Whether you’re a big company or a brand-new startup, bringing on a team member is a big deal. A new hire is an opportunity to expand your team’s skills, knowledge, and culture. The right hire can take your company to the next level—but the wrong hire can throw a wrench in your well-oiled machine.

If you’re looking to hire a new employee but are unsure where to start, read our 10 best tips for choosing the right candidate for your company. 

Write a Strong Job Description

Attracting the right candidate begins with writing a strong job description. If you’ve ever sought a job on job search boards, you’ve probably noticed that many job descriptions are extremely similar. Especially with startups, job descriptions focus more on the perks than the job itself.

You want to attract a strong candidate who won’t only be passionate about the position but will also stick around. Be sure to focus on the details of the job, as well as how the job fits into the grander scheme of the company. If you do have perks, it’s great to include them, but be sure to lead with the role.

If you have any requirements or prerequisites, be sure to add them and include that they’re non-negotiable. That way, you won’t waste your time sifting through candidates who are ineligible for the job.

Perform a Background Check

Before sending out a final offer, you must perform a background check on your prospective hire. A background check can reveal red flags in your candidate’s history that they may be trying to hide and will give you the peace of mind that they are a smart and responsible hire for your company.

Pay Attention to the Cover Letter

Whether you love them or hate them, cover letters are an essential part of the application review process. A cover letter is a candidate’s opportunity to personalize their application and prove they’re not just another resume in the pile. It’s also an extra step that prevents job-seekers from spamming you with applications.

When reviewing cover letters, be sure that the candidate has personalized the cover letter to the role. It proves that the candidate is willing to put a little extra work into applying to your job and that they have a particular interest in your company. Look for a cover letter that conveys passion and excitement. Plus, pay attention to any errors or mistakes. A good candidate will know that first impressions are important! 

Set Up Several Rounds of Interviews 

A strong interview process thoroughly vets a candidate. To do so, it’s important that the candidate interviews several different people, rather than just the hiring manager or you, the owner of the company. Candidates should go through interviews with their prospective manager, a few strong teammates, and their boss’s boss.

There are a few reasons for this. For one, as a business owner, you’re likely pretty removed from the day-to-day. Managers and teammates can better interview for job skills. They can also vet whether the candidate would be a good fit personality-wise for their team.

After each interview, sit down with the interviewers and ask for their opinions before you provide yours. That will help you with an unbiased view of their thoughts.

Focus on Passion, Not Experience

If you’ve spent a lot of time in the hiring world, you’ve probably experienced the disappointment of finding out that a candidate who was perfect on paper was a bit of a dud in person. A smart and experienced addition to your team can be helpful in the short term, but if they’re not passionate about the role, they likely will be on to the next thing before you know it.

During your interviews, focus on passion and willingness to learn rather than experience. A passionate employee with the right attitude can learn just about anything and will have the determination to do so.

The post 5 Tips for Choosing the Right Candidate For Your Company appeared first on Tricky Enough.

Finding the best person for a job is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It’s not enough to simply read a candidate’s resume and hire that person on the spot based on nothing more. Even if the applicant answers correctly on all of the questions that you throw in front of him or her, there are no guarantees that you’re going to get a long-term employee that’s going to stay loyal to your company or even work well with everyone in the office. Finding that perfect fit that’s going to fill in all the blanks is, simply put, a whole lot of work and even if all the indicators are there it still doesn’t guarantee a high level of performance in the future.

However, from time to time some hiring experts reveal a secret or two, some best practices become a template to use during the interview process so now we can share this valuable information with you.

Here are some of the best tips on how to find and hire the best candidate in the vast sea of great, and not so great, candidates.

1. Make sure that the candidate is looking for a career opportunity

Candidates that show potential to change companies without any strong reason or after a short while working for a certain company they decide to switch their environment are not a good choice. This goes especially if you’re looking for a person to fill the position that requires long-term dedication. In that case, you want to make sure that the candidate never jumps ship without successfully ending his or her role in the previous company. At times, it is even better to find an applicant with the right set of skills who is in dire need of a chance to start building a career. Loyalty is one of the most important trades you should look for in a candidate.

