Planning to Hire Someone? Do This First

It’s this time of year when companies are working on their plans for next year. They are finalizing budgets, setting goals and more in hopes of building on this year’s successes or improving performance that didn’t quite meet expectations.

Additionally, some businesses are sketching out plans to increase hiring in the coming year, while others must beef up staff to manage the busy holiday season.

If you’ve been charged with hiring employees, either or a short- or long-term basis, you might be feeling a little nervous, especially if you’ve never hired someone before. With all that you have going on the last thing you want to do is hire a bad employee that drains your time and energy.

So, how can you ensure that you hire the right people for the job now and going forward? Start here:

Define an ideal candidate 

Create a crystal clear, three-dimensional description of your perfect candidate for a given job. Talk to the rest of your team and other stakeholders who can help you build a profile of an ideal candidate for each position. Take your time and document the following:

• Clear expectations of the perfect employee in that role.
• The skills needed to start (must haves) and the skills that need to be developed.
• The behaviors you want to see in the individual.
• The characteristics you want the employee to have (e.g., team player, outgoing).

When you have a very clear understanding of what you want in an employee, it’s much easier to identify ideal candidates.

Recruit with that description in mind 

Ensure that you are emphasizing the importance of all of those things during your recruiting and interviewing process. Include them in the job ad and description, frame your questions to surface those qualities, and talk about what you want during the interview. When you provide a clear picture of the job and share your expectations, you increase your chances of finding the right candidate for the job.

Be prepared for future hiring

While creating a detailed profile certainly makes the interviewing and selection process easier, there’s another reason to complete (and update as needed) ideal candidate profiles for each of the positions that report to you: You are always ready to hire. Way too many leaders, especially new leaders, wait until an employee quits or they have an urgent need to beef up staff. So even if you aren’t ready to hire now, completing this exercise is still really smart.

When you know exactly what you want for each position, you can always be on the lookout for top talent, for example, at industry events or on LinkedIn. Plus, when you do find yourself short-staffed, you’ll already have a jump-start on the recruiting process.

What hiring tips can you offer other leaders who may be worried about choosing the wrong candidate?

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