You have been looking, what seems like forever, for the perfect candidate for your open position. Finally, you receive the call from your recruiting firm that says they have found the “one.” The one you have been looking for – excellent resume, all the skills you require, and they are interested in your company. The perfect hire, right? Maybe not! Making the right hire for you company and its culture is hard.
This scenario plays out more often than not, and unfortunately, just because you have potentially found the perfect candidate, does not mean that you will make the right hire for your company. We all know the process involved in hiring – identify the need, place the ad, do lots of interviews, and hire. Repeat as necessary.
The problem with most companies hiring process, it lacks determining whether the person hired will be the right fit for the company. In today’s job market, this is one of the most critical components of the hiring process. Here are the three key steps you must implement:
- Culture – you must understand and be aware of the culture within your organization. While your company values are a small part of your culture, other attributes that contribute more to your culture include work style, communication style, corporate structure, reporting matrix, work hour commitment, schedule flexibility, telecommuting, office layout, dress code, and overall atmosphere of the work environment. You should do an assessment of your company so that you understand the culture and can make a hire that will fit nicely into that existing culture.
- Style – you already have a very detailed job description of the skills and duties that will be required of this position, but what are you looking for beyond that job description? Now that you understand your company’s culture, you will be looking for someone that can fit into the existing culture, but what about their personality, their goals, and their visions? Make sure that you understand their personality and desires, the last thing you will want is to hire the perfect candidate on paper, only to realize they envisioned coming in and changing everything about your process and company to fit their goals.
- Fit – once you determine the candidate is a great fit on paper, culturally, and personally, it is time to finalize the deal. Make sure that during your interview sessions with the candidate there are in-depth interactions based on your interview questions. This will allow you to “get to know” the candidate before hiring. You might also consider viewing how they handle informal interactions with other staff members.
Finding the perfect candidate for your company can be challenging, however, if you follow the steps above, you may find that you make the right hire more often!
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