2. Look for a candidate with enough practical experience

Each company has its own way of doing things, however training a new candidate is a process that new employees have to go through in every respectable firm. Spending weeks or months training a freshman could easily go in any direction. You could end up spending all that time and money on the training process and your candidate could still need some additional time to fit in. Then you have to make choice between continuing to train the new employee or start looking for a replacement. Both options are time-consuming efforts that keep your operations on hold.

The best thing to do is to look for a candidate with enough practical experience so that you won’t need to spend too much time on showing the ropes to that person. The best way to make sure you have this type of person is to place them in a situation that you’re currently dealing with in your company or you recently dealt with. Let the candidate give you an assessment of the situation and explain how to deal with it. If you like the answer you might have your guy or girl.

3. Determine if the candidate has necessary strengths for the position

No matter how impressive a candidate’s CV might be or how well they answer your questions, it still doesn’t mean that this person is psychologically strong enough for the job you need to be done. Sure, it’s one thing to be a CNC expert and knows all there is to know about numeric machines but how good is your candidate with repetitive operations? Will that person be able to stay motivated and keep a high spirit for a long time doing one or two operations eight hours a day, five days a week? There are people that have an extensive work experience but just can’t handle the pressure and simply break when the pressure builds up above a certain point.

Make sure that the candidate has all the strengths that are required for the position. If you can’t find a perfect fit, find the one whose weaknesses would be tolerable and wouldn’t endanger company goals.

4 Check social networks

It might not seem like an important practice but there is a lot to learn about a person by looking at their social network profiles. People don’t always react positively to or simply don’t feel comfortable answering personal questions. Social networks open up a window to applicant’s likes and dislikes, personal opinions, habits, vices, etc. There is no better way to see if the person would fit with your company culture, beliefs, and aspirations.

LinkedIn is a place where you could check the candidate’s professional activities, see what others have to say about them, or even stumble upon a potentially better candidate and invite that person for an interview.

5. Check their behavior outside the interview room

It’s nothing new to see a person all pleasant, smiled and self-confident during the interview. There are a lot of candidates that went through job interview courses or simply have a natural handling of those types of situations. Let someone from your team welcome the candidates and lead them to the interview room. Your teammate could ask some simple questions while going to the interview and see how the person behaves when he or she doesn’t have to impress anyone.

Additionally, another member of your team could lead the applicant for a company tour and during that time see how the person acts, what they show interest in, etc. When you get feedback from your colleagues it should be easier to make a final decision and choose the right candidate.

6. Check their professional background

Online services such as AssignmentMasters and others offer various kinds of writing services, CV and cover letters included. This means that reading your candidate’s resume doesn’t always reveal a full picture of their trades, professional accomplishments, and past endeavors. A smart thing to do whenever you’re looking for a candidate that should fill in an important position with the company is to do a simple background check. Call his or her former employers and see what they have to say about your potential new addition to the crew. If the background check goes well, and you like the candidate, there’s nothing stopping you to welcome the fresh blood in your ranks.

7. Move out of the interview atmosphere

If you are left with only a handful of candidates and the position you are looking to fill in is important, requires different kinds of social and professional interaction then it’s a good idea to take the interviewee for a lunch with a few of your team members. It would be a good chance to have a casual chat while observing how the person acts. See how they deal with the waiting staff, what kind of manners they show at the table (important if the person is going to meet potential partners in the future), etc. Also important to see if they are good listeners if they keep talking about themselves or prefer learning about other people. And ultimately, don’t forget to pick up the tab, show class all the way.

8. Listen to what they say is important to them

This might seem like a simple question but it comes with a twist. More often than not, candidates could go for generic lines, and speak about things that don’t endanger anyone, seem socially acceptable or desired. Although their response could be sincere, try to make them talk about what really impresses them and raises their attention. Think of hobbies, places they’ve seen, let them show their uniqueness. Try to find out how open-minded your potential coworker is, what upsets them and what keeps them going. Those things could prove useful in the future if you decide to hire that particular candidate.

Conclusion

There is no magic formula for finding/hire the best candidate for any position, no matter how simple or complex it might be. All these above tips are just some of the best practices and pieces of advice that should lead you towards your goal of finding the person that would be a valuable addition to your team. Even if you find a person that shows all the trades you are looking for, always keep in mind that people grow each day and what once was a weakness, with the right leadership could become a strength you were looking for.

The post Tips on How to Find and Hire the Best Candidate appeared first on Tricky Enough.