People make or break the business. And in order to enjoy sustained success over many years, you need to constantly infuse your business with the right individuals. The question is, do you know how to find them?
4 Secrets You Can Copy and Paste
Good people are hard to find. Not necessarily in the sense of being kind or friendly, but in terms of being talented, hardworking, disciplined, and selfless.
If you’ve spent any time recruiting or hiring people, you’ve certainly found this to be true. Yet over this same period, thousands of small businesses have made organization-altering hires by consistently bringing in good people who are right for the job.
So if they can do it – why can’t you?
Well, you can – if you utilize the right strategies and tactics. And we’ve compiled a few for your convenience. Take a look:
- Keep a Stocked Talent Pipeline
If you’re waiting until an employee leaves and a position opens up to go out and find candidates, you’re way behind schedule. Not only will you have to deal with a prolonged vacancy (which taxes other members of your team), but you risk making a rush decision and bringing on someone who isn’t a perfect fit.
Preparation is key. No matter how great your culture is, people will leave. Having a stocked talent pipeline of candidates who you’ve already vetted and pre-qualified will accelerate the process and give you greater confidence in making strategic hiring decisions.
- Leverage Behavioral Data Analysis
The most successful small businesses understand there are certain factors you just can’t know from looking at a candidate. So while it’s a good idea to factor in gut feelings and instincts, you also have to account for more objective elements.
Leading businesses, like DataFile, rely heavily on behavioral data. Specifically, they use what’s known as a CI, or a Culture Index. It consists of a variety of candidate-completed assessments that are designed to identify and analyze job-specific traits like social ability, autonomy, patience, logic, and mental stamina.
When you combine objective data with subjective insights, you get a comprehensive picture of who a candidate is and who they can become in the future. This is a huge win.
- Involve Employees in the Hiring Process
Your existing employees – assuming they’re good ones – are some of your best resources. By involving them in the hiring process, you can expand your network by tapping into theirs.
The logic is that good employees surround themselves with other good people who, presumably, have the potential to be good employees themselves.
- Share a Meal With Candidates
“Going to a restaurant will reveal all sorts of clues about someone. For many leaders, this is the most important part of the interview process. The key is to watch whether the candidate is considerate of others — an essential quality of effective team players,” Adam Bryant writes for The New York Times.
Whether it’s lunch or dinner – and regardless of whether it’s a 3-star Michelin restaurant or a corner diner – pay attention to things like:
- Is the candidate polite to servers?
- Does the candidate look other people in the eye?
- Do they get frustrated when service is slow or an order gets mixed up?
- Are they sloppy and rushed, or slow and deliberate?
- How do they handle lulls in the conversation?
- Are they able to put their phone down? Or do they constantly check devices?
Sharing a meal is highly revealing and will tell you a lot about someone’s personality, priorities, and character. It’s something that’s recommended for all hires – but especially ones that have high-level ramifications.
Adding it All Up
The best professional baseball players in the world have an average of .300 or better. This means they obtain a successful outcome – like a hit or a home run – 3 out of every 10 times they come up to bat. Their success rate is essentially 30 percent.
Let this be an encouragement to you.
You don’t need to make a perfect hire every time. If you can make good hires the majority of the time, you’ll end up with two or three organization-altering hires every so often. You don’t have to bat 1.000. Hitting .300 will get you into the hiring hall of fame.
We just supplied you with some useful tips on how to get there – now go do it!
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