How to Pick the Ideal Candidate for the Job

Your employees are the backbone of your company. If you hire the right ones, you’ll get ample support for your budding business; recruit the wrong ones and your business will fall apart like a house of cards. 

The solution: refine your recruitment process from start to finish.  But how does one go about doing that? Take a look at the article below and find out!

Create More Accurate Job Descriptions

Establishing coherent hiring criteria is the crux of any successful job interview. By identifying what core skills and qualities are required for a particular job filling (before the actual recruitment process begins), your HR team can draft the perfect job description that will attract only the best of candidates. This will not only bring in candidates of the highest calibre but will also save precious time that would otherwise be wasted on reviewing resumes of under-qualified individuals. 

Therefore, work on creating a narrative that accurately portrays the position in question and outline all the goals prospective employees can expect once they get hired.

Focus on Your Candidate’s Questions

Ironically, the candidate’s questions can reveal a lot more about them than their initial answers. If their motivation and desire — for that particular job posting — is genuine, then they will most likely do some research regarding your brand beforehand. So, make sure you pay attention to each and every one of their inquiries. Are they on point? Have they touched any relevant topics? Does their view of your company culture truly align with your own? These are just some of the things you can come across that can tell you the exact level of enthusiasm within a candidate. 

Look Past Prejudice and Bias

If you want to pick the ideal candidate for the job, you need to look past any prejudice or bias you may be harboring; otherwise, your selection of candidates may be extremely limited. For instance, employing people with disabilities has its own set of benefits. They are highly productive, they rarely take any days off, and they are considered hard-workers overall. In addition, they can even be more loyal than your other employees due to the unique opportunity you’ve presented them with. As a result, they’ll work even harder to prove themselves to both you and your team to earn their keep. Now that sounds like an awesome candidate!

Test Them

In theory, you can have the perfect candidate right in front of you. In practice, not so much; therefore, remember to test them, always. Try giving them a minor task to complete that will reflect the work they can expect at their new assignment. This will show you what your candidates are truly capable of. For instance, if it’s an audition for a job as a copywriter — make them write flawless copy! A web designer posting? Get them to create a brand-new landing page for your website, and so on and so forth. At the end of the day, you want to see if they really have what it takes to be a part of your company, or if it’s just all on paper.

Do More Extensive Background Checks

Having a well-established company culture is the lifeblood of any successful business. As a result, you must do your best to guard it against any rotten apples that might come your way; new candidates included. 

Do thorough background checks for each candidate you interview and verify whether the things they said about themselves during the course of the interview were actually true, or not. Snoop around their social media accounts, LinkedIn profiles, and the like; just try not to be overly judgmental about it. Also, do follow-ups on their provided references and make sure they are relevant for both their previous and their current job posting; otherwise, they’re pretty useless.

In the end, you can go through all of these steps (flawlessly at that) and still end up with a dud. There’s no magical potion or formula (as of yet) that can help you with this — just your gut; trust it at your own peril!