6 Tips for Hiring Great Staff

People are truly the backbone of any successful company. The importance of hiring the right employee cannot be emphasized enough. Hire the wrong employee and your tentative step forward might lead to the proverbial three steps back. Hire the right employee and your business trajectory is likely to continue or speed up.

Essentially, hiring the wrong person decreases the productivity of a firm, while hiring the right person increases it. In fact, the US Department of Labor puts the cost of a bad hire at 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings, according to Forbes.

Here are some benefits to enjoy if you hire the right person for the job.

• You’ll protect your image as an employer.
• You’ll preserve the morale of your internal teams.
• You won’t have to deal with damages that a bad hire can do to your company.
• You’ll save time you would have spent reviewing applications.
• You’ll maximize productivity.
• You will slash the cost of the hiring process.

In order to enjoy these benefits, the hiring process needs to run smoothly. Here are 6 tips for hiring a great staff.

1.   Do a job analysis before hiring an employee

In simple terms, job analysis is a process of collecting information about a job. The information collected from an analysis helps put together a job description.

Without the right job analysis, you could end up hiring someone who lacks essential skills or end up not paying an employee correctly.

A job analysis may include the following:

• Researching and sharing with other companies that have a similar job description.
• Analyzing the work duties, tasks, and responsibilities that the employee filing the position needs to accomplish.
• Research and view sample job descriptions online or offline, highlighting similar jobs.
• Reviewing the job responsibilities of current employees.

2.   Write a better job description

After doing a thorough job analysis, the next step is to use that information to write an even better job description. A well-developed job description can provide details on the “essential functions” of a job.

Oftentimes, job descriptions are written with a list of responsibilities and requirements. However, a study reported by the Wall Street Journal found that this has the potential to alienated qualified employees.

Here are some tips for writing a good job description:

• Include details on salary and benefits.
• Be specific about the type of employment and location.
• Tell them about the company.
• Be clear about the skills and qualifications.
• Be transparent about the responsibilities.
• Write an accurate job title and summary.

3.   Improve your interviews

After studying more than 5,000 hiring managers, a study established that failures exhibited by new employees mostly result from a flawed interview process. Up to 82% of those surveyed, lacked the confidence in their interviewing abilities to pay attention to red flags, were too pressed for time, or were too focused on other issues.

To ensure a better degree of success, look for other factors beyond just technical competence. Also, examine the employee on temperament, emotional intelligence, motivation, and coachability.

It pays to ask the right questions. For example, “what makes you get up in the morning and do what you do?” and “where do you see yourself in five years?”

4.   Fit the personality to the job

Skills can be acquired, personalities cannot. Personality-job fit theory revolves around the idea that every individual and organization has certain personality traits. The better the match between the job and the person, the higher chance for workplace satisfaction and productivity.

According to this theory, employers should also consider soft skills. For example, emotional intelligence, thorough processes, communication skills and interpersonal skills. Additionally, employers should also consider how the personality of the candidate aligns with the daily job tasks.

5.   Consider whether you need an employee or an independent contractor.

You don’t always have to hire a permanent employee for every role. This tip is courtesy of Derek Dawson, owner of Dawson Property Management. He’s been using this strategy to grow his business without hiring full-time employees.

Unlike an employee, an independent contractor is usually paid on a freelance basis. They have the ability to contract with a range of businesses and have a higher degree of control over the way they work.

Some benefits of hiring an independent contractor for an employee include:

• Enjoy greater efficiency when using an independent contractor. Most independent contractors don’t require any training since they are already experts in their fields. This saves time as well as the cost of training.
• You have more flexibility in staffing projects. Working with independent contractors allows employers greater leeway in firing and layoffs.
• You’ll probably save money. With an independent contractor, companies can get the same services for less money because there are no overhead costs.

6.   Use LinkedIn to connect talent with opportunity

Over the past decade, LinkedIn has become the “go-to” when it comes to job-hunting and head-hunting. The social media giant even has premium tools that employers could use to improve their hiring experience.

Now, let’s look at the tactics you could use to find the right employee.

• Use LinkedIn’s pilot program ‘ProFinder.’ The tool helps businesses find freelancers with specific skillsets.
• Create an ad on LinkedIn for the job. Here, you have two options: 1) create a ‘Sponsored Content’ that appears in the news feed, and 2) create a text ad that appears in groups of three in the right sidebar.
• Announce a job listing on LinkedIn. If you don’t want to pay for an ad, this can be a great option for you. It allows you to announce your job listing via your company page and through your employees’ profiles.
• Post a job listing in the ‘LinkedIn Jobs’ section. LinkedIn has a jobs section where you can post a job listing if you want potential employees to come to you.
• Use the old-fashioned way. There are three advantages when searching for potential employees with a premium LinkedIn account: the option to send InMails, the ability to see more individual profiles, and the ability to use advanced search filters.

Clearly, employing the right people is a critical aspect of growing any business. By implementing these 6 tips, you’ll help minimize your risk and maximize your opportunity when hiring a new employee.

We hope you found the promoted post to be as entertaining and informative as we did!