Perfecting the Hiring Process: Knowing the Role

Our work environments are rapidly changing and with that comes the need to put efficient hiring practices in place for the recruitment of the best possible candidates.

Many companies still rely on outdated behavioral-assessing questions to evaluate the eligibility of their applicants. Unfortunately, these practices may seem effective from the looks of it. However, oftentimes, recruiters can miss out on essential information on a prospective candidate by relying on the conventional approach.

Safe to say, traditional interview processes are somewhat flawed and unreliable. Moreover, traditional recruitment practices make the whole process longer and much more tedious than it needs to be.

Instead of asking conventional questions about a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, companies should find ways to immerse job candidates into unconventional scenarios in order to assess their skillfulness and critical-thinking capabilities.

Designing a hiring process that provides a clear assessment of a candidate's skills and their potential for the company does not have to be mind-numbingly strenuous and complicated.

This article will show you the simple steps you can undertake to build an effective hiring process.

What is a Hiring or Recruitment Process?

An effective hiring process is a step-by-step procedure of hiring a new employee by recognizing their skills and talent. It is a process designed to hire the best possible candidate for the company’s specific environment by analyzing their thought processes and what they bring to the table.

This analysis can be done by interviewing the candidate, either face-to-face or through any other medium of choice. Additionally, necessary background checks and assessments are done to bring every element into consideration.

While each company has its own unique set of requirements and recruitment processes, some practices are applicable across the board.

Importance of Having an Efficient Hiring Process

For any business, the end goal of any hiring process is to attract the right candidates that are qualified and encourage a large pool of talented people to apply. This makes it possible to build a diversified pool of talented candidates which, then, leads to finding the right candidate to fill the specified role in the company.

Having an efficient hiring process is important because it allows recruiting managers to land on a viable candidate faster and in a much more cost-effective manner.

 A great recruitment process finds the right fit for the right job role at the right time. The candidate hired at the end of a strong hiring process helps the company grow in the present and the future.

Perfect Your Hiring Process

Below is a step-by-step action plan to perfect your company’s hiring process.

1. Identify the Need to Hire 

It is impossible to find what an organization needs if they don’t know what they need to begin with. Which is why, for any hiring process to start, the company has to identify what job role it needs to fill.

A hiring process should start with analyzing the existing needs of a role for the organization followed by analyzing the job specifications for that role, such as the relevant skills and experience.

2. Formulate a Hiring Plan Around the Required Role

Once a company recognizes the job role they need to fill within their organization, it is now time for them to formulate a hiring plan around that particular role. This is where the process of recruitment begins.

 If it is a newly formed role, the company should be concise in what duties they want the job role to handle and their goals with that position.

Before you actively start devising a job description and looking for the right fit, every member of the hiring team should be on board with the hiring steps involved in making the final decision.

3. Crafting the Perfect Job Description for the Role

Once you have outlined what you want in an ideal candidate, it is time to write a job description.

Create a job description that is as comprehensive as possible to let your potential employees know what they must have in order to meet the demands of the role. The goal here is to get the right applicants to apply for the job.

Job Description Checklist

• Company name and brief background

• Job title

• Department

• Description of job responsibilities

• Eligibility criteria - Relevant skills and experience

• Location

• Salary

• Benefits

• Additional soft skills to go along with the main role

While it is encouraged to create a comprehensive job description, keep in mind that the job description should not include paragraph upon paragraphs of text. It should be concise and should get the point across in an easy-to-understand manner.

This can be done by being specific, using bullet points, and avoiding big chunks of technical jargon.

4. Advertising

While advertising for hiring, you want to identify and attract the right talent. For this purpose, a company should look for possible candidates both internally within the organization and externally on job boards and social media.

Let’s take a look at both options.

Hiring Internally

Hiring internally means you advertise for the job role inside the company to generate referrals and find an employee within your current workforce.

Using internal sources to hire is great for a company’s culture as it motivates existing employees to maximize their productivity efforts and perform well at work.

This way of recruiting is also significantly more cost-effective and requires less time and effort.

Hiring internally could include things like:

• Promotions. A job vacancy can be filled by promoting an existing employee to take a senior position within the organization. This serves as a great motivation for employees to perform better in order to achieve better positions.

• Transfers. The vacancy can be filled simply by moving an employee from one location to another. This is fairly easy and can be done without changing the job role or salary of the employee.

• Referrals. An organization can incentivize its employees for referring suitable candidates for the job role. Employees can help spread the word around to help fill the vacancy as fast and easily as possible.

Hiring Externally

Hiring externally provides companies a wide selection of candidates to make the best possible decision.

