Making Sure You Are Hiring The Best

How to make sure the people you find are the best ones available out there? Sure, you can ask you recruiters to give you 2-3 more resumes just to have somethig to compare on (like the way you have to get at least 3 quotations to buy something), there isn't much things else you would do to make your hiring effectively.

That is, getting the candidates you want.

You can help your recruiting staff in a number of ways. By taking a few minutes to do these things, you will find the recruiting process faster and more satisfying, because you will be getting candidates who meet ALL of your requirements.

1) Learn about the recruiting marketplace. Whenever managers are asked what is key to their success, they say their people. But if you were asked, would you know what the demand is like for the kinds of people you are seeking? Do you understand why salary demands are what they are? Do you have a grasp on how many people of a particular type might be available in your area? These are questions to discuss with your recruiter and to get information on in order to appreciate the issues both you and your recruiter face. While it may seem easy to find people given this slow economy, the reality is that there are still shortages of many kinds of people and that this slow time does not necessarily mean easy recruiting.

2) Get to know your recruiter. If your recruiter is new or has not worked with you before, it will be impossible for her to know what you are really looking for. Even an experienced recruiter who knows your specialty thoroughly will have to get to understand those subtle traits that you find compelling. Let the recruiter spend a day shadowing you and discuss how you mange. Let them attend a staff meeting or a briefing. The better the recruiter and you know each other, the more likely you are to see great candidates.

3) Get to know your best performers. Spend at least a day or two thinking about your best performers. Who are the people in your department you would like to clone, if you could? Try to put why you think they are so good into words. There are a few questions that you can use: What does this person do on a regular basis that pleases you? What positive behaviors do you see regularly that you believe makes them successful? Are there stories you can tell about a time an employee did something you found exceptional or notable? Take some time to talk to the recruiters about past or current employees who you view as exceptional.

4) Working with your recruiters, develop an assessment process. One of the best ways to make sure that you and your recruiters are in synch on what kinds of people to look for is to put together a process for assessing candidates. You can work together with the recruiter to develop a series of questions that will help you both decide on the traits, skills, and qualities you need. These can become interviews questions and can also be used to measure how well the recruiting process is working.

5) Ask you recruiter about how you could use a formal assessment tool based on the competencies and cultural fit you need. There are many tools that can be used to help you and your recruiter determine how well a candidate meets your specific job requirements. The best of these are developed for your specific needs and are reliable, legal, and add a level of consistency that is missing from interviews and other more informal approaches.

By taking a few minutes from your busy day and working with your recruiter as a partner, you can improve the speed in which you fill positions and increase your satisfaction with the candidates you see and with your recruiting partner.

Adapted from Electronic Recruiting Exchange.