Finding a perfect candidate isn’t as easy as it seems, but if you have firm processes in place to sift out the golden candidates, you will soon have a dream team. Fulfilling a role is one thing, but finding an employee that has the skill-set and the cultural fit for your business can be hard to nail.
With this in mind, hiring mistakes can be costly, creating a ripple effect that impacts other employees and your business. Take heed of warning signs and make sure your next hire is golden.
- You can’t change a leopard’s spots
Regardless of the role, there is a need for all employees to follow company rules and guidelines, whether formal or unwritten. Still, some people can’t or won’t be managed, and the long-term effect of this can be damaging. A mix of personalities in the workplace can make a business thrive in the right places, but if you feel a potential new recruit could ruffle too many feathers in your business, be cautious.
The outstanding salesperson with an incredible track record of generating business and terrorising admin and support staff won’t immediately play well in your sandbox just because you hired them. For some people, the work itself and how they perform that work is what matters the most – not the job. Don’t think you can change them. With this in mind, ensure your recruitment techniques are designed to truly assess the skills and attributes you really need.
- Hiring for skills rather than attitude
Skills and knowledge are worthless when not put to use. Experience is useless when not shared with others. The smaller your business, the more likely you are to be an expert in your field; transferring those skills to others is relatively easy. It’s not easy to train enthusiasm, a solid work ethic, and great interpersonal skills – and those traits can matter a lot more than any skills a candidate brings. If in doubt, always hire for attitude.
- Selling your business
Times have changed, and it is no longer solely down to the candidate to impress the employer – it’s a two-way street, and you need to convince candidates they would want to work for your company. Quality candidates have other options, whether from your competitors or a counteroffer from their current employer. You need to get buy-in to your culture. An excellent way to do this in the final stages of the interview is to have a collaborative hiring approach where your staff engages with the candidate and feedback, plus lets them know why your company is a great place to work.
- Hiring friends and family
Your heart may be in the right place in hiring friends and family, but their desire to help out a friend or family member doesn’t always align with your need to hire the perfect employee. Friends and family see each other outside of work, too, increasing the chances of interpersonal conflicts. Either set up an appropriate policy, like ‘no family members in the same department’, or do an incredibly thorough job of evaluating the candidate.
Using a recruitment service such as Benchmark gives you access to a wider pool of people and will give you a broader perspective on the calibre of candidates available.
- Ignoring intuition
Nothing beats a formal, comprehensive hiring process – except, sometimes, intuition. Always weigh impressions against qualitative considerations and feel free to run little ‘tests’. One of our clients give an insight into their approach –
“I always took supervisory candidates on an informal tour of our manufacturing areas. Sometimes, employees would interrupt to ask questions; I stopped because employees always come first. A candidate who appeared irritated or frustrated by the interruption was a cause for concern. The same goes for a struggling employee, say one who got behind while stacking boxes. I would naturally pitch in while still talking to the candidate. Most would also pitch in, some self-consciously in an obvious attempt to impress, others naturally and without effect. It’s easy to tell who automatically helps out and who does so only because you’re watching.”
Let your experience and intuition inform your hiring decisions, and don’t be afraid to conduct your own tests. You know the intangible qualities you need in employees, so determine a few simple ways to see if a candidate has or lacks those qualities.
- Personality types
At Benchmark, we encourage clients to use alternative interview techniques as they work to demonstrate people’s competencies for the job, showing you their skills rather than just telling you. Assessing a candidate’s character through Myers-Briggs personality profiling and using a learning style questionnaire is another beneficial insight. You have to ask yourself whether you want an employee with the opposite personality traits to you or anticipate where you think there may be a clash.
We have an enormous amount of expertise here at Benchmark to ensure you’re only selecting golden candidates from your interview process. For further information about our recruitment and retention services, please reach out to Becca – 07714771600 / rebecca@benchmarkrecruit.co.uk