How to Ensure Your Company Makes the Best Hire

In a guest post written exclusively for In-house Recruitment, Lee Biggins, CEO and Founder of the UK’s leading independent job board, CV-Library, reflects on the value of the right hire and shares 4 top tips for employers to ensure the right talent comes through the door.

The importance of an efficient recruitment process cannot be underestimated. For some businesses, it can be the difference between a successful year and a poor one.

The issue is particularly true right now, as the job market isn’t exactly favourable for employers. Our latest quarterly job market report reveals that there are less candidates looking for jobs, with average applications in the UK falling by 4.8% in the first quarter of 2019, despite vacancies increasing by 4.2%.

So how can you make the most of this situation and ensure your company makes the best hire possible? Here are a few tips.

Write a great job advert

It all begins with a great job advert. If you don’t put any effort into your advert, candidates won’t want to bother applying, let alone top-quality ones!

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot right from the get-go. Make sure you put as much effort and passion into your job advert in order to really sell your business and the role. Include an overview of your company, what you’re looking for in the ideal candidate and what the key roles and responsibilities are.

Make your company appealing

Ask yourself; if I were an employee, would I want to work at this company? How does your business come across on social media?

If you want to attract more candidates, modernising your company culture is a good start. Why not introduce a dress down Friday, or encourage staff to make full use of their lunch break? What’s more, be sure to shout about the key perks of working for you on your careers page.

Perfect your interview process

Now that you’ve got the top-quality candidates in for interviews, it’s time to work out who the best hire will be.

This takes a lot of practice; not everyone is a natural interviewer. Technique for leading an interview is just as important as technique for an interviewee – it’s all about confidence.

Be sure to prepare adequately beforehand by writing down a list of questions you’d like to ask. Make notes throughout to aid your ability to ask follow-up questions; you want to be as thorough as possible.

By asking the right questions in an interview, you’ll be able to identify the strong candidates from the not-so-strong ones. By mixing experience-based and behavioural and situational scenario questions, this will give you the best impression of which candidates are likely to succeed in the role and those who will not.

If a candidate has impressed you, but doesn’t have the desired experience, don’t be afraid to take risks! As long as it’s calculated, of course.

Will you make the best hire?

It’s time to put these points into practice! Hone your hiring process by creating the best job advert possible, while introducing a consistent and precise interview routine.

These are sure-fire ways to ensure you get the best candidates for your jobs and therefore make the best hire possible.