How To Recruit Talented Individuals Who Will Thrive In Your Business

Introduction

Hiring the right employees is both an art and a science. Many businesses see the process beginning with selecting candidates to interview from a pile of applications and ending once the chosen person signs a contract - but finding the right people for your business is a process that starts long before you even know you’ve got a vacancy or a new role.

We’re going to look at the hiring lifecycle - from preparing your business to attract the best talent to how to really understand your prospective employees. Let’s dive right in…

You need to know your brand. What values your brand reflects will dictate what kind of candidate is the perfect fit for you, so think hard about who you are, your story, and what makes you tick. Discovering brand archetypes is the perfect starting place- and it'll help you decide whether you're looking for a playful free-thinker or a driven detail-checker.

You also need to think about your budget. If you want an individual with years of experience but can only afford recently graduated, you'll need to think need to think again and ensure your offered salary is competitive, so ensure that you do your research.

Being a desirable employer isn’t just about salary, however. To attract the best people to your business, you need to win them over, too.

Consider the entire package being offered to your employees. Added perks are rarely the dealbreaker if salary or company culture isn’t right - and they shouldn’t feel gimmicky or as though they’re compensating for a stingy remuneration package.

But they can be a deciding factor between two businesses who offer otherwise similar prospects - so from ‘pawternity leave’ to flexible working, think about ways to add a little personality to your perks.

The most common pitfall in this area, of course, is misjudging salary. Do some research on the appropriate salary range for your roles to avoid sending your dream candidates running for the door - and then you can show them how brilliant your business is with the added extras.

Next, rewrite your job description from the ground up with your ideal candidate in mind. What about the role will entice them, and what might put them off? This forces you to think about whether the role may appeal to different types of candidates, as well as ensuring the job description isn’t outdated or biased.

This is a key area to get right, as job descriptions can be a huge source of hidden bias - “The successful candidate will use his skills…” immediately tips the scales in favour of male applicants, for example, who will be more likely to see themselves in the role. Run your job ads through a tool like the Gender Decoder or speak to us about how to ensure your roles are appealing to a diverse range of people; you’ll benefit from a wider pool of talented applicants, and avoid embedding biases in your hiring process.

Think about how you’ll measure success in your new candidate: in 3, 6 or 12 months’ time, how will you know you’ve got the right person? Setting a clear, measurable goal will help you find the right person for the job - “How would you achieve our goal of X?” is a great interview question, and shows the candidate you know what you want from them.

Look in the right places: working with a trusted recruiter is very different from posting on the first job board you see on Google, and the quality of candidates (and time spent reading dozens of wildly unsuitable CVs) will vary as a result. Aim for quality, not quantity, and plan your recruitment timeline accordingly - don’t rush it, and allow time to really get to know candidates.

Any of these points could be a pitfall but combined they could make for a recruiting disaster.

Slow down, set a measurable goal (rather than “The new hire should improve our marketing”, try “They should be able to show a 10% increase in sales from email campaigns”, for example), and position your job ad to appeal to a diverse, high-quality selection of candidates.

Using Technology To Recruit Smarter, Not Harder

Make use of technology to single out the most promising candidates - screening tools that use artificial intelligence to pick out key phrases and sentiments in applications can help automate and streamline the process. This will save you time and remove your own biases and judgments from the decision-making, making for fairer, more effective recruitment.

Once you’ve identified some potential candidates, you’ll need to interview - so know how to do it well. Speaking to them via email or phone first will help remove any appearance-based bias (and give you a feel for the individual), so it’s a great place to start.

After that, think about your interview process: how do you measure candidates to fairly judge them against one another? Our Interview Scorecard gives you measurable metrics to ensure your interview process isn’t entirely subjective (or based on whether the interviewer had their coffee that morning).

When you’re down to a handful of strong potential new hires, it’s hard to know who’s truly right for the role and who’s just well-prepared and great in an interview setting - so it’s time to dig deeper.

Psychometric testing allows you to get to the heart of a candidate’s motivations and personality for a more accurate picture: if your role requires a driven, decisive leader, profiling tools will help you discover which of your candidates is the right fit. Alongside this, consider a candidate’s references carefully - generic references are often sparse at best, so consider using a purpose-built survey to ensure you’re getting the information you need.

The last tip isn’t about recruitment at all: it’s about keeping the spark alive. No, we’re not moonlighting as marriage counsellors - once you’ve spent a considerable amount of time, thought and effort recruiting the right person to propel your business forward, you want to make sure they stick around. Offer development opportunities, regularly evaluate their progression and how they can grow in the role, and give your ideal hire a reason to stick around for the long-term. If you’ve recruited the right person, they’ll be worth it.

The final pitfall to avoid is to see recruitment as a one-off event. In reality, it’s creating and maintaining a working relationship that should benefit you and your employee on an ongoing basis, so treat it as such.

Choose carefully, using the perfect blend of technology and insight into your candidates, and nurture the relationship over time; not only will you avoid having to recruit again when a new hire doesn’t work out, but your business will benefit from having perfectly-matched, talented individuals on board.

At Headway Recruitment, we’re great at getting to the nitty-gritty of what employers like you want. But we’re also great at uncovering what the best candidates want, too.

We work with you to refine your recruitment process with our signature passion and professionalism and after that, we ensure your job roles are seen by the very best and brightest candidates around. And why do these candidates work with us? Because as well as being a friendly, honest bunch, we make recruitment better for everybody involved.

If you want to see how Headway can help you recruit the perfect candidate, get in touch with us for a demo of our INSIGHT Model - we’d love to show you how we do what we do!

Are You Approaching Hiring Employees In The Wrong Way?