The hiring process is just that – a process. A long, drawn-out, sometimes stressful, often frustrating process. It would be nice to get it right on the first try – find a resume we like, call up the candidate, have them in for an interview and realize we’ve struck gold with a recruit who fits in with our business and goals perfectly – but what are the odds of that? Slim to none, if we’re lucky.
There are several factors to look for when we’re hiring: qualifications, personality, reliability, the candidate’s own goals – the list goes on, and usually makes for an extensive and exhausting search, especially when we consider that this individual needs to be an ideal choice for growing our business.
So how do we select the right individual to join our team? There’s no single or simple answer to this, but the Intuit Small Business Blog recently published an article with some insights on the subject. Entitled How to Spot Job Candidates Who Can Grow Your Business, it outlines some of the factors you should look for when you’re going through the hiring process, with a focus on how to find an individual who can help your business grow. The article also utilizes some advice from Lea McLeod, founder of the Job Success Lab.
Here’s one of the tips from the article:
2. Can they adapt to business demands? You may be thrilled to receive a resume from a former Google intern or an Ivy Leaguer. But “pedigree” isn’t indicative of a person’s ability to thrive at a rapidly evolving small business. “If you hire talent who only wants to do one thing all the time, and only that thing, you may lose the agility you need to support key initiatives, like a product launch or a major event,” McLeod warns.
How do you tell whether a candidate can be flexible and versatile on the job? Get creative with your hiring process, suggests Melanie Young, founder and president of The Connected Table. After a string of experiences in which employees with impressive resumes failed to live up to her expectations, Young found success in “test-driving” candidates. “I now assume most resumes are hyped,” she says. “I tend to hire people on a trial-by-fire basis to make sure they can keep up [with] the pace in my business.”
Impressive qualifications are one thing, but the key is ensuring a candidate is able to roll with whatever punches our business throws at them.  Every company works with a different style and pace, and a resume won’t fully reveal an individual’s ability to mesh well with ours. While Miss Young’s concept of “test-driving” may not work for every business, it’s an outside-the-box approach that, at the very least, should get us thinking about different ways we can look past how a person appears on paper and really discover how they can align with our goals and help us grow.
Even if you’re not going through the hiring process right now, this article offers a good look at how you can narrow down any future searches to the right candidates for your business. We’d recommend giving it a read to see how it can help you find your next recruit.
What do you think? Do you utilize any tactics to find job candidates? Do you plan on starting? Your thoughts are always welcome, so let us know!
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