What to Consider When Hiring the Right Person for Your Business

Hiring the right person for your company is an important next step to expanding your business. There are a few criteria every business owner should follow when interviewing and selecting the best candidate.

Remember to remain patient while searching for the right people to hire. It is not uncommon for the hiring process to take up to several weeks. To ensure you are hiring the right person, you should take the time to review the candidates and compare your company’s culture and core values to see if the possible hire fits with your company. It is critical to follow a consistent recruiting, interviewing, and hiring process such as the “Top-Grading” method.

If you’re struggling to find the best candidate, online business coaching with Wolf Creek Business Growth Institute can help. One of the many benefits of Wolf Creek BGI’s expert business coaching services is helping you find the right people to hire to help grow your team and expand your business. Contact the business coaches at Wolf Creek BGI to set up an appointment and maximize your team’s performance and efficiency.

[Related: Business Coach Vs. Business Consultant ­— What’s the Difference?]

Evaluate Your Company’s Values

Before starting the process of finding and hiring the right people for your business, take some time to evaluate your company’s mission statement and core values. Ask yourself are these current and meaningful for today’s growth plans. When assessing candidates, ask yourself if the individual can represent your business’s values. If you do not think they can, it’s time to start looking at other candidates who can.

Evaluating your company’s core values will not only make it easier when hiring the right person, but it can also help you determine if your current staff is living up to the values. If your employees are not living up to your standards, how can you expect them to challenge themselves and grow? How can you expect your business to grow?

Candidates and employees who embody your company’s core values will make reaching your long-term business goals easier because you all will be on the same page. Use your core values as a guide to hire and fire team members.

Post A Detailed Job Description

Now that you know which positions you need to fill at your company, you need to create a detailed job description to let potential hires know you are hiring. You can post your description on a popular job board such as Indeed or Glassdoor and create a careers page on your company website to accept applications.

On each platform, you need to clearly communicate the job’s responsibilities, skills required, and experience needed. The more detailed you are in the job description, the easier it will be for qualified candidates to send in their resumes and the easier for you to hire the right person.

Prepare Well-Structured Interviews

Another key ingredient to hiring the right person for your business is preparing well-structured interviews. Ask as many questions as necessary to gauge their skill set and experience. You can also ask questions that will reveal whether a candidate is a good culture fit or if they can represent your core values if hired. Use assessments – both skill and personality to strengthen the process.

It is helpful to create an evaluation scorecard to compare each candidate’s performance. Remember to ask questions that require detailed answers. No close-ended questions that can be answered with a yes or no.

Questions you could ask include:

• How have you handled a specific challenge in a previous role?
• What are your career goals?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What will you bring to the company?
• What is your most outstanding professional achievement?

Get to Know a Candidate on a Personal Level

Understanding the candidate’s personality is key when trying to hire the right person for your business. You or other team members might be working with this person extensively, so you should get a better idea of who they are. A great candidate will bring their whole self to the job. Business owners should want to understand their personality type or personal goals.

Knowing the person can also help you determine their strengths and weaknesses. Maybe they aren’t a great fit for the role they interviewed for, but another role would fit their skillset perfectly. Understanding their personal goals can also help your business. For example, if the candidate eventually wants to work their way into a leadership role, helping them get there can benefit your management team.

On the other side, getting to know them can also help determine whether they are a bad fit. Searching through their social media accounts, for example, can help when making your decision. Is a candidate posting hate speech, images of illegal drug use, or negative comments about previous jobs or clients online? Then, they probably aren’t the right person to hire.

Interview Multiple Candidates

Another important tip when hiring the right person is to interview multiple candidates. You could be ready to hire a candidate that did very well during the interview process, which may lead you to make a job offer without exploring other candidates. Then, when you extend the job offer to your sole candidate, and they tell you they decided to go for another opportunity, you’ll be a sitting duck. You never know what other opportunities could come up for other candidates.

Don’t forget to include interviewees from within your business during the interview process. Make sure current employees go through the same process when finding the right person to hire. Another handy tip during the process is to conduct a group interview. Not only will this help you interview multiple candidates at a time and save you some time, but it allows you to observe which candidates work well in a group setting. Just remember: having multiple candidate options will set you up for success.

Use Multiple Rounds of Interviews

It would be best to put potential hires through three rounds of interviews. The three-round interview process should look something like this:

• Preliminary interview: a quick 15-minute call to gauge the candidate’s personality and interest in the role.
• Second interview: take this opportunity to learn more about a candidate’s skill set.
• Final interview: you or your hiring manager can determine if a candidate is a good fit for the position and company.

The three-round interview process will help you compare candidates’ experience, skills, and personalities when looking to hire the right person for your business.

Have Multi-Departmental Interviews

Another tip for the interview process to get better results is to include two or three people from different departments in the second interview. For example, after the hiring manager finishes the preliminary interview, get a manager, supervisor, or another key person to talk with the candidate with the hiring manager in the second round. Doing this will allow different levels of staff to observe different qualities in potential candidates.

Not only does this help when hiring the right person, but it also creates a great team exercise and a more cohesive and effective onboarding process for the new employee for quick integration into the team.

While the hiring process can be taxing, as it could take a while before you find the right person to hire for your business, it is important not to settle for anything less than what is best for your company. Finding the best people for your company is critical when you want to experience growth for your company.

[Related: The Benefits of Executive Training]

These tips can also help you determine whether or not your current employees are exhibiting the right qualities for your company. If you feel like you could benefit from executive coaching to better your leadership skills and strengthen your team, contact the business coaches at Wolf Creek Business Growth Institute. Wolf Creek will assess your team and create a custom training program for your employees. Call today at 225-219-8866 to get started.