Make the hiring process as easy as can be with these tips, by Kirstie McDermott.
Hiring is a long, tricky and often stressful business. It can be tempting to think that it is all about candidates impressing you, too. In truth, there is a lot a company can do to make sure that a candidate will really want to work at their business. Below, we go through some tips to make for your smoothest ever recruitment process.
Write a great job advertisement
Set yourself up for success from the start with a tailored, well-written job description that will attract the right talent and which neatly and succinctly summarises the job you are hiring for. Your job ad should be really clear and concise, and should contain everything a great candidate needs to know in order to make them really want to apply.
Spend time on your shortlist
Once applications arrive, spend some time reviewing candidates and start compiling a shortlist of the people you think look great. You’ll want to pull out the best qualified or ones you think sound like they have relevant experience that you’d like to hear more about.
Depending on the type of job you’re hiring for and the number of applications you get for it, you might only decide to take 10-15% of them through to the interview stage. Having an exhaustive list of candidates to get through ensures one thing: you’ll quickly tire of the process. Think about basing your number on the resources (both time and people) you can ideally commit to the process. If it’s only one or two days, then that will ultimately decide your selection.
Decide on your interview style
There are a variety of interview styles you could choose. Behaviour-based interviews are very common and would include questions such as, “Could you give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. What did you do, and what was the outcome?”
Competency-based interviews are also popular and are very structured interviews which can help you to delve deeper and find out if candidates have the right skills and abilities for the job. You’ll be requiring your candidates to prepare a lot of examples to back up the questions you’re asking them. You might ask, “can you give me an example of how you maintain good working relationships with your colleagues?” or, “tell me about a time you improved sales performance”.
Pick a place
These days, interviews can happen anywhere. You may decide you’d like to meet with candidates face-to-face and if so, a quiet and private space is best. If you’re going to do your interviews via video, then you’ll have a few checks to make too.
Ensure your WiFi is up to scratch. Pre-interview, check the signal strength in the location in which you’ll do the interview – you can do this by Googling “Internet speed test.” If it’s weak, you can add a WiFi repeater to boost it, or keeping doors open can help, as a closed door will typically block the signal. Ensure you can be properly seen by adding good lighting and avoid sitting against a distracting background.
One really important thing to do is to frame yourself properly, so the candidate can see you. Ensure you’re sitting to the centre of the screen and that the camera is slightly above your eye level. This may mean you’ll need to raise your laptop or web camera up slightly for the call, but it’s a good idea to be looking straight ahead, as this will help it to feel more like an in-person meeting.
Keep it consistent
Whatever interview style or direction you decide to pursue, remember that it’s vital to keep it consistent across your candidates. Otherwise, you’ll find it hard to form a basis of comparison when it comes to making a decision. Avoid anything potentially discriminatory regarding the candidate’s ethnicity, orientation or religion, ensuring your conversation stays focused on what’s needed for the job.
Leave room for questions
Job interviews are a two-way process, so make sure you allow for some time at the end of the interview for the candidate to ask a few questions. Good applicants will want to know more about the role and your company to make sure the job is going to be right for them. They may enquire about training and development, career progression or company culture. It’s all a sign of a candidate who is looking for the right fit, so it’s worth taking the time to engage sincerely.
If you want to post your job to our Professional Beauty Job Board, get in touch today.
And if you’re more interested in exploring your career potential, browse all the open positions waiting for your application.
This article was produced in partnership with Jobbio.
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