Key Messages
Learn How To Hire Great Staff And Build A Thriving Business
When it comes to hiring staff members, many business owners and managers make the same mistkaes, resulting in wasted resources and time.
You don’t want that to happen with your own company, so you have to know how hire the best employees who will push your team forward.
With Hire With Your Head, you’ll learn several ways to do just that.
For example, you’ll get tips on conducting better job interviews that can help you avoid personal biases and enlist great talent.
You’ll also get advice on crafting job descriptions that will attract the right applicants, as well as how to use your company website to determine if applicants really do quality work before they’re hired.
By following this advice from Hire With Your Head, you’ll be able to find and hire the best candidates more efficiently and effectively –– making your business much more successful in the long run.
The Key To Attracting The Best Candidates Is To Focus On Performance Requirements And Not First Impressions
One of the key elements to successful recruitment is to be aware of common misconceptions about hiring that might lead you astray.
During the recruitment process, decision makers often put too much emphasis on the initial interaction between the candidate and interviewer, rather than assessing the candidate’s abilities and motivation for the role.
It’s typical for recruiters to perceive a great or poor impression from a candidate right away.
If we immediately like someone, our judgment might be clouded by positive bias and we may end up asking them easier questions throughout the interview.
On the other hand, if we start off disliking someone, we might subconsciously pick out flaws in order to confirm our negative first impressions – which results in us being more critical during their assessment.
The other issue here is putting too much focus on skills over performance requirements for a particular job.
In doing so, recruiters can lose sight of what an applicant has to offer.
It pays to be objective when making these decisions and always keep your eyes on what they need to do in order to succeed in the role.
A good rule of thumb is never making any hiring decisionsa minute after interviewing someone – wait at least 30 minutes before making any assessments.
This allows you time to reflect and decide impartially.
To ensure further objectivity, consider creating performance profiles for each job where you outline all required competencies needed as part of this role – from interpersonal competencies such as communication abilities and problem-solving skills through quantifiable measures such as qualifications or experience within a specific field.
Ditch The Job Descriptions: Recruit Employees With Performance Profiles For Best Results
Traditional job descriptions are not the most effective way to find the best candidates for a job.
Instead of relying on a long list of desired skills, try using performance profiles instead.
Performance profiles will outline the goals of the position and make it easier to filter out applicants that don’t meet your expectations.
Rather than saying you’re looking for someone with market research experience, make an objective statement such as “prepare a comprehensive competitive analysis report in the first month”.
This method turns the job’s requirements into measurable objectives that are more meaningful than just skills and qualifications.
When drafting a performance profile, set a benchmark for the ideal candidate.
Think about what distinguishes your best performers: in one case, it was an eye for detail that allowed someone to excel in jewelry polishing.
To assess this quality, give candidates pieces of jewelry during interviews and see if they can spot any flaws or imperfections.
Ambitious people look for jobs based on what they’ll learn and do rather than their existing skill set so be sure to craft a performance profile that appeals to them and outlines exactly what will be expected from an applicant if hired.
Traditional job descriptions are no longer enough if you want to attract top talent!
Ways To Improve Your Recruitment Process: Leverage Creative Techniques And Treat Your Candidates Like Customers
If you want to stand out from the crowd in your recruitment process, you need to be creative.
Don’t just put out average job descriptions and expect the right person to appear; they won’t!
Instead, use a variety of interesting recruiting techniques.
Online advertising is a great option.
Use a good career site and craft engaging ads that will get noticed.
Your own careers page should also play an important role – make sure it’s easily navigable, attractive and bug-free.
It’s also key that your application form is user-friendly; if people can auto-fill their information with LinkedIn, for instance, they’re 75% more likely to complete the application.
On your end, don’t take too long in following up with potential candidates – give them a call within 24 hours so their interest doesn’t fade over time.
Treat them as potential customers rather than future employees and try to have an aggressive yet effective recruitment program that will help you attract the best talent out there.
Make sure you stand out from everyone else!
Melt The Ice: Use Performance-Based Interviews To Uncover Candidates’ Most Accomplished Achievements.
Interviews should be geared towards finding out the facts, not deciding whether a person will fit in with the company or not.
In fact, it’s better to give performance-based interviews rather than popularity contests.
In order for an interview to really test if someone can do the job well, there are two key questions that you need to ask: the most significant accomplishment question (MSA) and the how-would-you question.
