Most employers realize pretty quickly that some employees are well-suited for their roles, and other employees simply aren’t. The differences between a good-fit team member and a bad one aren’t subtle.
Fulfilling the duties of the job is one aspect of a good fit, but finding an employee that truly fits in and is a good company culture fit is much harder. They need to have a drive and passion to grow. Adding them to your workforce should enhance your team, not hinder it.
So how do you find these unicorn employees and hire them?
It’s not quite as difficult as you might imagine — though it will take some considerable time and effort on your part. You must create a well-structured recruiting and selection program with specifically outlined and repeatable steps that you can follow.
I know that sounds complicated, but I’m about to show you what those steps are, so let’s dive in.
Employee Recruiting: Build a High-Performing Program
You can’t expect perfect employees to simply fall into your lap. You have to be willing to dedicate the time it takes to create a recruiting program that is specifically tailored to your company. With the right steps in place, you won’t have to settle for less than top-tier candidates.
Develop Accurate Job Descriptions
Accurate job descriptions are comprehensive explanations for a given position. Your job descriptions should do more than simply describe the role and list the duties associated with it.
They should discuss the required skills and particularly desirable personality types, as well as the kind of experience that would most fully prepare a candidate for the position.
Why Do Job Descriptions Matter?
Developing these sorts of job descriptions will help candidates more accurately evaluate whether they have the necessary attributes to take on a role and will help prevent you from receiving applications from unqualified hopefuls. It will also make it easier for you to weed out less desirable applicants early in the hiring process.
How Do You Write Accurate Job Descriptions?
Take the time to really ruminate on a position before writing the description. Consider its specific challenges, and try to imagine what type of person would thrive in those situations.
In your mind, walk through a week in that role and jot down all of the skills that are likely to be necessary.
Create an Ideal Employee Profile
An ideal employee profile is a composite sketch of your most successful, best-fitting employees that you have placed into the role you’re hiring for. It serves as a blueprint you can follow when seeking out new talent.
Why Do You Need an Ideal Employee Profile?
Creating this employee profile will help you identify what key characteristics make someone particularly well-equipped for the position. You’ll learn what characteristics are critical as well as which ones are not as vital to success in the role.
An employee profile will help make you hyper-aware of these traits so you’re more likely to notice them during interviews.
How Do You Create an Ideal Employee Profile?
Think about the cream of the crop within your organization and ask yourself a few questions.
- Who are they?
- What do they all have in common?
- How are they dissimilar?
Write down the things that come to mind, and you’ll have painted a portrait of your ideal employee before you even know it. It may also be a good idea to think back to candidates who were not a good fit and make a note of their key attributes.
Promote the Position
Promoting a job position that you want to fill involves posting the position on a variety of different job sites. It may also involve notifying various staffing agencies or industry staffing sources.
Why Do You Need to Promote the Position?
Great applicants usually aren’t going to just show up at your door—you’ve got to do a little legwork to get them there. Posting a job on your company’s own site is great, but take the extra steps and spread it further.
How Do You Promote the Position?
With your job description and employee profile in mind, draft an ad for the open position and post it on relevant sites, your social media channels, and even in industry publications.
Then, think back to your employee profile and ask yourself what sorts of resources that an ideal candidate might be using to find a job. Where have you found your best employees in the past? Promote the position anywhere that comes to mind.
Screen Applicants With a Defined Process
An applicant-screening process is a series of steps that you will consistently follow when you’re reviewing resumes and conducting interviews. It should be scalable, repeatable, and thorough. You want to build a process that helps you identify and onboard the right kinds of applicants.
Why Do You Need a Defined Process for Screening Applications?
A planned process will help you develop some consistency in your screening process, and will take any sort of personal knee-jerk reactions to a candidate out of the equation. It will also ensure that you are gathering the necessary information to make a decision about whether or not to move forward with an applicant.
How Do You Use a Process to Screen Applicants?
Before you begin scheduling interviews, try to compile a list of questions with which you can pre-screen candidates. These questions might be over the candidate’s proficiency in necessary skills or their preferred workflow.
Think back to your job description and consider again what the most important facets of the position are. These key features are likely to inform the kinds of questions you ought to ask candidates.
Does This Process Seem Complicated?
If it does, don’t worry—we get it. Tailoring an employee recruiting process like this designed to attract and funnel the right talent for your specific company is, well… a process. It’s highly involved and complicated to figure out.
That’s why we do what we do. We’re here to help. We’ve done this before — a lot — so we know what it takes to successfully design and implement a highly customized process like this.
If you’re keen to endure the trial and error of figuring it out on your own, we hope this article has helped make the process easier! If you’re not excited about the prospect of dedicating your already-limited time to this pursuit, talk with our experts and let us take the reigns.
Written by Eric
Eric has a passion for connecting great companies with great talent. His clients praise his eagerness to take on challenges and do whatever it takes to meet their goals.
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