5 Basics for Hiring the Right Talent

McKinsey senior partners Scott Keller and Mary Meaney, in their book Leading Organizations* address the ten most basic issues facing leaders and, attracting and retaining talent are the first among them. Hiring is not a piece of cake! It’s an art & skill acquired by experience to look for a good fit for your company. Hiring the right employees for a company is important no matter what kind of business you’re in.

• Better Employee Means Better Productivity
• There’s a talent war going on out there & the right talent is hard to find.
• Most companies still don’t get it right when it comes to hiring.
• The people you hire, make or break your brand.

There is absolutely nothing more crucial to business success than bringing the right people on board and keeping them engaged.

Hiring the right talent can be a daunting task. And thus we bring to you some talent search basics to be focused on while hiring people for your organization -

Your Gut plus Some Scientific Assessment

When it comes to hiring top talents, the target is to bring the best candidate on board. Many a time, hiring managers tend to follow their gut while picking a potential hire, while relying on your instincts is not a problem, banking on them solely and completely might not always be the best practice. Therefore, it’s important that we back it up with a scientific assessment tool, such as a psychometric test, backed by scientific research, statistical validation & following top psychometric standards. These tools have high predictive validity that can analyze how personality can affect performance and anticipate certain outcomes like, “avoiding counterproductive behavior, reducing turnover, absenteeism, etc. Interviewers can also match their findings with the assessment reports to reduce the chances of any candidate faking a particular behavior.

Refer to the references

Instincts are useful, but they can't tell you about an employee's past performance record. That’s where reference checks come to the rescue. Regulating reference checks can be one of the most basic yet major steps in the talent search process. Since past performance is often the best measurement tool for future performance, this will detect whether a candidate is suited for a particular role and responsibilities. By conducting reference checks you can also save the cost and time invested in the probation period or in training. How do you ensure that the candidates you hire aren’t just making stuff up in the interview? – through background checks, for sure.

Add an outsider's perspective.

Getting a third party point of views such as a seasoned advisor or an employee from another function can help add valuable outlook. Especially when you’re hiring for a role or a function that may not be your area of specialization, this can prove to be very helpful. For instance, when hiring for an IT role, you could always get help from your IT wizards at work in evaluating applications or even on what kind of questions should the applicants be asked, etc

Bonus Tip – Focus on Candidate Experience

Candidate Experience is important these days. Whether it’s a telephone screening interview or face to face interview, a company’s first impression marks the basis of their standing as an employer. It’s important that you make the candidate feel you’re as excited about getting to know them as they are to join your company.

Date before getting married, it’s true here too!

This phrase proves useful in the world of talent search too. In order to better analyze the performance of a recent hire, companies can explore hiring them for a trial period, say for 30 days or so. During this time the candidates can start working with the team before converting to full-time. This will help evaluate how good a fit an employee is, for a given role and gain a good sense of what a long term performance could look like. This might not always be the best thing to do for every form of business. For instance, a smaller company and team might not be able to handle the burden and impact of contractors coming in and out. Your business, you decide.

Also Read - 5 Tips To Attract Millennial Talent

Streamline Expectations

Get the KPIs clear right from the start. In this ever-changing and ever-demanding corporate world, most organizations cannot afford mistakes hampering their competence and standing. Sit down with your candidates and help them understand their role and how do they contribute to the bottom line. Keep employees aligned with the vision of your organizations from the very beginning. This will give them clarity on what is expected of them and also boost employee engagement.

Conclusion -

Bringing the right talent onboard contributes to an organization’s productivity and growth. Without the right talent, an organization can’t transform, and therefore it can’t grow. A good hire will boost your productivity, on the flipside a bad hire will hurt your business. Hire wisely!

*1 Scott Keller and Mary Meaney, Leading Organizations: Ten Timeless Truths, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, April 2017, bloomsbury.com.

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