Recruiting Strategy
Hiring for the long road: Getting the fit right from day one
Pamela Weaver
HireHive
Pamela Weaver
HireHive
Pamela Weaver
HireHive
Pamela Weaver
HireHive
While some hiring managers are clinging to the belief that “The Skills Shortage” is to blame for their challenges, companies with a good hiring culture understand that it’s always “an employee’s market” – and go out of their way to attract and retain the best candidates.
An important aspect of churn prevention is making the right hire in the first place. While treating all candidates with respect works wonders for building your company’s brand as a great place to work, making sure they understand exactly what they’re letting themselves in for when they accept your offer. This will help ensure they stick around.
The best way you can do that is to fully understand exactly why you’re hiring them yourself. Looking beyond the job description, dig deeper into the details of what this person is being hired to do, how you’d like them to do it – and how you’ll all measure success. Here are some areas to consider working through with the candidate.
Step away from the ‘nice to have’ wishlist and zero in on the critical tasks they’ll need more than any others to succeed. Everything after that is either bonus material or a job for your training department.
This is the clearest path to understanding both the role and the relationships that accompany it to you and the candidate. If you don’t know what they’re here for, you can’t expect them to figure it out on the job.
Everyone wants a team player – have you got a clear vision of how your new hire will complement and enhance the team they’re going to work on? Do the candidate’s new colleagues understand what’s expected? Is it clear what your new hire is bringing to the party? The earlier you start on this, the smoother the onboarding process – and the more likely your new starter is to feel welcome and capable of making a contribution early on.
Hopefully you’re not hiring to replace a burned-out, stressed-out predecessor but it’s important to be realistic about some of the pain points that go with the job. This could see you hiring a candidate with the ideal temperament and people skills over one with slightly better qualifications – or vice versa, depending on the role. God companies want their employees to be both happy and successful – your ability to understand the potential challenges will better equip you to help them handle them – and keep them.
Finally… Don’t forget onboarding. A quick Google will throw up a plentiful supply of stats demonstrating the importance of this in employee retention. Give your new hire the tools and information they need to put their best foot forward – starting with the clarity we’ve discussed above. It will help the welcome feel bigger and, hopefully, longer lasting too.
* Source: ERE
“HireHive makes the team a lot more productive. We’d be lost without it. Team Leaders can do it all themselves if needed or jump in at the right time and know exactly where everything is and what’s happening.”
Hilary Dempsey Head of HR at Life Credit union
