Hiring employees for your business can be a challenging process. Recruiting the right employee can increase the company’s overall productivity and will also have a positive impact on the work environment. On the other hand, hiring a wrong person can prove to be expensive and time-consuming. So basically, hiring any person can either make or break your business.
Here are some tips shared by our CEO Atul Garg which will help you in hiring the right person every time:
1. Don’t forget to talk about the family: Do ask the candidate about his/her family members. What is the occupation of father, mother, and siblings? Is it a joint family or nuclear? This will help you in understanding the candidate better and also will help in making him/her a bit more relaxed about the interview.
For example: If a candidate’s father has been with a company for a considerable time, that inculcates a culture of discipline and punctuality in the family. After all, everyone learns the most from their family members. Similarly, you would also need candidates who are disciplined, organised and always willing to learn.
2. Talking about past work experience is important: It is very pertinent to know more about their past work experience and work culture they had in the previous organisation.
You can ask them about their job profile and responsibilities they had. Also, how were they evaluated in terms of their performance?
While some job profiles are repetitive in nature, some may require a go-getter attitude and a person who is always ready to do his best. While knowing more about his previous companies, you can also get an idea about the candidate’s mindset. He/she is leaving the current company due to a reason which can be either of these- the job profile doesn’t excite them or not happy with the work culture, want to diversify into other sectors among many other factors.
3. Before appointment, don’t forget to define job profile: Before hiring the employee, tell the candidate more about the company, how the company operates, the policy and what the future goals are. If they are going to work in your company, they should be aware of the company and its standing in the market.
Prepare an organisation chart and show it to the candidate. Also tell them about the work which needs to be done as per their profile, KRA (Key Responsibility Areas) and KPI (Key Performance Indicators). The candidate should be informed about this well in advance and they can ask questions or doubts regarding it.
You should give a clear idea of how you foresee the ideal candidate in the role you are hiring for and whether it matches their aspirations or not. There should be an alignment of both the candidate and your company’s goals.
4. Ask candidate if comfortable with defined KRA/KPI and company/product: The candidate should also be comfortable about the role they will get, otherwise, it will only lead to confusion later on. This is another reason why employees leave the company. You can also seek feedback and suggestions from them if they feel that they can add value to their job profile using their diverse experience.
5. Hire someone who fits in with your company’s culture: Ask the candidate how well he/she gets along with current colleagues and managers. How are they managing current company clients as social skills are very crucial in hiring for many roles. If the person doesn’t get along well with previous bosses or colleagues, then they might not be a great fit for your company.
6. Let them ask questions and pay attention to their concerns: Don’t forget that it is equally important for the candidate to get the interview right and be hired by your company.
Any ideal candidate would be interested in knowing more about the company and would ask thoughtful questions throughout the interview. This is definitely a good sign as it shows willingness and interest on the part of the candidate.
7. Ask them their weaknesses: Everyone is willing to tell their strengths but a good candidate will be one who doesn’t hesitate to tell what they are not good at. This will also give you insight into whether the prospective candidate is willing to accept and tell areas where they lack skills. Only when they accept, they can work on it to improve, right?
8. Don’t rush into hiring: Don’t rush into hiring people especially when it’s a key position. You might think that you are saving time and money, but what if you end up with an employee who is not a good fit. Hiring again would not be feasible for you and the hired candidate both.
Going slow with the hiring process will also give an impression on the candidate that you want to select someone who truly gels with your company culture and willing to wait for the best candidate. It also shows that you are very careful about who you are bringing to the team, whether they will add value or not.
9. Don’t skip the process of evaluating references/ background checks: Yes, the evaluation process can be time-consuming and you would be tempted to skip it, but don’t.
It will create problems later on. Another way to do this is by asking for samples of previous work as part of a reference check. Talking to their reference would give you a better understanding of your potential employee, their capabilities and work ethic.
10. Always follow your instincts: What is your immediate reaction after taking the interview of a candidate? While you may think his/her qualifications are best but what about the other factors, do you think the candidate will be a good fit, on a gut level.
After hiring so many employees and taking such interviews all these years, your instincts will definitely help you in hiring. Even if you are hiring your very first employee, then also it will be applicable. So just trust your instincts and hire the best fit.
So are you ready to start the process of hiring employees? What points are you running into? Tell us in the comments below.
