For recruiters there is no greater measure of success than finding a candidate whose skills fit the open position and also aligns with their company culture.
On the flip side, that also means there is nothing more frustrating for a recruiter than when they get it wrong.
When companies make bad hiring choices, they’re making costly mistakes. Not only does it impact their bottom line, it also affects their office productivity and employee morale.
While there is no guaranteed method for completely avoiding bad hires, there are ways to significantly reduce your risks of choosing the wrong candidate while ensuring you’re attracting the best candidates for your positions.
To help you get started, we’ve put together a list of tips to help you recruit better candidates.
1. Increase Your Hiring Speed
Top talent will move quickly, because it is in high demand. Be ahead of the curve by investigating ways to speed up your hiring process while still demanding high-quality candidates reach a high standard.
"Others may view your slow hiring as a mirror of the speed in which you make business decisions, and drop out because they expect faster decision making," Sullivan wrote.
You can speed up hiring by prioritizing hires for revenue-generating or key positions, surveying past candidates for their perception of what worked and what didn't, and identifying other unnecessary delays that seem to be common in each vacancy-fulfillment effort.
2. Keep in Contact with Interested Candidates
Don't let potential employees submit their resumes and never hear from you again or you'll lose all momentum. Keep a detailed and accurate Talent Pool of high quality applicants and use employee networks and professional contacts to continue and nurture the relationship.
Enable interested candidates to subscribe to the company newsletter; consider writing a mini-newsletter just for them. Follow-up all website submissions with a greeting that thanks the individual for their interest in your company.
Send a periodic update about your job openings. Invite the potential employee to visit your organization when they are in the area. Your professional, ongoing contact with interested people ensures recruiting success.
3. Direct More Attention to Social Media
Take advantage of social platforms where job seekers already spend most of their time. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are great tools to leverage when sourcing for candidates. If your company already operates a Facebook page, don’t forget to post job openings there! Even if your fans don’t identify with the position, providing a link will encourage them to share the job with someone who they know who may be a better fit.
Obviously, it’s difficult to avoid ever making a bad hire, but the goal is to minimize the frequency by taking the right steps to prevent it. Pay attention to your job descriptions, provide easy apply tools, nurture candidate relationships and invest in social platforms. Each step will help improve your candidate selection and ultimately your chances of landing that next great hire.
Learn more about how you can improve your recruitment process this year and hire those top candidates you keep missing out on! Download the Checklist for Recruitment Success below.
