Why it’s important to find the right candidate?
The recruitment process can be long and strenuous for all parties involved. Ensuring you find and select the best suited candidate for the role is vital in minimising unnecessary time and expense within your business.
Sometimes, the candidate who interviews the best may not always be the most suitable, or those with the strongest CV may perhaps not hold the interpersonal skills you desire.
9 tips to choosing the right candidate
You don’t want to be in a position of regret with any of your recruitment decisions. Save yourself the frustrations and headaches with our 9 top tips to help you identify the most appropriate candidate for your business.
Step 1: Consider Talent & Cultural Fit
Whilst flashy CVs are nice, it is not necessarily a strong indicator that someone will fit into your business well simply because they have previously worked within similar environments. The candidate’s core talent is obviously crucial, however, do not underestimate the importance of finding someone who aligns with your company culture and can manage their expected schedule and responsibilities.
Step 2: Listen Carefully to Their Questions
Providing candidates with ample opportunity to ask questions can give you a relatively good insight and understanding into their characteristics and mindset. Those who are inquisitive and prepared with engaging questions can indicate a passion for the role, whereas generic or a lack of questions can suggest a lack of desire, interest and passion.
Step 3: Ask Your Own Questions
As well as listening to what the candidate has to ask, you should prepare a set of questions of your own. Perhaps you ask them questions relating to hypothetical scenarios to gauge their reaction, or about certain times where they failed or succeeded. Many questions can provide you with a good insight into their mind and give you a great understanding of who they are as a person and whether they would be a suitable fit for your business.
Step 4: Provide Them with a Task
Providing your candidates with a task that is relevant to the role they are applying for is a fantastic way of gaining an insight into their skills and mindset. Sometimes these tasks don’t always have to have a wrong or right answer, or a perfect end result, instead it is more about analysing the candidates processes and approaching the said task.
Step 5: Create Discussion About Something They’re Passionate About
Be conversational and open with the candidate and create a discussion on something they’re passionate about, perhaps an interest that is listed on their application. These sorts of conversations are able to give you an insight into what makes them tick and who they are as a person – they can be really useful in the understanding of one’s character.
Step 6: Get Feedback from Outside the Interview
Interview environments generally result in a heightened sense of professionalism from candidates who are, obviously, looking to impress. It can often be useful to reach out to other employees within your business to better judge someone’s character. Did they greet or ignore certain individuals? Did they create a strong first impression?
Step 7: Utilise Provided References
When a candidate provides you with contact details for references, leverage them! When you are shopping for a new expensive item, reviews and feedback are often the most useful tool in influencing your purchasing decision – employment is no different. References can provide you with unique perspectives of your candidate’s performance from someone else’s point of view, which can be a great predictor for future performance.
Step 8: Consider the Future of Your Team
When recruiting, generally speaking, you hope to have the candidate within your business for the foreseeable future. It is therefore a good idea to identify your organisations plans for the future, where you’re going and what you hope to achieve – does this candidate align with those plans? For example, if you are hoping to expand overseas and gain international clients, candidates with certain language skills may be beneficial. Also consider that just because a candidate may not possess certain traits or experience, it does not mean they cannot perform to expectations, and training plans can be introduced to compliment an otherwise promising looking candidate.
Step 9: Understand the Candidates Expectations
Finally, it is important to ensure you have a strong understanding of what the candidate expects from you and your organisation. Certain role expectations, salary, notice periods and much more can enable you to identify who is an appropriate fit. Perhaps a candidate is seeking a position that can facilitate growth and development – if you can provide this, then great, if not then this candidate may not be suitable, and you can potentially save yourself the strain of finding an appropriate replacement in the upcoming future.
Speak to an Expert today
With so much to consider in identifying and choosing the right candidate, it’s clear to see why many businesses struggle. As an experienced business recruitment partner, we are here to support and guide you through your recruitment process to ensure that you are finding the right candidates for your business.
Find out how our team can help you by speaking to one of our experts today.