Training Your HR Team To Further Develop Your Hiring Process

Learn how to bring high-quality candidates to the forefront of your business and its success

Growth is essential when it comes to finding the right people to expand your company, but, be warned. Scaling is one of the biggest challenges for any company, which is even more prevalent if you’re a small-to-midsize business.

In order to train your HR team on how to recruit, follow this foolproof, step-by-step process to bring high-quality candidates to the forefront of your business and its success. 
 

Roles and Requirements

Before applicants start rolling in, make sure you are clear on the exact combination of skills, character and interpersonal traits that make up your perfect hire. If you skip over this small but crucial step, you run the risk of wasting a significant amount of time on internal challenges or even losing your dream candidate simply because you weren’t clear on what was or wasn’t necessary for the role. 

To help have a clear view of what you are looking for, here are a few things your HR rep needs to know before they construct the dream-worthy job ad:

●    What specific tasks and activities will your new hire be responsible for?
●    Why are those important to the company’s bigger picture? 
●    Would you turn a candidate away for not having a specific skill or qualification?
●    What are the deal-breakers? 

The biggest mistake most employers make is they confuse “bonus” skills with mandatory skills. Make sure you and your entire hiring team know which is which. If a certain skill is 100 percent, without-a-doubt necessary to a role, include it as a must-have. If it’s something that can be learned or left out, consider it a nice-to-have skill. 

Write a Killer Job Description

Now that you and your hiring team are on the same page about what you need for the role, it’s time to design your job description. 

●  The need to belong - Talking about your amazing team is a great way to leverage one of the most fundamental needs every human has: the need to belong. You can use social proof, such as an employee’s Instagram feed, photos from group outings, annual meetups or your company’s internal kudos system to show candidates that their contribution will be recognized. These are great ways to showcase your company’s culture. 

●  The desire for esteem - Esteem is a great motivator. Who doesn’t want to move into something bigger, better and with sweeter street cred? Outline just how critical they’ll be to the success of the organization. Get rid of the “responsibilities” section and try “your impact” to think about what a candidate could do to stand out - then tell them how to do it. 

●   The desire to grow - Quality candidates aren’t afraid of the hustle. Will they be in a position to hit unprecedented goals? Join a hiring team for another role? Tell them! Include opportunities for on-the-job learning. Tell the candidates what they can expect to accomplish in their first six months and after their first year. 

Optimize Your Offline and Online Recruitment Channels 

Regarding offline recruitment channels, employee referrals are without a doubt, one of the best ways to get top-notch candidates. A whopping 88 percent of employers say their best hires come from employee referrals. Here are a few tips to make sure you get quality candidates from employee referrals: 

●    Be transparent about your diversity journey and objectives
●    Be specific about what you want in a new hire
●    Prioritize referrals from employees from underrepresented communities 

Go above and beyond by asking friends, relatives and existing employees if they know someone good for the role. Other offline recruitment channels you should utilize are job fairs, industry events, university/community college partnerships, apprenticeship programs and external recruiters. 

Today, online recruitment channels include job seekers who are checking out your career site, reading your Glassdoor reviews and stalking your social media. In order to make it easier for them to choose you over the competition, optimize your online recruitment channels as well: 

●    Improve your career site
●    Take advantage of niche social channels and job sites
●    Track and measure your best online platforms
●    Create targeted online recruitment marketing campaigns

Interview Like a Pro

You’ve made it. The interview process. This is the make-or-break of any great hiring process. Let’s be real, anyone can look great on paper, but face-to-face interaction plays a huge factor in the hiring process. The way in which you handle both on and offsite interviews will depend entirely on your business ethos. Asking leadership questions and digging deeper into a person’s background helps get a better feel for their communication skills and clarifies resume details. Ultimately, no one can tell you what insights to go after or which questions to ask during an interview. The best way to do so is to visualize what success looks like at your company and build your questions with that being the focus. 

If consistent, emotional growth is the goal, you need a repeatable recruitment process. The most efficient way to do so is to keep doing what works. Simple as that. Measure your sources of quality candidate leads and commit to optimizing your employer brand on those avenues. Hiring is a moving target, but with the right mindset, training and approach, you can hit the mark. 

Author Bio

Nina Cofer is a Product Marketing Manager at Breezy HR. Nina’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative mind, and artistic talent have given her more than a decade of experience working in marketing, pay-per-click advertising, web and graphic design, and search engine optimization.