The two main focuses for any scaling business are sales and resources. Without sales, businesses struggle to increase their revenue and continue to run effectively, and without the right resources to manage workloads, businesses can quickly get snowed under as demand increases.

In a competitive jobs market, companies need to do whatever they can to both secure and retain the best candidates. Here are our 4 top tips that can help human resource teams and business owners hire more effectively.

1. Set candidates up for success

Businesses who want to secure a candidate want to be at a stage where they can confidently send a job invitation to the person best suited for the job. Yet some hiring processes rely on a lack of communication or trick interview questions to try and catch applicants out. Instead of creating a process in which it is difficult to succeed, create a process in which applicants are set up for success.

Offer answers to basic information like location, and even the type of questions candidates can expect in their interview. By being transparent, recruiters can make a good first impression, which can make all the difference between a company people want to work for, and one they do not.

2. Interviews work both ways

As the interviewer and recruiter, it is very easy to assume a position of authority as you are the one offering the job, and you’re also the one conducting the interview. Most companies follow a structure where the interviewer asks questions, the candidate answers, and right at the end, the candidate can ask a few questions of their own.

This can lead to a poor experience for candidates, they may feel like they haven’t had a chance to ask the right questions in the small time window they had, or that the employer didn’t care for their questions. Interviews are supposed to benefit both parties, so neither party should have a position of authority. The company will benefit from securing a talented individual, and the applicant will benefit from having a job at a fast-paced business, so the interview should feel more like a discussion where both parties can learn about each other before making a decision on the next steps.

This process will ensure both the candidate and employer make a well-informed decision in the later stages. So, instead of setting the majority of the time for interview questions and a couple of minutes at the end for candidate questions, try to make it a bit more equal.

3.  Focus on the majority 

Some companies dive straight into assessing how they can improve the dynamic between interviewer and candidate, however, improvements to the hiring process start much earlier than that. Before looking at the smaller details, analyse the overall hiring system.

The most common approach towards hiring is through a funnel-based structure, where candidates apply, they work their way through the different stages of the recruitment funnel, and the company either offers them the job at the end, or rejects them. The problem with this approach is that recruitment teams reject and forget about candidates that don’t meet the right requirements, which means the majority of the talent pool gets ignored in favour of the 1 percent (the person who receives the job). 

Instead, recruitment teams should look at hiring as a pipeline, where rejected candidates are nurtured and developed in a talent community. This allows recruiters to keep track of suitable candidates, in case there’s a better-suited job available down the line, it also sets a positive impression of a company that cares about its applicants. Make sure you’re thinking of the majority instead of the successful minority in the recruitment funnel. crooton can help support the management of this funnel.

4. Company culture

Company culture is very important, it defines the nature of the business as a workplace. It’s the employees that build and develop this culture; each person needs to have the attitude and mindset of someone who could thrive in your company’s environment and get along well with other staff members.

So why do recruiters ignore culture when they’re hiring? Ignoring culture means you could potentially hire the wrong people into your business, people who may be able to do the job, but aren’t compatible with the way your company operates and the way colleagues work and behave. This can negatively impact your hiring objectives; the employee could feel disengaged with the business as a result, and end up leaving in the not so distant future.

Be sure to include a culture section in your interview process. Culture is defined by the values your business creates and operates by, so be sure to ask questions that relate to these values, and ensure that candidates can not only meet your company values, but enhance them.

To find out about how our flat fee recruitment solutions can benefit your company, contact one of our friendly recruitment consultants today.