Hiring new employees means a disruption to your existing team.
When planning for a new hire, culture fit has to be combined with skills to build a cohesive team. A good team requires surrounding yourself with people whose skills are complementary to each other, who respect one another and who are engaged in each other’s success. It’s a delicate balance, and it can be a bit of a guessing game when interviewing candidates.
In this low unemployment market, it’s easy to get caught up in a bidding war for talent. Rather than wasting time going after the wrong candidate, consider a new approach to interviewing and selection that just might lead you to some amazing hires.
Here’s a great start: use a small subset of well-crafted situational questions framed around actual events that you and your team have experienced recently. You can ask the candidate “how would you handle” or “what choice would you have made and why.” This will allow you to see someone’s reasoning skills and business judgement in a relevant context. Add to that a question about how the person’s core values align with the corporate core values, and ask them to include an example of how that has been true for them in the past. This will really help you find people who want to be with your company instead of your competitor.
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For top candidates, the best job is not always the highest paying or closest to home. Employees also look for a position that offers them the most satisfaction and enjoyment, This can be more complicated for people to define, but, as a supervisor, it is important to have an understanding of these types of intangibles if you are going to not only meet your employee’s need but exceed them. Make sure your recruitment process includes asking the candidate about what truly matters to them and align this with your company’s culture and offerings.
Just because your candidate has revealed that they are considering positions other than your opening doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice values. Consider ending the interview with a statement like, “We really want people who want to be with us, so let us know when you have decided who you would like to work with, and who you will allow to invest in you and your future success.” This sets the stage for negotiations with people who want to be with your company, and not just because they want the compensation associated with the work.
Recruiting takes strategy. In order to find the right candidate for the position, you need to have a clear sense of the needs of your team, a method to check for value alignment and a plan to find out what will motivate a great prospect to join.
At Merito Group, we work with companies on all of their recruiting needs. We can help craft the right strategy and help implement a plan to retain the best people for your company’s needs. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you find the right candidate for the job.