When it comes to hiring the right candidate for your job, it’s usually not as simple as extending an offer to the first person that applies. In fact, sometimes it can take many months until you find that perfect fit. So what can you do to ensure you hire the right candidate? Keep reading for six top tips.
1. Align Internally Before You Post The Job
It’s true that when it comes to posting a job and hiring the right candidate for that role, time is of the essence. But—there’s no use rushing to post a job listing if that listing isn’t accurate or you haven’t yet aligned with the appropriate team(s) about your goals for filling the role. There are a few key factors you should align on before you make a job listing public:
- Title: Ensure you do proper market research here so that your roles and responsibilities aren’t for a position too senior or junior than what you are listing
- Salary range: Similarly to your research on titles, you should have an understanding of comparable salaries in the market for comparable roles
- Who is on the hiring committee (and why): It’s important that your hiring process is efficient—and a key part of that is ensuring that every stakeholder involves knows what their duties are and what they should be testing the candidate for
2. Use Smart Technology To Target Qualified Candidates
It’s no secret that the job marketplace is competitive. In addition to building an employer brand that stands out, you’ll want to get your open role in front of the right candidates—and quickly. PandoLogic’s AI software platform will increase the number of qualified candidates you interact with during the hiring process while decreasing the time it takes to find and hire them. PandoLogic fully automates job ad placement, taking historical and real-time data into account. And when your job ad gets in front of the right eyes, it becomes easier to hire the right candidate.
3. Build A Candidate Pipeline You Can Revisit In The Future
Hiring the right candidate isn’t always easy. (If it were, you wouldn’t need any tips from us!) That’s why you want to ensure that when you come across a qualified or desirable candidate, you keep them in your back pocket. What do we mean by that? Building out a candidate pipeline. You never know when a prior candidate will become the perfect fit for a new role. An applicant tracking system (ATS) is helpful software for building a pipeline that will helpfully lead to you hiring the right candidate.
4. Align With The Candidate At The Start Of The Interview
In the same way that you want to align with your team before you start hiring, you should align with your candidate before you start any intense interviewing. You don’t want to reach the end of the interview process and realize that the candidate had different expectations about the salary that your open role can offer. That’s why it’s always good for recruiters to start with a candidate phone screening to kick off the interview process. Speaking of…
5. Ensure Your Interview Process Is Thorough But Not Too Long
When you consider the steps you need to take for hiring the right candidate, you likely have a lot of boxes you want to check off. It’s why you spent the time to put together a thoughtful job description and build out a hiring committee with the people best suited to evaluating candidates. So, naturally, you’ll also want a thoughtful interview. But here’s what you have to remember: there’s a fine line between thoughtful and drawn-out. Ensure that the process you’ve set up gives the candidate and the interviewing team enough time to get to know each other, without it dragging on for weeks and weeks.
6. Be Thoughtful But Move Quickly
If you think that the prospect you interviewed is the right person for the job (and the hiring committee agrees), don’t wait too long to extend an offer. In fact, this tip goes hand-in-hand with the first tip in this article. The better you align before the process starts, the more quickly you can move once you all agree that you’ve found the right candidate you want to hire.
By using these tips (and taking advantage of smart hiring techniques and technology), it should be easier than ever for you to hire the right candidate.