How to Improve Your Hiring Process in 7 Steps

One of the most challenging tasks of being a business leader is hiring new talents to be part of your team. To ease the critical role of reviewing resumes and conducting interviews, here are a few steps that you can take.

1. Build A Strong Employer Brand

An employer brand is the company's identity and reputation as an employer. This is the general perception of your company as an employer. For you to achieve the goal of refining your employer's brand is to attract and retain high quality employees.

According to an office vibe report, 75% of professionals are passive candidates who are looking for new opportunities. Building a strong employer brand reduces turnover by 28%. With this data, you can infer that building a strong employer brand is less expensive and more profitable for you. Why? If you can attract these eligible passive candidates and they enjoy the work that they have then chances are, your company would spend less to hire new talents because you already have existing and more than capable employees. And you all know that it is expensive to hire new employees.

Glassdoor conducted a survey, and it found out that 69% of professionals are likely to apply for a job if you are actively responding to reviews, updating company profile, and sharing updates on company's culture and work environment.

You see, when you focus on building a strong employer brand, instead of you hunting and searching for the perfect fit professional rather they will be the one to look for your company and make an effort to be part of your team and stay with your team.

2. Move Quickly and Efficiently as Possible

Remember that the best candidates are off the market in 10 days. So, it is highly imperative that as an employer, you must act if you are interested in an applicant. Now, what if you can decide yet? Then make sure that you keep open with this applicant. Meaning, follow-up often, respond to his/her questions or concerns and update him/her on the status of the position to assure him/her that you are interested, but some things need to be polished.

3. Write Better Job Descriptions

Your job description is your way to communicate and reach out with potential candidates.

Most of the companies right make a list of duties, responsibilities and requirements that they need for an applicant to qualify. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, this method alienates qualified employees. Why? Because talented candidates will only respond, knowing that they can get something in exchange for the talents and skill that they bring to the company.

So, how should you write better job descriptions? Instead of just listing the requirements and qualifications, but also include how your company can supply to meet an applicant's needs. With this, you will be able to attract better fit candidates for your team.

4. Embrace Digital Trend and Social Media

Instead of ding a standard background of your potential candidate, try checking his/her social media accounts. You will gain more information and have a better idea of who your candidate is by checking his/her social media profiles. It is not always true that what you see on social media is real, therefore what your candidate's activities online are the factor of your hiring decision. However, it will not hurt you either to get a better understanding of who you are considering hiring.

5. Fit the Personality to the Job

In every company, there is always a unique culture. Consider a candidate who would also fit best in the kind of culture that your company has. Even if that candidate has the right skill set for the available job but if his/her personality will not blend well with that culture that your company has, then better think twice. Remember, skills can be acquired, but characters cannot.

Make sure that your candidate's personality traits are aligned with daily tasks. For example, an attribute such as compassion for clients would be more critical to a receptionist than a computer programmer.

6. Improve Your Interviews

82% of managers surveyed by Leadership IQ said that due to lack of interviewing skills, focused on other issues and pressed for time there were a lot of red flags that were not able to be noted down by the interviewer. This is because the interview process is too focused on the technical aspect of it and overlooked EQ, temperament, motivating and teachability, which are just as important to note.

Be open for your candidates to ask you questions and what it's like to work for you. It is always appreciated to give a realistic preview of the applicant's work environment.

7. Keep an Eye on your Reviews

If you have a lot of negative reviews from former employees, it may be time for you to check on the company's culture. This is hard to swallow, knowing that this would reflect on you as the employer. But if your goal is to attract qualified candidates and increase retention of your employees to boost the company that you started then maybe this will be good for you. Make an effort to make necessary corrections and improvements, culture wise, for the betterment of your company.