Top tips for effective recruitment

Judging a book by its cover probably isn’t the best way to find the right candidate for your company. These days you have to at least open the book and read the first chapter.

Luckily, there are ways to ensure your company hires the right people without sitting them down in an interrogation room first.

The following tips will help you get the most out of your first encounter with potential employees and ensure you pick the perfect candidate.

Screen resumes

In an attempt to streamline the interview process, resume screening is a great way to cut out candidates that don’t meet the requirements. Sure, resumes are naturally screened as you read them, but they should be accompanied by a detailed checklist.

The job specific checklist can work as a 1 to 10 scale broken down into categories ranging from candidate qualifications, experiences, and whether or not they should move on to the interview process.

By doing this, you, the employer will have a tailored checklist that’s easily compared to other checklists based off the competition’s resumes. Additionally, it’s wise to have dedicated screeners during recruiting periods to act as candidate experts.

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Interview for attitude

Before you hire any employee, it’s important to know whether their knowledge and skill level is up to par. But, another essential facet to any potential candidate is their inner office attitude. That’s where the interview comes into play.

Don’t spend too much time grilling the candidate on information already stated in the resume. Instead, try to gage their personality. Ask questions concerning work habits, how they function under stress, and their opinion on working long hours.

This is also where your ability to read body language plays a huge role. If the candidate becomes uneasy or makes a seemingly harmless joke at the mention of possibly working nights and weekends, it’s probably because they’ll ultimately have a problem with it.

Quiz references

If and when a candidate reaches the reference checking stage, it’s the perfect time to dig deep into the potential employee’s work past. And, if the reference is strictly professional, it’s also a great chance to gather unbiased opinions about the employee in question.

Once questions concerning the candidate’s abilities are out of the way transition directly into their people skills.

Questions like whether or not the candidate works well with others, their day-to-day attitudes, and their willingness to go above and beyond what’s asked of them are all fair game.

Test for success

After the candidate checks out on paper and face-to-face, it’s wise to request they take an abilities test.

Whether it’s to get a sense of the candidate’s general knowledge or gauge skills particular to the job involving interaction with customers, setting appointments, working with invoice software or representing the company at networking functions , if the potential employee is all they say they are, they should have no problem taking the test and more importantly, receiving an adequate score.

So, when it comes time to fill your next open position, take some of the above tips into consideration and find the best employee for the job.

About the author

Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including business and personal health.