Hiring externally can be done by:

• Advertising. Placing advertisements is the best way for companies to build a brand identity and attract candidates. Ads help bridge the gap between the employer and potential employees.

• Social Networking Platforms. Social media is the most versatile tool available to humans. Through it, companies can find the most qualified recruits. Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are great resources for recruiters to utilize in their candidate hunt and spread the word.

• Company’s Career Site. Having a company website is crucial in this day and age. It serves as the perfect place to tell your company’s story and represent your core values. Moreover, a professionally built website would attract visitors to engage and possibly, apply for any vacancy that they may feel fit for.

• Job Portals. Thanks to our world becoming increasingly digital, job portals are one of the best options out there for recruitment purposes. Many job seekers use job portals to find career opportunities, making your job as a recruiter easy.

• Placement Agencies. If you want to save time and effort on your end, placement agencies are the way to go. These agencies help you fill in the vacancy by finding the top talent for the required job much faster and at a reduced cost.

• Job Fairs. Job fairs are a great resource to meet a large pool of talent and hire for multiple job roles in one place. This also allows a company to build brand awareness and connect with like-minded businesses and people.

5. Screening and Shortlisting

Screening and shortlisting are crucial aspects of the recruitment process. They need to be done efficiently and accurately to ensure the best hiring results. This step may seem a little overwhelming and challenge for some people. But dividing this complicated task into manageable chunks will make the whole process a breeze for you.

Here is how you can do that:

• Screen-based on the minimum qualifications.

• Sort resumes by analyzing their experience, expertise, credentials, and important skills required by the role.

• Shortlist candidates that fulfill both the minimum required credentials and qualifications.

6. The Interviewing Process

Once you have shortlisted the appropriate applicants, it is now time to move on to the interviewing process.

Here is how you can make the most out of your interview process by asking the right questions and testing the right skills.

Ask the Right Questions

The questions that a recruiter needs to pose to a candidate will largely depend on the job role. It is important to keep in mind that the questions be structured around the job requirements and the skills needed from a candidate.

Think of designing these questions in a way that provides the candidate with an opportunity to demonstrate their skills.

Here are a few other things you can test for in an applicant during interviewing:

Test for Preparation

This part requires asking simple questions, such as "What can you tell us about our company?" This would showcase the preparedness and dedication of the candidate.

Test for Critical Thinking

Testing for critical thinking could involve analyzing the tech-savviness of a candidate. For instance, you could ask a software engineer how they would create an app that accomplishes a certain task.

Additionally, you can ask the candidate to choose a piece of software they are the most comfortable with and showcase how they use it.

Test for Communication Skills and Teamwork

Having effective communication and teamwork skills is crucial no matter what the job role entails.

Here, you can ask your own questions or allow the candidate to choose a topic that inspires a discussion. Everything from their choice of topic to how they are effectively able to get their point across will represent their communication skills.

Analyze Technical Skills

Of course, you want a candidate that has the required technical skills for the role. To analyze this, prepare technical questions in the relevant field. Assess the candidate's professional background and ask questions relating to their previous job roles and/or projects. Present possible scenarios relating to the job role and inquire how the candidate would go about solving them.

The key here is to be precise with your questions and keep them relevant to the role at hand.

7. Making the Final Decision

The final stage of the process includes assessing each candidate against the total sum of qualities they bring to the table and finding the right fit.

For this step, a few key points are mentioned below.

A Thorough Background Check

Background checks involve reviewing candidates’ criminal history, verifying their employment history, and performing credit checks.

Perform Reference Checks

It is important to check a candidate’s professional references and verify their employment history from their former employer, such as their job performance, workplace conduct, etc. If everything checks out in this step, it is time to make the candidate an employment offer.

Presenting an Offer Letter

Once the necessary checks have been carried out, it is now time to devise an offer letter. The employment letter should include everything about the job and the conditions surrounding it. These could be things like:

• Starting date

• Salary

• Benefits

• Paid time off

• Company policies

8. Onboarding

The process of hiring does not just stop with the acceptance of the job by a candidate. Onboarding and welcoming your new worker is very important to make them feel comfortable in their new workplace and help them integrate.

Instead of a simple show-around of the office, make them feel welcomed by making special arrangements and getting colleagues to talk about non-work stuff.

Their workspace should be prepared and cleaned whilst also providing them with the necessary equipment to work with.

If possible, assign a mentor for your new employee to help them settle into their position better and provide meaningful work.

The Bottom Line

Planning and organizing your hiring process can go a long way in determining that you choose the strongest candidate for your company’s growth. Devising a concise and detailed recruitment process helps avoid any mishaps and confusion along the way. It not only lands you the best option, but does so while saving time, effort, and resources.