Written by Jamie Van Cuyk | Growing Your Team | KNOW Tampa Bay
Many people see hiring like a field of dreams. If you have a hiring need, your ideal team member will appear.
The truth is this rarely happens, especially in a challenging employee market. And tough employee markets appear to be the norm lately. This includes periods of extremely low number of candidates visiting job boards, times with record openings, and periods of overwhelming applicant counts that can be a challenge to sort through.
However, no matter the market, you can be successful with your employee search – and save yourself hours and reduce the hiring stress – when you follow these three tips.
1. Write a job posting that speaks to the candidate
A job posting is more than a Help Wanted sign. Just saying that you’re hiring for a particular role won’t attract the best candidates.
Most job seekers want more than a job. They want to join a company and do work that feels like the perfect fit. And, as an employer, you want the team members who think your company and role are the perfect fit as your retention rates will be higher.
Attracting that perfect fit starts with the job posting. Great job postings speak directly to your ideal candidate and tells them that THIS is the perfect job for them. They feel that you are describing them and the place they want to work with each line they read.
Great job postings start with a company overview that describes your products and services, clients, and culture. Then it has a job overview that briefly describes the role and who would be the right fit and a short list of responsibilities. Finally, it includes the requirements for a candidate to be considered, which might consist of education, years in the field, licenses or certifications, work hours and more.
2. Post the position in the right place
Your ideal candidate can’t apply if they don’t know that you have an open position. After you spent time crafting a job posting that speaks directly to your ideal candidate, you need to make sure you post it where they will see it.
While there are some highly popular, general job boards like Indeed, there are also many specialty job boards that attract a defined subset of job seekers.
The best place to post your job is where your ideal candidate will be searching. Search your industry or the role and “job board” to identify job boards that could be right for your opening.
But don’t rely on just job boards! You want to share your job with your network. You never know who in your network would be your ideal hire or knows someone who would be perfect for the role.
Another option is Facebook groups. There are many Facebook groups out there specifically designed to help people find jobs. If there’s an active group that appears to have your ideal candidate, join the group and share your opening.
3. Have an effective screening process
Getting the right people to apply is only part one of the hiring puzzle. Part two is being able to sort through the candidates and find your perfect hire.
How do you do this? By designing a screening process that uncovers if each candidate is your ideal hire.
When you don’t have an effective screening process, hiring can turn into one of two things.
1) Shiny object syndrome, where you become impressed by candidates even though they are not suitable for your position.
2) Selection out of desperation, where you pick the person who seems good enough because you’re ready for the process to end.
Neither option will lead to a hire you’ll be happy paying every pay period.
Instead, you need to have a process that helps you weed out the unqualified and point you directly to the one you should hire.
Do this by determining your non-negotiable skills and qualities before beginning your search. Once you have this information, these are the items you’ll measure each candidate against – both when you’re looking at their resume and during the interview process.
By knowing exactly what you’re looking for and what questions to ask to uncover the correct information about a candidate, you can quickly identify who should be hired and who should be dismissed from the process.
Hiring Success!
Remember, just because someone is good at what they do does not mean that they are right for you. By following these three steps, you can identify the right person to hire every time, no matter the employee market.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jamie Van Cuyk
Jamie Van Cuyk, the owner and lead strategist of Growing Your Team, is an expert in hiring and onboarding teams within small businesses. Drawing from over 15 years of leadership experience, Jamie teaches her clients how to hire their first team members, including employees and long-term contractors. By learning the dynamics of each company and their specific needs, she helps them find their perfect-fit, long-lasting team members and avoid the hiring and firing cycle.
