For businesses finding the right employee can be an exercise that involves a lot of time and expenditure. You have to get it right but how do you know when you have only met someone for an hour or possibly 2? How do you assess in such a short space of time that you are bringing the right person on board. The cost of recruiting someone not only includes recruitment ads or agency expenses but also consider the cost of training that employee to be able to do the job effectively.
There are companies out there that offer lots of help, advice and insight and lots of industry blogs on recruiting that will provide you with ideas. One company that offers this information is 10minuteswith.com who have both a wealth of blogs and lots of great interviews from employers. So where do you start with shortlisting your application once the applications are in? How do you know that you are getting it right? These tips will help you with the basics.
Screen the CV’s and be ruthless
If the CV doesn’t make you sit up and pay attention put it aside. You will have 3 piles ultimately – no, maybe and bring in for interview. Be ruthless. If you read it and it’s a definite no then put it aside and add them to the ‘no thank you’ pile. If on the other hand the CV makes you want to meet that person then put it on the ‘invite to interview’ pile. You will always have a couple that you are sat on the fence about. If you have the time and don’t have enough on your interview pile then invite them in – you never know they may just not be great at CV’s but there’s something about them that draws you to them.
Prepare your interview questions
If you don’t recruit often it can be difficult to ensure you have asked everything you could have. Who knows you may be as nervous as the candidate if this is not an area that you are comfortable in. It is advisable to prepare a list of questions beforehand so that you can refer to them in the interview. Don’t ask closed questions either – make sure you can ask questions that require them to give examples of a time when they were in a certain situation. It gives you the opportunity to get them thinking on their feet and you can see how they respond in this situation.
Always interview with colleagues
Don’t interview people on your own. Invite a colleague along – maybe someone who works on the team already that is more senior than the rest of the team or another manager/director. Don’t worry if you don’t always see eye to eye – it will be good to have more than one opinion. This may save you in the long run making a recruitment mistake because you didn’t see something that someone else might.
Second interviews
This is an important decision so don’t feel like you have to make a decision based on that first meeting. After the first round of interviews you may have 2 or 3 candidates that you were really impressed with. Invite them back for a second and perhaps this time invite a different colleague to hold the interview with you. Maybe they can ask the questions.
Ultimately you are recruiting for someone who is capable of doing the job they are being recruited for. Don’t rush to make a decision just to get a bum on a seat.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
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