As recruiters, we’re no stranger to the fact that a company is only as good as its people.
We know it only takes one bad hire to throw off a department. Just one wrong candidate to mess up company morale. But when we get it right, business excels and employees prosper.
So how can you improve your hiring decisions? Try to look past your candidates’ skills or experience. Instead, look for prospects who will thrive in your environment. Recruit candidates who align with your culture.
Doing so will improve your odds at picking a candidate who will succeed and stay for the long run. You’ll help build stronger teams and produce more effective departments. In fact, studies show that companies who focus their efforts on recruiting candidates who align with their company culture routinely outperform their competitors.
So what’s the first step? Getting the right candidates through the door.
When a prospective candidate is interested in working for your company, where do they go to learn more? Your career site should be the first stop. And it should clearly showcase the company culture your organization embraces.
Use your career site to show prospects what values your employees hold; how they interact with clients; and the way they work together as colleagues. This information will help define your company culture and quickly filter out the candidates who may not align.
Video is an effective medium for communicating organizational culture. It’s engaging, delivers information quickly, and provides candidates with a genuine representation of your workforce.
Now that your candidates have a clear understanding of your company ethos, you’ll need to guarantee you’ve picked the right ones.
A smart way to improve your talent choices is to invite your best employees to participate in the hiring process. Especially when you’re recruiting for a niche or hard-to-fill position.
Start with managers. If you’re recruiting for the IT department, ask your lead developer to help review your prospective candidates. Since this individual has a deeper understanding of the job, he or she may see a flaw that you had missed. Or they may spot a golden applicant that you bypassed.
To ensure an easy flow of communication, invest in a back-end messaging system that’s built for recruiting.
As you’re going through day to day tasks, it’s easy to get distracted from your overall goal: Recruiting candidates who will move your business forward.
Even when you’re pressed to fill the next req, remember the big picture. Your job as a recruiter is to hire the right candidates for the job and for your company. By attracting and recruiting applicants who align with your company culture, you can have more confidence that the next hire will be a great hire.
