Whether you’re looking to hire your first employee or 100th employee, there is always a lot of resumes, faces, and a process that can sometimes blur your vision in selecting the candidate that will be the best fit employee for your business. Here are a few tips to keep in mind that may benefit you through the interview process.
Who is the candidate? Are they trainable or only have the key skills that you’re looking for?
There are plenty of eager job candidates in the market looking to learn new skills and really develop themselves and help prospective businesses grow as well. Great candidates know that they have the opportunity to grow along with the business and treat it as a career rather than a job that’s going to cover the bills. If you’re looking to hire someone who simply has experience in desired programs, you may be hiring someone who is looking only for a paycheck and may jump ship as soon as they’re bored or another opportunity is presented.
What kind of person are they outside of the office?
There are approximately 210 million users on Facebook alone in the US and Canada as of Q1, 2015. Plenty of these users are also on other social platforms as well. Your candidate can be fairly easily Googled or searched on various social media platforms. You may want to evaluate or at least take into consideration their posts and profile. If you’re hiring for a sales position, someone who has a very active social life may be of particular interest.
LinkedIn is great to view a candidate’s professional side, but if you can track them down on Instagram, Vine, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, or any other of the many social networks, you can take a peek at who this person is outside of their career past and path.
What does their resume physically look like (aside from the content, achievements, etc.)?
Are you interviewing a recent university graduate in marketing or graphic design and the resume is blocky and uses a single font size and serif typeface? There are subtle hints that you can pick up on by the visual appearance. The resume content may state that they have extensive knowledge of Adobe CS, but if their resume looks like it was written using a typewriter, this may be a red flag.
Are they the right fit for your corporate culture? What dynamic will they add to your office?
If the candidate thrives in a more free environment where they can get their work done remotely or make their own schedule there may be a disconnect if your company doesn’t foster this environment. If your company’s work environment is strict, fast-paced with hard deadlines, regardless if this person is a quick adapter, they may be a bad fit and will ultimately lead to another number in company’s turnover rate.
What are your expectations? Keep in mind that you won’t keep 100% of all your hires.
Life is life and it’s best to always expect the unexpected. When you hire someone, there’s always a chance that an unforeseen situation may arise or they may dislike a specific job duty. Maybe you will have immediate regrets and need to terminate the employee. It happens but a good rule of thumb is to follow the mantra of “hire slow, fire fast”.
