5 Tips for Hiring New Employees and What to Watch For

[This article was written by Samantha Higgins.]

Despite this unfavorable economic climate, many companies are going full speed ahead with their hiring processes. With many organizations tightening their belt in response to the economic slowdown, it is even more important to make sure that you are making the very best hiring decisions so that you do not waste precious resources on the wrong hire. Here are five tips for hiring new employees and what you need to be looking out for.

Look Into Resume Parsing

You do not have to handle the stack of resumes on your desk on your own. If you find that you are being overwhelmed with the sheer number of applicants for your open positions, you may want to look into using resume parsing software.

With this type of software, you will get rid of messy stacks of papers and enjoy a process that will screen the resumes of potential candidates in a way that is more convenient, secure, and accurate. This practice helps you to quickly identify qualified candidates in a fraction of the amount of time that it would take to sift through paper resumes manually.

Look for Soft Skills

It is relatively easy to ascertain whether an employee has the educational background and skills needed to do the job correctly. What it is harder to discern simply by looking at a resume is if they have the soft skills to be successful in the position.

Soft skills are defined as those qualifications that do not necessarily translate to a written resume. Good examples of soft skills include communication abilities, willingness to be a good teammate, punctuality, leadership skills, work ethic, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. Paying attention to these skills give you a better understanding of everything that the potential hire can bring to the table.

Find a Good Fit for Your Company Culture

The perfect employee on paper may not necessarily be the best fit for the job. In order to make sure that you hire employees that you will be able to retain with success, you need to find people that will be a good fit for your company culture.

The best way to ensure that you are both a good fit is to set up interviews with various people in your company. This will expose the job applicant to a wide set of personalities. If everyone agrees that the potential employee would be a good fit with the various working styles and personalities of your staff, you will feel more confident that you made the right hire.

Use a Checklist

You are not wrong if it seems like hiring the best person is more complex than it appears. For this reason, you want to make sure that you have a plan of attack when it comes to defining the job, starting the recruitment process, parsing through resumes, setting up interviews, and making a final decision.

Devising a checklist will help to guide your efforts and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. An official checklist will also prove helpful if there are multiple people involved in the interview and hiring process.

Check References

Many hiring managers ask for references as a formality but never take the time to follow up with them. You are doing your company a huge disservice if you do not properly vet the candidates before offering them a position. Do not miss this chance to glean a more personal view of the applicant.

This step is often the last action item when moving through the hiring process. Because it can take a significant amount of time to follow up with all of the references, you only want to make the effort if you are reasonably sure that the candidate is what you are looking for. In addition to asking the references about the actual skills and abilities of the candidate, be sure to ask questions pertaining to their soft skills and communication style.

While it may be tempting to rush through the hiring process to fill a position, you will be putting the prosperity of your organization at risk if you do not practice due diligence. Following these five tips will put you in a better position to feel great about all of your hiring decisions.