotiation); benefits; start date; any employee paperwork required by the company; contingencies that could lead to a withdrawal of the offer (i.e. drug testing, background checks, etc.); and the date by which you expect a response to the offer.
Remember to avoid making any promises you cannot keep. Don’t imply that the new hire will be able to work a flexible schedule if the team he or she is joining has been working 60 hour weeks for the past 18 months. Instead, set realistic expectations – it will help prevent disappointment, potential performance issues, and perhaps even litigation down the road.
Next Steps
Now let’s assume the ideal job candidate accepts your offer, joins your company and becomes the new person at the office. In a perfect world, he or she would hit the ground running and contribute at optimum performance levels on day one, but such a world doesn’t exist. Even the most experienced professionals need time to get up to speed on the organization’s proprietary practices and unique protocols. Unfortunately, too often companies do little to properly introduce new hires to the company.
Effective onboarding and training can accelerate new employees’ productivity and help to ensure that they stay on the job, thus decreasing your company’s cost of turnover. The sooner new employees become oriented to a company’s culture and understand what is expected of them, the sooner they can begin to positively contribute to your organization’s operations and its bottom line.
