Australia has now entered a hiring boom. Many people have changed their career since coming out of lockdown, which has both opened up a lot of positions for work and filled the market with skilled employees. But do you know how to hire the best candidate? Are you looking for skills alone, or do they have to fit the vibe, or culture, of your workplace too?
A single employee can change a business, for the better or worse. An upbeat employee who learns and grows with the business is a positive force. However, if you hire someone who soon acts entitled or complains a lot, it could ruin the office's morale.
Hiring the right people is crucial for any business to grow at scale and is just one facet of levelling up your business in 2022 and beyond. In this article, we’ll look at 7 tips to hiring the right employee for you and your business.
1. Look internally
The first place you should look for the right employee is internally. You may have someone sitting right there who knows the job, the company, and already embodies the values.
You have a chance to expand a current employee’s skill set, help them find more value in their work, or build a career.
Yes, you might have to hire for the position just left vacant, but you have someone to do the handover and onboarding already.
This not only allows you to save money on recruitment for more senior positions but also inspires further long-term loyalty from your whole team.
2. Have a clear job definition for all your jobs
If you don’t have clear intentions for the role, how can someone know if they’re the right candidate? The more specific you are in the job description, the better the standard of job application you will receive. Also, it will be easier to discard applications that don't match your criteria.
Clear job definitions also help when you hire for the position again, if your business expands in the future, and helping with work documentation and allocation of responsibilities.
Clear job definitions also help you understand the roles of your company. Who does what, and what gaps are there in your staffing roles? Is someone doing the work of two people? This could trigger a whole new hiring process.
3. Take them out of a normal interview setting
The normal interview setting is usually the office. The candidate is dressed up nicely, there is a quiet office with a table between you, a jug of water, freshly printed resumes.
Depending on the role or which round of interviews it is, you could try mixing it up.
Take the candidate out to a busy cafe to see how they focus on you and not what is happening around you. Relax them with coffee and cake to see a more personable side of them.
Depending on your work environment, it might be even worth it to do a walking job interview and have some contextual questions ready for different parts of the workplace.
Pay attention - does the candidate ask good questions about the workplace? Do they take an interest in the environment around them? How do they treat the people they meet?
4. Give them a problem to solve
This is an excellent way to test how candidates think, how they work on problems relevant to the business. It doesn't have to be a ‘live test’, but you can quickly learn if someone is cut out for the role.
Be creative and be challenging. You don’t want the test to be too easy that they pass it and don’t show you what they can do, and you don’t want it so tricky that they cannot solve it.
You can have the problem be a part of the job application process and discussion of the problem as part of the interview process. It provides an excellent opportunity for feedback. Another quality of the right employee is how they take and process feedback.
5. Introduce them to your team
Discovering how candidates interact with key members of your team can be very telling. Do they show respect, or speak down to your team members? Do they struggle to talk with people?
You can also have your team ask questions of the candidate. This works in a few positive ways:- Your team feels involved in the process of building the business
- Your team may have questions that you didn't think of
- If they are working with the new candidate, it’s fair they get to ask questions
Make sure you vet the questions before they’re asked.
6. Ask them personal questions
This may seem counter-intuitive, but if you can bring forth a story from a candidate, you’ll see a different side to them. Ask them what they’re passionate about, what drives them, what they have achieved in their personal lives. Watch for that spark in their eyes when they talk about something they love.
If a candidate has been working on standard answers to standard questions, something personal can give you some real insight.
7. Actually check their references
Take the time to check references. While it may be highly unlikely to get anything negative, you still have a chance to ask questions to these people to find out more about the pending candidate.
You may find gaps in stories or job history that could be a red flag.
Need help finding or vetting your employees? Why not ask our coaches?
The recruitment process can be scary - so much riding on the one interview, hoping to get a good employee who’ll be with you for a long time and fits your business. It is a key factor in how to start your own business.
The Entourage can help you grow your business, including making the right hire, through our Accelerate program, for businesses wanting to grow from 6 to 7 figures a year. Or step it up a level with our Elevate program to help you grow from 7 to 8 figures a year, and beyond.
