5 Ways to Hire the Best Candidate for Any Position

When you hire a new employee, you’re investing in the future of your business. That investment can either pay off with a positive return, slowly fizzle out, or blow up in your face. Every employer hopes for the first option.

The goal of the hiring process is the same as any investment: to maximize value and minimize risk. In this case, the value is what a new hire can add to your team, and the risk is that the new hire will be a bad fit or leave too soon. As we all know, turnover is expensive. Some analysts suggest it could cost 30-50 percent of a bad hire’s annual salary to replace an entry-level worker – and even more to replace a manager or executive.

If you’re going to hire qualified employees who stick around longer than a few months, you need a consistent, foolproof recruiting process. Given that the average time-to-hire is at its highest level in 15 years, the answer isn’t to work longer and harder. Rather, you have to work smarter. In this post, we’ll look at five efficient ways to improve your hiring process and pick the best candidate for any position.

1. Screen for Cultural Fit

A lot of recruiters get so wrapped up in credentials that they forget to look for the soft skills and intangible qualities that determine cultural fit. Cultural fit may seem less than mission-critical, but it’s actually an important success factor for recruiting. Once the dust of the interview has settled, candidates are really just people, and people don’t perform well when they’re unhappy.

When it comes to productivity and longevity, research favors a good cultural fit: Happy employees are 12 percent more productive, and companies with strong company cultures have 34 percent lower turnover rates.

Define the beliefs and values that make up your company culture, and look for candidates whose beliefs and values match. What motivates them? How do they define success? How do they interact and communicate with coworkers?

2. Run a Test Drive

You can only learn so much about a person during the interview process. If you want to put their skill set to the test, give them a chance to work on a sample project. Many employers use a “test drive” to screen final-stage candidates by asking them to try out their projected role for a day.

A test drive will give you firsthand experience with how a candidate approaches new challenges and interacts with coworkers. In other words, you get to see what kind of worker they really are. When the test drive is over, you can assess performance and ask the candidate how they felt about the tasks assigned (difficulty level, pace, etc.). Were they overwhelmed? Challenged? Inspired? What level of quality is evident in their work?

3. Track Hiring Data

The recruiting process generates a lot of documents, communication, and data. This can be overwhelming if you don’t have the right technology in place. Recruiting software helps you organize hiring data in a central location and track the recruiting process through its various stages.

If you’re drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and emails and struggling to fill open positions, you might consider shopping for a solution. With hundreds of different products and features to consider, the software market can be a little intimidating for a first-time buyer. The best approach is to define your needs, paint points, and budget, and then build a shortlist of solutions that fit the bill. Once you have a shortlist, you can read reviews, case studies, and recruiting software comparisons to narrow down your options.

4. Follow Through on Reference Checks

Almost every employer asks for professional references. Whether the employer actually calls these references is a different story. Don’t make this mistake. A job candidate will always do their best to beautify their resume and make intelligent comments during interviews. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we don’t live in a world where you can take people at face value.

Even if a candidate seems honest, you need to exercise due diligence with every applicant before you make an offer. Beyond the basic criminal background check, call at least two references and ask for their honest opinions. Ideally, these references will have worked with the candidate in some kind of professional capacity. Ask if the reference would recommend hiring the candidate and if they can vouch for the candidate’s relevant skills or experience. Listen for red flags like absenteeism, unreliability, or poor work ethic.

5. Look for Signs of Longevity

You can’t avoid turnover completely, but you certainly don’t want to hire employees who already have one foot out the door. A 2014 study from Equifax found that 40 percent of employees who voluntarily leave their jobs quit within the first six months. This can be especially damaging when it involves high-level employees or positions with long training/onboarding periods.

When you screen applicants, look for signs of longevity. Ask what a candidate’s plans are for the future, both short and long term. What are their professional goals for the next 2-3 years? If a candidate is looking for a different career path than the one you’re hiring for, they might be a flight risk.

Look for people who are interested in moving up in the company and whose skill sets match the job. If you’re hiring for an inside sales position, but your applicant spent the last three years studying photography at an art school – again, that’s a flight risk.

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Beyond these universal best practices, your screening process should also be shaped by the specific requirements of the job. Before you publish a job posting, sit down with key stakeholders and decide what competencies are most important. Then, figure out the best way to assess these competencies in an applicant.

Choosing the ideal candidate shouldn’t require nine interviews and comprehensive psychoanalysis. With the right strategy and systems, you can hire the best person for the job with efficiency and confidence.