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You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life. -Renee West, Luxor and Excalibur Hotel
Hiring new employees in any business can be a challenge, but hiring employees for the very first time can be especially challenging. Finding the right fit culturally and professionally requires some forethought by the employer to determine personality and what skills will actually be a good fit and benefit the organization. Take the following suggestions into consideration before you start the interview process.
1. Make a List of the Essential Job Functions
Once you’ve discovered that it is time to expand your team of employees, spend some time thinking about the list of qualifications you need the new hire to meet. Make a list of absolute qualifications that the candidate must have and then a list of bonus qualifications that will help set candidates apart. Be sure to double-check your lists to ensure that they are not unlawfully discriminatory.
Discriminating against an employee or a job applicant based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information is unlawful under federal and state employment law.
If you are unsure about the kinds of questions that are lawful or unlawful, contact an employment law attorney in your area to help walk you through the process of fine-tuning your hiring practices and make them compliant with federal regulations.
2. Determine What Will Make an Employee Successful in Your Organization
Each organization is unique and employees require a specific skill set to excel within your particular business. Take a look at the employees that you consider to be successful in your organization and look for those characteristics in the job applicants.
Keep in mind that soft skills are often a necessary component to success within a company, but they are frequently overlooked in the interview process. How will the candidate interact with your customers? What problem solving skills do they have? Will they become easily frustrated? These are all important factors that may not come across during the resume review.
3. Conduct a Practical Interview
One of the best ways to determine whether or not a job candidate will be able to preform the work you’re hiring them to do is to administer a practical exam during the interview process. Ask the candidate to look at a particular problem that occurs frequently in your organization and ask them how they would go about solving it. There doesn’t have to be one right answer, but watching the job applicant to work through a problem that he or she will have to handle on a regular basis can be quite informative to you as the employer.
If you are unsure about the best hiring process to use in selecting new employees, reach out to a local employment law attorney or a hiring coach to help you design a process that works for your organization. The time you spend up front getting it right will undoubtedly help the success of your organization.
Check back soon for our list of Useful AND LAWFUL Interview Questions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]