Investing in a member of staff should be an incredible opportunity to add to your company’s assets and bridge any yawning skills gaps.
Very often when we talk with hiring managers we find that they are not really too sure what they are looking for. People are the biggest asset in any organisation and it is the same for anyone hiring. The quality of the candidate you recruit will very much determine the quality of your business. Also by recruiting the right “fit” for your company will also determine how long that employee stays with you. Hiring is an expensive business and having to repeat it in less than a year is bad for business. Sounds obvious I know, however we often see that hiring managers are looking for the wrong things when making a hire. Very often they concentrate only on proven skillset and forget about the things that will make a difference.
Things For Employers To Consider When Hiring
What are the values of this company and of me? Whatever your values are should be the same values of any perspective employee. This way they already think the way you do and will go further and stay for longer. Loyalty within a company can be difficult to find. However matching values will go a long way to employee satisfaction and loyalty.
What personality are you looking for? Maybe the person ticking all the skillset boxes will not get on with other team members for whatever reason. One of the biggest reasons that people leave their current job is because of difference between them and their boss and not the job itself at all.
Have we got the right people in place to guide this person? Even the very best employees needs support and another big reason for losing staff is a lack of support; be that training or a person to bounce ideas off. If you do not have this in place then maybe you should ensure that anyone coming into the company is a genuinely able to motivate and support themselves. Lots of people say they are, however our experience is that the majority require support.
What is the required skillset? We mean what is the “real” skillset required. We see all kinds of things written on job specs like good communication skills etc. Firstly, everyone thinks they have good communication skills. So that doesn’t really help. Perhaps a more honest type of required skill would be. Flexibility with working hours and a good backbone to deal with challenging clients required. If someone has this they have a huge benefit to offer and other skills like specific computer systems can be taught as you go along.
I could go on with examples however as long as you are thinking about the real needs for the job and your company and worry less about those that can be taught you will hire far better employees
We hope you find this post useful and if you want to see more like this, or posts on any area of job-search, get in touch!