Hire the best Talent: Hire people in line with the company’s values and direction, not just any warm body.
In our previous blog post, “What Can You Do in the War for Talent,” Judy Fort discussed what the job market currently looks like, and how companies are struggling to find and retain the right talent for their organizations. In this blog, I want to go a little deeper into what it actually means to find the RIGHT talent.
Sure, there are plenty of talented people in the workforce, and all of them are evaluating their different options just as much as you are evaluating them. But the truth of the matter is, too often companies fall into the mindset that it’s better to just hire someone as soon as possible to fill an open requisition as long as they have the basic requirements needed.
Filling positions quickly can certainly make the HR team look good, but if that person turns out to be a bad hire, that can become a very costly mistake. According to one staffing agency, “In the long run, it’s more difficult for the manager and team to accommodate a poor performer than it is to invest in recruiting quality candidates for job placement.”
So what steps should companies take to make sure they’re hiring the right person every time?
- Strategic Fit: First and foremost, organizations need to clearly define why they are hiring this person – in other words, where will this role fit into the organizational strategy and direction? Every role needs a purpose. Not only will this ensure that the employee filling the role is adding long-term value to the organization, but it will also ensure that the employee feels a sense of purpose every day they come to work.
- Cultural Fit: Secondly, the company should have clear tangible values and culture that each employee contributes to in some way. The reality is, that no matter how talented someone may be at what they do, they may not fit into their department, their team or the company as a whole, which would make them just as bad of a hire as someone without the proper skills. If they don’t feel like they belong, they will quickly become disengaged, and would probably end up leaving their role prematurely, putting you back at square one.
- Competency Fit: Last but not least, the most common fit that recruiters look for in candidates is in the experience and skills they have acquired that make them eligible for the position. This is the most obvious fit, but even here, companies can be too hasty in their decisions if a candidate has “most” of the requirements they are looking for. One of the easiest ways to mitigate this is to list out the position’s “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves”. That way if someone is missing one of the “must-haves”, they are automatically disqualified from the position.
So after going over each of the things recruiters have to watch out for when it comes to finding the right talent, there are, of course, ways to make the process simpler. Automating much of this process through a talent acquisition or recruiting technology can save a huge amount of time and stress. All too often, we come across companies that are so bogged down in manually sorting through resumes and “administrivia”, that they are unable to improve their process or become more strategic about who they are hiring.
Putting a technology in place to weed out unqualified candidates allows HR the time they need to report on which sources provide them with the best candidates, what types of qualities they find in top talent, and ultimately which candidates look the most promising for the future of the organization.
For more tips on finding top talent, and a real life success story, check out this case study from the City of Arvada.
