Hiring great employees is a never ending challenge for most all employers. Here’ a few ideas to help you stand out from the crowd:
1. Include a brief slide deck or video explaining the job opportunity on any job posting page. Make sure the link is mobile-friendly. If you do not know how to do this, ask one of the 20-somethings in your workplace and they can do it for you. Make sure you get a YouTube and SlideShare account.
2. Identify what skill and cultural characteristics matter most. Have your employees talk about it on a video. For example, are you hiring in the top 25% of skill sets? Is there a place where applicants can actually get themselves tested to see if they pass muster before you ever interview them? Also, what type of culture, attitude or personality are you looking for? Spell it out for people. You may be a crazy, fast-paced, frantic company. If so, say you are looking for people who thrive in such an environment. Conversely, you may be a laid-back, family business that’s really not interested in hiring Type A’s. Let them know that too.
3. This is a knowledge economy. Find out if applicants are learners. What have they done to educate themselves, given their career aspirations, over the last year? What books, magazines, courses have they paid for on their own? Also ask them what they’ve learned about the company at the beginning of the interview process and then follow up with the very same question at the end in light of the interviews they went through.
4. You are hiring people to solve problems. Most problems have two aspects to them: strategic (ideas) and tactical (actions). Put your biggest problems in front of candidates and ask them what strategic and tactical steps they would take to help you solve it. You should gain a lot of valuable information- even from those candidates that you failed to hire.
5. Do a committee interview of the three final candidates. Depending on your circumstances, include a mix of panelists with employees, managers and others on it. Keep the panel to three people. Then have that panel prepare three interview questions they will ask of all three candidates. This means that a total of 27 questions will be asked at a minimum.
When doing this committee interview, you are not just focused on the candidates’ answers, but how those candidates treat each other through the competitive process. It will tell you a lot about their personality and how they will treat fellow employees once they are hired.
Fun bonus idea – Ask job applicants to provide a joke with their resume. That’s right, a joke. It will tell you a lot about their personality. If they don’t supply a joke, well, they can’t follow instruction and you don’t hire them. When they do supply a joke, it will let you know if they are capable of political correctness in the workplace. Anyone who provides a racy joke should be reconsidered, unless that’s the type of culture you are nurturing. Lastly, it will help the interview process go much faster and you’ll get a few laughs along the way.
In the comments section below, don’t hesitate to add some of your great hiring ideas.
