Hire Smarter: How to Find the Right Fit for Your Team

Hiring for Success

Hiring staff can be a hit-or-miss proposition. It’s common to feel proud of a new employee when they come on board, but the novelty can wear off quickly when you realize they aren’t right for your organization. Did you make the wrong decision? Well, there’s no guarantee when it comes to hiring new employees, but there are ways you can improve the odds that they’ll be the right fit for the team.

Based on our hard-fought success and current best practices, here are a few things that can help you improve your chances of finding the best employees for your company

Be Clear About Who You Are

Identify your business persona and principles so that you can communicate them clearly to employment candidates. Don’t be shy about telling them; it’s more than just a few buzzwords in a job posting. Do you celebrate team players or are you a loose-knit cadre of loners? Make it clear from the beginning what type of people you want to work with. This ensures that you attract candidates to agree with your vision and repels those who do not.

Go Beyond the Interview

The skills required to be good in an interview are not the same skills required to be good at the job. Please read that sentence again!

Many leaders lose out on great candidates because they are focused on the wrong metrics. You need to hire people who know how to execute their role. Don’t be distracted by superficial “qualities” like degrees, certifications and accolades. Identify the character qualities that are important to your organization and screen candidates for those traits.

The Practical Exam

If a candidate wants the job and you ask them if they are up to it, they’re going to say, “Yes!” They can easily extrapolate from the conversation to answer the questions you pose to test their knowledge, but this is the perfect time to test how well they might perform in the role.

A test? Yes – they will not be able to fake it when you set up a real-life demonstration of their selling skills. Here’s an example:

You: Things look good so far, Derek, but this sales position requires making cold calls all day. Are you comfortable with that?

Derek: Of course – I’m the King of Kold Kalls!

You: That’s great! Here’s a list of 10 people and there’s the phone.

This can go two ways –

1.      Derek folds like a cheap suit, starts sweating – and mumbles that he has to go.

2.      Derek grins and grabs the sheet from you – and starts dialing.

You know what to do next!

Recap

The candidate who jumps right in – even if his 10 calls are a flop – is the one who is more likely to be a team player and a successful employee. Hiring for success requires that you know the core values of your company, and that you give candidates the chance to demonstrate how they’ll perform on the job.

You’re going to get a very different result. Likely, the candidate that jumps right in, even without success, will be a better team player and employee. If you’d like us to help you hire better employees, reach out to Growth Simplified at hello@gsimplified.com