How to Improve the Likelihood of a Quality Hire

The hiring process is often an event that is laced with tension. It can result in a good decision, where the new employee turns out to be just what you needed, someone who performs well and knows his or her job. But it can also lead to negative results, where the new person doesn’t work out, leading to a mess that has to be cleaned up, and reflecting poorly on all involved in the process.

So, how can you avoid a big hiring mistake? More importantly, how can you improve your chances of making a good hire in the first place?

Human resource experts counsel that prevention is the key. You need to work on and refine the process itself, they say. It is more of a science than an art.

You need to use a method that is clear and that is applied in the same way all the time. You can bring these qualities to the process by being aware of the kinds of things that are important to the business as a whole. For example, is creativity a must have, or analytical thinking? The interviews need to have a predetermined structure and include different people from the company. Collaboration is important — sharing information among all of the people involved in the hiring process so that you can get to the best people more quickly. You also need to set up a standardized method of ranking the candidates.

Companies also need to pay attention to time. Often, companies are in a hurry to fill a position, and so they short circuit the interview process, merely asking a few catch-all questions and giving an applicant little information about the job. This is asking for trouble.

Interviewers also need to be very clear about the specific skills they need for a particular job. They need to determine how much experience they would like a candidate to have. They also need to be clear about the kinds of behaviors that are necessary to be successful in a job – assertiveness, working with others, analytical ability? Behavioral interview questions can help get at the motivations of the applicant, what drives his or her behavior – and how he or she has performed in certain situations in the past (often a good indicator of future behavior). 

To make your hiring process the most efficient and effective, you also need to collect data on your job posting efforts and analyze it. You should collect data on all of the jobs you are advertising, how many people have applied for those positions, and how long it is taking you to complete each step of the hiring process.

Finally, another way to ensure a quality hire is to work with a staffing service and request an individual for a position in a temp-to-hire arrangement. This allows you – and the candidate – to “try each other out” to see if the person is a good fit for the job and if the job is a good fit for the individual. Typical temp-to-hire arrangements last for about 90 working days, allowing you to get a good feel for the individual before deciding if you want to hire the person on to your own payroll.

If temp-to-hire appeals to you for your insurance company or department, contact a recruiter at Insurance Relief™. We can discuss how the arrangement works and we can then start marketing your opportunity to those in our large candidate database who are qualified for it. Contact us today.