Hiring the right people for the right seat in your organization takes a lot of preparation and decision-making.
Here are a few steps to help guide you through this:
Clearly define the job: Write a detailed description of the potential employee’s responsibilities, qualifications, and needed experience. Be sure to understand what competencies the employee will need.
Have a documented hiring plan: Decide who will be involved in your hiring process and make sure their roles are clear. Having clear expectations for application deadlines, interviews and final decisions are a must.
Advertise: Post the position on your company’s website, social media and job sites, like Indeed. Be sure to emphasize your organization’s culture and values in addition to the benefits.
Screen the prospective hire: When reviewing applications, look for relevant experience as well as skills and accomplishments. This screening process can also include a background check. Holding screening phone calls or Zoom/Teams meetings can help reduce the burden on managers and leaders involved in the in-person interviews.
Conduct interviews: This process will help narrow down candidates whether done in-person or virtually or a combination of the two. Best practices include interviews with multiple current employees, managers and leaders in different settings. For example, having an interview with someone that would be a peer, a manager and even a senior leadership member can give the candidate a full view of your organization and give your team a broader view of their fit.
Assess cultural fit: Evaluate how well the candidate aligns with your company’s culture and values. During every step of the process, the company values should be front and center. Be sure to include interview questions that give you insight into their natural tendencies to exhibit your company’s values. Get input from everyone who spent time with the candidate.
Before making an offer, make culture expectations clear: When your core values are clearly communicated during the interview process, the expectation around company culture is unavoidable. Before delivering the job offer, have the final decision maker (often the person the candidate will report to) give them one more chance to opt out. Share a core value speech that emphasizes how your team lives and breathes these values. If they are all-in on those values, they should join the team. If they are hesitant about those standards, they should find a different place to work.
After making the offer, onboard the new hire: Deliver a clear, detailed onboarding process to help the new employee integrate easily and become part of the team. You and your new employee are never as closely aligned as on their first day. The new employee chose you as much as you chose them. Your onboarding process is one of their first looks into how you treat your team members. A haphazard onboarding process can leave the new employee with doubts about the choice they made.
Hiring is simple, but not easy. You are never guaranteed a perfect employee, but you can increase your likelihood of successful hires using the tips above.
