7 Tips on Finding Employees Who Best Fit Your Business
When we learn of another success story from a thriving business, we often hear expressions like, “Our team is our greatest asset,” and “Our people are our most valuable resource.” For a company to develop stably depends on its personnel having strong professional skills, of course, but it also requires that they believe in the business, have a unified moral compass, and are well integrated into teamwork. A person does not just come to a job, they join a team, often with its own processes and business culture.
To find people who match your team is a skill that pays off financially. Staff turnover is stressful, and businesses lose a lot of time searching for and training employees all over again. According to research, staff turnover is costly for companies’ budgets: It typically costs one and a half to two times a worker’s salary to replace them (And when you are a small business and your staff isn’t large, this can be critical because a lot of the load falls on other team members). In addition, firing workers who cannot cope with the job is an unpleasant event for both parties.
So, to increase your business productivity, you want to hire people who will keep the team morale, who value trust and who can support others. These are the ones who will stay the course.
How Do You Find the Best Employees for Your Business?
These 7 tips and principles will help you find the recruitment approach that works best for you.
1.Imagine Your Ideal Worker in Advance
Before starting your search, think about the portrait of a good candidate: the job-specific skills, experience and education, and also the needed personal qualities. These can be creativity, outstanding communication skills, perseverance, being diligent and able to notice details, or maybe a sense of humor and the ability to laugh at their own mistakes. Or even being able to sit for a long time and deal with routine tasks or to talk on the phone for hours at a time. For different positions, the list will vary significantly, but for any position, the connection among the whole team is essential, so the recruit needs to be someone who interacts well with colleagues. Ask your team about what kind of talent they need from a new coworker, and what will make their own job easier.
Take into account that some qualities often go together, and some exclude each other (for example, attentive and diligent people are often introverts), so it is necessary to choose between them. Decide which of the skills and qualities are a priority for the position, and which are optional.
All this will help you understand who you really need for the position and then communicate it to job seekers. For it to be a good match, the potential employee needs to know that you prioritize the same qualities that are important to them and that they want to develop.
Why does this matter? A lack of appreciation at work is the main reason why employees quit: 79% of them say it is the root cause. Therefore, it often happens that among several jobs, people choose the one where they can develop their talents and work in a team that is comfortable for them, although the salary may be lower.
2. As Far as Possible, Be Specific
Narrow your search with a detailed job description. Let candidates know exactly what duties will be performed and how their working day will go. Try to be brief but give enough information right from the start, because too-general job advertisements are less likely to target people with the particular skills you need. Job seekers are more willing to respond to an opening with a lot of specifics—everyone values their time.
That’s why, when creating your job description, you should include the compensation (or a range), information about the work hours, job location, company benefits, instructions on how to contact you, and a link to your website or social media page. It is great if you have worked on your online presence, because most of the interested candidates will do quick research on the company, and a considerable part of them will lose interest if they do not find much company information. With your website and social media, you can share about your values, goals and general atmosphere, and attract people who believe they will fit in.
3. Ask Your Employees
Business owners and managers often don’t have a lot of time to spend on posting vacancies and searching for new people by themselves. In this case, recruiting agencies can help. One more way is to ask your current team to think of someone among their acquaintances, perhaps someone they enjoyed working with at a previous job. Experience shows that people who come in as a result of other team members’ recommendations often become long-term workers. People tend to have friends with interests and characters more or less like theirs. Your employees already know the company’s inner processes well and know who may be a match.
4. Describe Your Business Culture Right Away
Similar views on business culture are not less important than qualifications. If coworkers have the same work style and the same ethics, this has a positive effect on team coherence. Preparing questions that ask what the applicant would do in various scenarios will help you to see their personality during the interview and visualize how they will interact with your current staff.
Show that your company appreciates certain qualities, for example, honesty and admitting mistakes or following certain rules. Tell about the style of communication in the team and how informal the communication can be. Respect from the management, helping each other within the team, and keeping the individuality of each worker can be factors that reduce turnover and create a good image of your company for potential employees.
5. Morality Is Crucial
The business reputation you have created through the years can be ruined by irresponsible workers. Needed skills can be taught and developed with time, but usually not moral characteristics. Therefore, many businesses prefer an approach that prioritizes individual qualities, and many are OK with hiring entry-level specialists who are honest and diligent, have good general skills and can learn on their own. This is much easier than trying to make people into team players who are motivated by more than getting paid if they are not predisposed to it. Especially when you consider that attitudes at work are contagious—if one person disregards the company ethics, someone else may follow their example.
6. Your Business Needs Team Players
Seek to hire people who thrive on teamwork—listen for expressions of appreciation for colleagues during the hiring process.
No matter how great individual employees are, if teamwork is missing and no one knows what the rest are currently working on, everyone’s work will be slower and less efficient, and some may even start thinking the work of others is much easier or not as important as their own.
Coordination and cooperation lead to new ideas and help to discover new and more effective methods of completing tasks and solving issues. If for some reason an employee is temporarily absent from work, others can take up the slack, and the job will keep on going.
A manager is not always able to keep track of everything that is happening, so personal initiative is also important. During interviews, ask people to describe when they pitched in to help colleagues in a difficult situation before being asked to do so.
7. Set a Trial Period
A trial period is a time when both the company and the worker can decide if they are a good fit for each other, a time when job-specific skills as well as personal qualities and motivation will be tested.
The point is not that the employee should be perfect and not make any mistakes—that’s impossible, especially at the beginning. The idea is to see their attitude toward their own mistakes: Can they admit them with a sense of humor and be ready to work on them?
While not hiding mistakes and taking responsibility are essential, newcomers have to see that management and coworkers alike are supportive when anyone admits to a blunder, so they will have the courage to bring their own errors to everyone’s attention. It will help people adapt to the team and become productive faster if you have created a friendly environment where they are not afraid to ask questions and get help from colleagues. This will foster a positive attitude toward constructive criticism, seeing a good intention instead of conflict behind it, so they will not feel offended and will be able to overcome moments of misunderstanding in the team and difficult situations with clients.
The Spirit Within Your Team Influences Your Clients’ Loyalty
Every employee represents the company; they contribute to its image with their work, their attitude and their communication with clients. A satisfied and motivated employee will more likely listen to the clients’ wishes and desire to help them. They will do more than expected and will be ready to change something in the way they work for the client’s convenience. If different parts of the team are well coordinated and everyone feels that they are one family, the clients will also feel it and will want to return to your company and be a part of your business family.
What principles do you follow when hiring new members of your team? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
