Recruiting and hiring exhausts plenty of resources, so it’s important for HR and Recruitment Teams to avoid bad hires and end up with the perfect quality candidate that will improve the company’s operations. But, of course, this is easier said than done.
Whether you’re posting online job ads or recruiting at job fairs, you could unknowingly be doing things that are hurting your chances of getting a good hire. So, aside from your company’s usual hiring process, here are some recruitment tips for employers, recruiters, recruitment companies and HR teams to win quality hires and avoid bad hires.
Encourage Employee Referrals
If you’re searching for quality hires, there may be a good chance of finding one if you’re looking inside your company. The employees you already have in your company have clearly met or exceeded your standards, so why not encourage them to tap into their networks for equally talented hires?
The process is simple: when you get a good hire, it’s important to keep them happy. When they feel that they’re working in a good environment, they’re more likely to endorse your company to their network when you hold employee referral programs.
This is why, if you haven’t held employee referral programs yet, it’s a good investment rewarding your employees for successful referrals. A study from CareerBuilder found that 82 percent of employers found that employee referrals generated the best return on investment for all other sources of hiring.
Consider In-House Candidates First
There are several reasons why you should consider internal hiring first before offering the job position to outside applicants.
First, it can boost morale. When an employer opts to promote an employee for a position rather than hire externally, it makes employees feel like their skills, talents, and efforts are noticed and appreciated.
Second, it gives everyone the idea that job growth is possible within the company. Many employers during initial interviews say that job growth is possible in their company, only to prove otherwise when they make it nearly impossible for employees to grow unless they leave the company.
Third, by hiring internally, you’re not hiring a stranger who may need training in certain parts of the business. You know that this person already works well with their team, so there is no need for an adjustment period. They understand how the company operates, so recruitment does not have to spend resources onboarding a new employee.
Take Advantage of HR Tools Available
With the rise of digital technology and the internet, your hiring team is missing out on a lot if you’re not taking advantage of all the HR and hiring tools available in the market. HR Tools to help you filter out hires, hold blind auditions, and other issues that could unknowingly affect your biases towards certain types of applicants.
Because of unconscious biases, there is a chance that you and your hiring team might have overlooked the best candidate because of a bias. For example, Candidate A came was a former employee of a popular corporation but has so-so experience, while Candidate B came from a less popular company but has slightly better work experience. Without HR tools, some recruiters may hold on to their unconscious biases and think that their experience is roughly the same but Candidate A has an edge because they worked for a bigger company. In reality however, the company had no bearing for the position applied, and Candidate B would have been a much better recruit.
Staying updated on the latest HR tools can prevent this kind of bias and mindset and look at applications objectively.
Conduct Background Checks
It’s easy to fabricate a resume or fluff up a person’s former job experience to seem like a glowing candidate. To prevent bad hires and unqualified candidates, get professional employee background check services to verify the information your candidates give.
Background checks can verify if an applicant has a criminal record or are misrepresenting themselves in their application. In the Philippines, background checks can include asking for their NBI Clearance, verifying their employment with the listed companies, and contacting universities to verify if they really did graduate from the school.
If you haven’t started conducting thorough background checks during the hiring process, now is a good time to start. A 2018 report from HR.com and NABS found that while around 86 percent of employers conducted background checks to protect customers and employees, only 52 percent did so to improve the quality of their hires.
So, either hire a professional to make sure there is thorough research done for every applicant, or use our background check guide to help you understand the process.
For more information and inquiries about employee background check, don’t hesitate to contact Aptitude today.
Improve Your Job Description
One reason you might not be attracting potential good hires is because of the wording you’re using when advertising a job position. If you’ve written your job description for the sake of attracting as many applicants as possible rather than giving a realistic and honest description of what the job entails, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be attracting the right candidates.
As much as possible, be open to what the job really entails. For example, if you know you aren’t paying the top-of-the-scale average for a position, don’t suggest that applicants will be well-paid compared to others in their field. When the applicant discovers that this isn’t true, then you’ll have just wasted their (and your) time when the applicant realizes there are other companies that pay more for the position.
Prioritize Quality Hires Over Quantity Hires
To save on time and resources, focus on finding quality applicants over trying to get as many applicants as possible. A top-performing candidate can provide better results than those that only meet the average minimum. Thus, it might be in your company’s best interest to find fewer applicants that work harmoniously rather than to have five members on a team that doesn’t click.
This benefits your company because there are fewer costs and resources going to hire fewer employees but for the same tasks. Fewer interviews, fewer employees to onboard, and fewer resources spent during the hiring process.
Keep quality in mind while your team, but keep it within a reasonable and realistic range. It could take much longer to find quality hires, but you’ll find those good employees can be worth the investment in the long-run.
Pay Attention to Both Onboarding and Offboarding
With the internet making everything accessible, one of the things to look out for when trying to build a good online reputation are former employees that leave negative reviews on websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, or Jobstreet. It’s these reviews that can put off potential applicants from applying to your company because they do not want to experience the same thing.
It may appear counter-intuitive, but a good offboarding can result in good onboarding. When an employee leaves a company, it’s not necessarily on bad terms, and it’s smart to use that.
Think of it this way: if a company treats its employees well enough that employee referrals become successful, what if you could get former employees to endorse a company to their own network? Those that left on good terms with the company are more likely to speak highly of their former employer and encourage their friends to apply.
These are just some tips to improve the way employers hire. Though not all tips may work for all industries or types of companies, it’s a good idea to experiment and see what could work to your advantage.
I’m In! What Do I Do Next?
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