After last year’s struggles, you want to make the smartest decisions possible for your small business. If your business is rapidly expanding or you need to fill more roles in your office, you may need to refresh your recruitment methods and rethink your hiring strategy to ensure that you find the best possible people to add to your team.
As your small business grows, it can be hard to entrust your goals and operations to new employees. If you want to attract the best candidates and make the wisest decisions, try to avoid these four common hiring mistakes.
Writing Vague Job Descriptions
If you find that most of your applicants seem unfit for the posted position, it may be due to the content of your job description. If you want to match up with ideal candidates, you have to make your preferences and expectations clear.
To do this, ensure that you clearly list education and experience requirements with as much detail as possible. Do you prefer for applicants to have experience in a very particular area of your industry? Are there specific programs or skills that you need them to know? If you make all of this information available in your job description, you will weed out plenty of applicants who don’t fit those specifications.
Neglecting Online Resources
Next, don’t forget to take advantage of all of the online resources available to you! The desire to hire local employees drives many small businesses to rely on traditional job posting methods, like newspaper listings and in-store ads. In today’s environment, it’s wise to cast a wider net and make use of recruitment agencies Utah and online services like Indeed or Glassdoor.
Further, make sure to utilize your business’s own online platforms. Social media pages are great outlets for sharing job openings and answering applicants’ questions. You may also want to add a career section to your website to increase traffic to your page and inform potential applicants about your business.
Taking Interview Time for Granted
When you start interviewing candidates, the biggest mistake you can make is failing to make the best use of your time. While it’s important to be selective and find the best possible fit for your business, you should also treat your applicants well by asking productive and respectful questions and listening to their responses.
If you have provided a detailed job description for applicants to read before their interview, they likely already know what you are looking for and they know how they stack up. If you ask a lot of yes/no questions that relate to information from your job listing or from the applicant’s resume, try to ask open-ended questions that allow the candidate to explain why they feel that they are a good fit for the position.
You may be surprised by candidates’ creative solutions and unique strengths, which can be even more useful than years of experience or advanced knowledge of specific programs. You can train new employees and get them up to speed with new tech and practices, but you can’t change their attitudes.
Failing to Consult Current Employees
Finally, it’s essential that you consider whether or not a candidate is a good fit within your company’s culture. The best way to measure this is to test their compatibility with your existing team. If possible, ask some of your current employees to sit in on interviews and prepare questions for candidates. They may have more specific questions that will gauge how well these candidates will suit the team’s needs and get a better idea of how their personalities will work within the workplace dynamic. In addition to your assessment, your team’s feedback can help you narrow down your options and choose the candidate with the most potential.
Before you start the recruitment and hiring processes, consider these common mistakes and take these suggestions into account. If you communicate your business’s needs clearly, take advantage of all of your available resources, and revamp your interview methods, you’re sure to find the right people to help your small business succeed!