A strong team is key to a successful business. Here are 10 ways to boost your recruitment methods.
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Hire for the company, not for the position
Adopt a big-picture mindset. Keep the goals and best interests of your business in mind so that you’ll be inclined to search for potential contributors to your long-term corporate strategy.
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Recruit early and proactively
Effective staffing is a nuanced and time-consuming process so it’s best to look for potential hires even before the need arises. Have your Human Resources team monitor LinkedIn and check out talent pools. Use reputable recruitment sites with a vast network, or bring in a professional head hunter to seek out candidates for key hires.
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Clearly define the position and job requirements
When advertising for a recruitment need, be clear about the scope and limitations of the job. In addition to the standard requirements and role descriptions, your ad should indicate your preferred work styles or habits as well.
Being direct will help you narrow down your candidates. This will help you find applicants who are more interested and engaged because they have a clearer idea of what to expect.
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Integrate social media into your recruitment process
Top talent appreciates companies that are able to demonstrate the ability to keep up with the digital age. Here are some examples:
- Use digital and social media trends to craft recruitment materials that fit into LinkedIn, Facebook, and/or Instagram
- Make sure your website has an appealing, mobile-friendly design packed with relevant information
- Check your applicants’ public online profiles and portfolios
- Track online reviews about your company
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Develop an objective hiring instrument
With the help of human resources specialists, design a standard recruitment and hiring “scorecard” that will ensure objectivity and consistency throughout all your hiring activities.
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Keep interview structured and focused
Use your carefully crafted job descriptions as a framework for your interviews. Be straightforward and focus on all the essential information, asking follow-up questions if necessary instead of trailing off into casual banter.
Encourage applicants to ask questions. This gives them a chance to learn more about you and your company, while also allowing you to get a glimpse of their values and motivations.
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Assess applicants as a team
Recruitment and hiring can be a team effort. You may ask other members of the team, preferably with varying degrees of potential involvement with the applicant, to be part of the process. This will give you differing perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of candidates.
Keep applicants informed of the interview and assessment phases. They will appreciate knowing beforehand whether to expect a panel interview or individual interviews requiring multiple visits.
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Incorporate tests and simulations
Résumés and interviews only scratch the surface of applicants’ long-term value to your company. Add test tasks that reveal personality traits that may not be obvious during your preliminary assessments. Remember that while technical qualifications may get candidates the job, soft skills make them worth keeping.
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Make competitive offers
Attract top talent by offering competitive compensation and benefits. Websites like Salary.com and PayScale.com are helpful, crowd-sourced resources that can guide your decisions on compensation packages based on your industry and location. Consider non-salary benefits that fit into your company culture. These include extra days off, free meals or snacks, nursing rooms, telecommuting (work from home) arrangements, and teambuilding activities.
Internally, offer referral incentives to current employees. Tapping into your staff’s professional networks can be a big help because employees understand the company culture and are likely to recommend candidates that are a good fit.
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Streamline your onboarding
Onboarding is a critical but often overlooked process, especially for understaffed startups and small businesses. Get this step right, however, and your company will earn a productive asset that will generate value for the long haul.
Ease new employees into the company and workflow. Design a training program that allows you and the employee to track and measure progress as you go along. Give them a copy of the company’s policies, or allow them access to the site or internal network where these docs are stored.