Companies without people are simply
fancy names and expensive assets.
Your employees are an important part of business and influence profits. Therefore
looking at your companies hiring standards
will help you seek out rising stars.
“In the talent recruitment process, a company looks for a person with the ability,
personality, and skills set to best fit the
business’ needs and culture.” says Terri
Medina, HR generalist at Tampa Bay
WorkForce Alliance.
“Therefore, looking at your company’s
hiring standards are just as crucial in
attracting rising stars.”
Smart Business spoke with Medina about
how businesses can effectively recruit great
employees to their organization.
Why is talent recruitment a crucial part of
running a thriving company?
Businesses want to hire individuals who
will serve clients well and accomplish business objectives to ensure the continued
success of the company. Within the next
five to 10 years, there will be a notable
shortage of skilled talent in the workforce
as the first of the 75 million baby boomers
will begin to retire, creating a large void
that companies will need to fill with fresh
quality talent. Poor recruitment carries a
high cost. Bringing the wrong hire into
your company leads to a bad fit within the
organization, missed opportunities in the
recruitment and selection process, significant on boarding costs, and overall lost
productivity.
What success strategies can interviewers
implement?
Successful recruitment requires taking a
careful, holistic look at multiple applicants.
Don’t rush the interview process, no matter
how urgently you feel you need to fill the
position. In the long run, you end up with a
more cost-effective solution when you take
your time and hire the right individual than
when you quickly hire someone to fill a
head count. Interview various candidates
so there is some comparison, and base a
decision on the resume, a personal conversation and a reference check.
Resumes play an important part in the
hiring process but shouldn’t be the only
consideration. You can’t accurately assess
personality or talents by just looking at a
candidate on paper. Two key attributes:
enthusiasm and motivation, can only be
truly evaluated through personal interviews and reference calls. Teachable and
willing individuals that may not meet all
criteria for a position can often quickly
learn the competencies they need to excel
in a particular job.
Employers increasingly use behavioral
interviewing techniques to evaluate the
strength of a candidate. With this method,
you can pose a hypothetical scenario to an
interviewee. Candidates respond by
explaining how they would handle the situation. From this assessment, you can determine how prospective employees would
handle situations related to their position.
Behavioral interviewing also shows
whether the interviewee’s personality,
tempo, values and drivers are suitable for
the corporate environment.
Name some of the tools businesses can use
to recruit top quality employees.
Businesses have a variety of tools to help
them search for the perfect candidate.
Professional organizations offer a forum where recruiters can find qualified job
seekers. Workforce development centers,
such as Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance
(TBWA) also have databases of individuals
looking for work. These centers can help
leverage this information through training
and resources that help effectively screen
and interview prospective candidates. Job
search web sites such as
employflorida.com or Monster.com, also
offer powerful search tools for employers.
You can also leverage your company’s
benefit offerings as a method of hiring top
candidates. Companies can distinguish
themselves as employers of choice by fostering an environment where candidates
receive challenging assignments and
opportunities to grow. In addition to excellent working conditions, attractive compensation packages can include options
like flextime, telecommuting, on-site day
care, tuition reimbursement, employer
sponsored fitness programs, latest technology and job sharing.
What common mistakes do companies make
in the hiring process?
The interviewer needs to learn about the
who, what, where, and when in a candidate’s past, but really focus on the why and
how of the interviewee’s present and future.
By concentrating on the why and how, you
find out more about people and their behaviors, including their creativity, team playing
abilities, and development needs.
Also, interviewers should clearly understand the expectations, needs, and objectives of the position and the company. It’s
essential that you can articulate what is
important to interviewees. This ensures
both parties can confidently evaluate
whether they’re a strong match.
Companies should use personality
screening appropriately. Although you can’t
use them to qualify or eliminate candidates,
these tools can help determine whether
individuals match the corporate environment and the department work style.
TERRI MEDINA is an HR generalist at Tampa Bay WorkForce
Alliance. Reach her at [email protected] or (813)
740-4680.