The Ultimate Guide to Finding Great Employees

Inside every great company is a great set of people who help run various aspects of the company, from administration to technical support. Choosing the right employees for your company can ensure a positive and productive environment in which everyone loves their job. In this guide, we’re going to look at how you can find great employees for your company.

1. Brainstorm the Ideal Candidate

Before you can find the ideal candidate for your current job opening, you need to define them. While their skills, experience, and education are obviously important, those shouldn’t be the only traits you are defining. Here are some questions to ask yourself to come up with your ideal candidate persona.

  • What skills must the ideal candidate have? These should be skills that your candidate must have when they walk through the door as opposed to something you would have to train or educate them to do.
  •  What skills would you like the ideal candidate to have in addition to the required skills they must have? These should be skills that would be a perk, but you could train or educate them to do them after you hire them if needed.
  • Do you require the ideal candidate to have work experience using the skills required for their position?  If so, how much?
  • At what level would you prefer the ideal candidate’s work experience using the skills required for their position? Think about whether you be comfortable hiring someone who was an intern or whether you are looking for someone who has had years of experience using the skills required for their position.
  • In what industry or vertical would you prefer or require the ideal candidate to have work experience? Does your ideal candidate need to be in the same vertical or industry as your company or as your clients’?
  • Do you want your ideal candidate to be someone that can ultimately move up the ladder? Think about whether they should be satisfied in the position you hire them for or should they have an interest in moving to a position of more responsibility.
  • What educational background must the ideal candidate have? Keep in mind that someone with a specific degree is not automatically best suited for a job, and someone without one could have the experience on the job to make up for a college education. Also remember that certain recent certifications can demonstrate more relevance to your current job opening than a ten-year-old degree.
  • What personality should the ideal candidate have? Should they be a team player because their job would require them to work with a team? Should they have the qualities of a good leader because you would want them eventually to become the manager of their department? Should they be self-motivated because they will be working in a department of one? Think of the type of personality you would want in your current job opening, and what type of personality would be needed to grow with your company. Then, you will be more likely to find someone who fits with your company long-term.

Once you have answered these questions, you will be able to identify the ideal candidate for your current job opening based on the information they supply on their resume. These answers will also help you define a better set of interview questions when you do choose the top applications. But before you write up that job listing…

2. Look Within

Why hire from the outside when you might have the ideal candidate sitting in your offices already? One of the top reasons people leave their jobs is because they are not given the opportunity for advancement.

You should start by announcing your new job opening within your company. You can do it openly from the beginning to give everyone a chance to show interest, or let the people you think are most qualified know about it first. If you do promote someone from within, you can also take advantage of having the person you promote train the person who will fill the position they are leaving.

If you are not able to hire from within…

3. Write a Great Job Listing

Take the ideal candidate persona you defined in the first step and create a job description to match. Start by being as specific as possible. If you don’t get a lot of applications, then you might want to consider broadening your horizons. But if you start specific, you might get the ideal candidate you want right from the start.

Be sure to put your job listing on your website. This way, you can start by sharing it to your social circles without having to pay fees for job listing sites. Be sure to include the following in your job listing:

4. Offer Great Perks

On top of offering a competitive salary, perks can separate your company from your competitors who might be eyeballing the same ideal candidate as you are. Forbes listed some of the top perks of 2014 as game rooms, great food on campus, gym memberships, on-site yoga classes, time off, company retreats, childcare, pet sitting, and other freebies.

When considering new perks to offer for your employees, start by deciding what perks you can offer, and then survey your current employees to find out which ones they would find the most valuable.

5. Advertise to Your Ideal Candidates

If you want to skip the job listing sites and only show your job ad to your ideal candidates, try paid social advertising. LinkedIn Ads, for starters, allows you to define your ad audience with highly specific criteria such as location, company, industry, job title, job function, seniority, school, field of study, degree, skills, and LinkedIn group membership. As you can see, you can easily narrow down your ad audience to fit the characteristics you defined for your ideal candidate.

Facebook Ads also offers some similar targeting options, including education level, field of study, employers, industry, job title, office type, and interests.

To maximize your advertising budget, start by being as specific as possible. If you do not get responses, then you can broaden your search, but by being specific, you will spend less money for a more relevant audience.

6. Ask Unique Interview Questions

Using your ideal candidate persona, skip over the mundane interview questions and aim to ask specific ones. Give your ideal candidate examples of situations they might find themselves in and ask how they would handle them. Ask them how they would utilize their skillset to solve a particular problem. Gauge their interest in moving up the latter or staying put in the same position for a long time. Find out what their future goals are. Determine their personality type. With the right set of interview questions, you can learn more about your potential hires to make sure they will be the right fit for your company.

7. Give Your Employees a Chance to Interview

Remember that you are not the only person who is going to work with a new hire. Find out if other employees who will be working with your new hire are interested in being a part of the interview process. The ideal situation would be to get everyone on your new hire’s future team to participate in a second interview where they can determine whether the candidate is a good fit. This second interview can help ensure that your new hire will not only do their job, but also fit well with the company culture.

If you follow the above steps, you are going to find great employees to become part of your company! They will be the type of employees that you will want to keep for years and years to come.

Article Image
/Human Resources

7 Tips for Helping Employees That Are Burnt Out

Article Image
/Business Growth

Are Your Labor Costs Out of Control?

Article Image
/Human Resources

Fair Workweek: What You Need to Know

Article Image
/Human Resources

Applicant Tracking System (ATS): Everything You Need to Know

Article Image
/Small Business Blog

37 Employee Appreciation Ideas Your Staff Will Love

Article Image
/Human Resources

How to Write Up an Employee in 8 Easy Steps