The MSA question requires you to ask a candidate about the most important projects or tasks they have accomplished in their career.
For entry-level jobs, you could try asking what project or task made them feel proud.
An answer to this question can tell you almost everything you need to know about a potential hire so you can make an informed decision.
The how-would-you question involves describing a problem and then asking how they would solve it.
This type of questioning allows you to learn more about how they think, their improvisation skills and how well they can tackle job-related problems.
Don’t forget to clarify any details too!
At its core’s, an interview should be a fact-finding mission – so don’t get sidetracked by worrying about whether or not a person fits in with your organization’s culture!
Get those all important facts and good luck with your interviews!
A Guide To Effective And Fair Interview Practices
The most important thing you can do when hiring new employees is to make sure you are basing your decisions on evidence rather than first impressions.
Hire With Your Head stresses the importance of using evidence-based assessments to ensure you are making sound decisions and evaluating candidates based on the job’s actual demands, not just on a gut feeling.
Having more than one interviewer for each prospective employee is also essential, as it increases objectivity and allows for more focused interviews.
Having a team of people deliberate on who should be hired ensures everyone gets an equal say in the decision-making process and lessens chances of overlooking outstanding prospects because of personal biases or prejudices.
It also allows you to hold debriefing sessions after each interview so all team members can compare notes and share insights.
Using panel interviews is great too – with multiple people present, there will be less small talk and less chance of getting sidetracked during the interview process.
Furthermore, it’s easier to assess responses when several pairs of eyes are judging them at once.
Just make sure to give the candidate a heads up before proceeding with these types of interviews, as they can be intimidating.
If you go with these tips from Hire With Your Head, you’ll find that your recruitment process will become much more accurate – enabling you to level the playing field for all candidates by evaluating only their skills and qualification levels rather than allowing any first impression prejudices to get in the way.
That way, you’ll never miss out on any truly exceptional people!
Don’t Skip The Reference Check And Background Check During Your Hiring Process – Take Careful Steps To Ensure You Get The Right Employee
If you’re serious about hiring the right candidate, it’s essential that you don’t just judge them on their interview performance.
You must also take great care to thoroughly check their references and backgrounds.
When checking a candidate’s references, be sure to ask detailed questions about their performance.
Don’t simply accept positive references at face value; really dig in for specifics of how this person has performed in the past.
Additionally, it’s important to guard against any personal biases when conducting a reference check and be sure to ask all referees tough questions about the candidate in order to gain an accurate picture of their capabilities.
Failure to do so can have serious consequences if you end up having to fire someone later down the line who you shouldn’t have hired in the first place.
Finally, you should also perform a background check on your candidates, looking into things such as employment history, driving record and criminal record.
This can be done by yourself or outsourced by hiring a specialist firm that specializes in this kind of service.
All these precautions are worth it – after all, it’s better off doing a thorough job before you hire somebody than suffer regretful consequences afterwards!
It’S All About Selling: Understanding The Recruitment Process From Both Perspectives
When it comes to great recruiting, it is all about understanding and mastering the process of buying and selling.
Hire With Your Head is an excellent book that outlines important elements of this process that one should take into consideration.
It starts with the announcement of the vacancy, where the candidate is essentially “selling” their skills and abilities by proving they fit your profile.
As an employer, you in turn have to “buy” them too – which means learning as much as possible about your candidates before making any decisions.
Once you’ve found the right person for the job, positions switch and you become the seller; trying to make a convincing argument as to why your company is the best place for them to work over any other opportunities.
Money should never be viewed as the only incentive for a strong candidate – things such as mentorship schemes or development opportunities can play a huge role in attracting new talent.
The author ultimately stresses that people rarely take jobs for solely monetary reasons – instead, they aim to fulfill their personal ambitions or goals.
Hence, when recruiting you should always ask yourself “Why would a high-performing person want this job?”
Wrap Up
The final takeaway from the book “Hire With Your Head” is clear: recruitment is one of the most important elements of your company.
It’s essential to use objective criteria, give thorough interviews and background checks, and negotiate well once you’ve identified the right person.
Make sure to offer them something more than a good salary in order to get top talent on your team.
And, lastly, make sure to use active verbs in your performance profile in order to effectively describe the work that needs to be done.
Doing so will help ensure you recruit the best people for your team – a move that could pay off greatly in the long run!
