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What to look for when hiring college graduates

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | What to look for when hiring college graduates

In business, hiring new recruits is crucial to success — they bring fresh thinking and can challenge the existing paradigms of your corporation. A steady stream of prospective employees is likely knocking on your door daily, and even more so around summer time when college and university students finish their final year.

As a recruitment officer, it’s your responsibility to bring in the talent. With so many resumes and applications to decipher, what should you look for, to ensure you interview — and ultimately hire — the best possible candidate?

Evidence of critical and strategic thinking

Use your application process to pose salient questions, requiring candidates to evidence strategic thinking and the ability to address both sides of an argument. You’re not so much looking for the individual’s ethics or values here, but their capacity to form and deliver their point of view in a creative and compelling way.

The ability to work in a team

An applicant’s college experience will illustrate if they are a team player — whether they played a team sport, or performed in college stage shows, you want employees who understand and respect the significance of working together towards a shared goal.

Look for specialized degrees

Most resumes include an abundance of experience, however, you need to learn how to filter out what isn’t relevant and focus on what is useful. While many people will mention all their experiences, if someone only has leadership skills as a secondary skillset and no actual qualification in this area, then you may have to find someone else who does have the qualifications you’re looking for.

If you feel you need more information, then research the institution where they received their further education. While some colleges offer a multitude of degrees, some colleges have a more focused curriculum, so their students can specialize in certain fields. For instance, if you’re looking for a new head teacher, then someone who has studied at NEC (New England College) and undergone a Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) could have more honed in leadership skills than someone who didn’t.

Resilience

‘Resilience’ is defined as the ability to withstand the pressures of college life, and emerging positive and ready into the professional world. You want to build your company around people who thrive under pressure, rather than falter.

Interpersonal skills, if relevant to your business niche

Not all professions require advanced social skills — indeed, businesses in Silicon Valley are famously seeing past prejudices and assumptions, to hire individuals on the autistic spectrum in their computer technology and software development teams.

However, if the ability to work collaboratively is pivotal to your work then you’ll want to test prospective employees on this skill. Building upon evidence of team and relationship prowess, use the interview to pose challenging questions to delve further — “Tell me about a time you’ve had to manage conflict in a study group?” or “You’ve seen that a friend is going through a bad time, how would you intervene to help?” are both revealing questions to ask.

How to Recruit High Quality Staff

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When it comes to recruiting high quality staff, there are several key points to keep in mind. No matter what industry you are in, your business is only as good as the key people you have hired. In other words, your staff can make or break you, so keep this in mind when hiring. So then, how do you go about recruiting high quality staff? These tips may help.

Begin with Accurate and Thorough Job Descriptions

It is hard to find the right person for the right job if you haven’t made it perfectly clear what that job entails. You will be getting a smattering of applicants who are highly qualified and really top in their field, but they may not be what you are looking for at all. This is the first step in recruitment. Know what you are looking for.

Develop and Post Recruitment Ads

Once you have accurately defined the job description, it’s time to draft and post an ad. This is an important part of the recruitment process as well. It may pay to hire a writer to craft a well-written ad, but it is also important to know where you are most likely to find high quality recruits.

Industry journals are a good beginning, but there are online job postings as well. Sites like monster.com get a huge amount of traffic and if your job description is on the mark and if your ad is well-written, you are likely to attract the cream of the crop.

Look Carefully at Education and OJT Training

Say, for example, you manage a dental office and are seeking a high quality dental assistant. The dentists on staff don’t have time to train assistants and you are getting busier by the day. Do you want to hire a recruit that worked for another dental office or would you rather have one who graduated from a top caliber school listed on best-dentalassistantschools.com?

Perhaps you can have the best of both worlds. Find a graduate with high grades who has some experience in the field under his or her belt. It all begins with the quality of training each candidate has received. OJT dental assistant recruits may have had poor or insufficient training, so keep that in mind if you are hiring in a state that does not require formal licensure.

Don’t Settle for a Single Interview

Altogether too often employers settle for the candidate they liked best on the first interview. That can be a grave error in judgment. Some highly-qualified applicants may be having an off day for one reason or another and some candidates less-qualified might just be good at interviewing.

Some companies bring applicants through a series of interviews, each with a different interviewer. At the end, the best applicants are brought before the team of interviewers. The candidate/s chosen are then, brought back one final time where they are formally hired and led through the onboarding process. It may sound like a lot of extra effort, but you can never be too careful.

Hiring the wrong candidate costs time and money and that’s something you don’t have to spare. Save yourself major frustrations by getting it right the first time.

How To Attract The Right Employees

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
Finding the right employees is no easy task, but it’s very important. Not having the right people in place can make or break your company. That’s why businesses everywhere are always trying to come up with the precise formula for drawing in the most ideal candidates for the job.

While it’s not going to solve all of your problems, there are important steps a company should take to ensure they’re bringing in worthwhile people to interview. It’s a waste of everyone’s time when the potential hire isn’t a good fit right off the bat. See how to attract the right employees.

Technology

One way to attract candidates is to have updated technology. Having current computers, systems and an IT department is important. All of these aspects help draw in the right people, so they apply for positions at your company. It’s difficult to get any work done without modern technology, and smart candidates will recognize this and run the other way. You need it to do your job too. For example, xcdhr is an easily configured online self-service system for HR visionaries in ambitious, growing firms. This system makes your HR vision a reality by helping you attract and retain talent.

Culture & Strategy

Potential employees want to know that who they’re going to work for has a strategy and all of the latest gadgets and upgrades. Culture includes having a fancy office to display and a great management team to brag about. It encompasses how the teams celebrate successes and what the company does for fun and offers for volunteer opportunities. Candidates want to know that who they’re working for is going to respect their work-life balance desire. Culture is about the people who work there and how they carry themselves. If your culture is very attractive, then let that be known, so the right people come knocking.

Benefits & Incentives

A big magnet for potential hires are the benefits and incentives packages and competitive salary offerings. People want to know they’re going to get paid well and be recognized for their hard work. Emphasize the perks that are available, such as free coffee, a game room and Friday afternoons off. You have to be willing to give if you want to bring in the right people for the job. There are lots of companies out there, and yours needs to be able to compete if you want the best people working for you.

Career Path

It’s likely a potential hire is going to ask you about a career path in the interview. It’s a good idea to have an answer, instead of saying that you’re unsure. People want to visualize their future and know that they could be with your company for years to come. They want to be assured that their salary and bonuses will rise the longer they work for you. Have performance measures in place so you can track how well each employee is doing.

Conclusion

Finding rock star employees is a challenge. Your job becomes easier when you make your company a desirable option for potential candidates who are a good fit. This is how to attract the right employees.

Staffing Problems: How To Start Hiring The Right People

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
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Forget the advancements in tech, the improvements in your management systems, and the upgrades you have made to operational functions; there is only one place true success comes from in business and that is your employees. It may not be easy to measure, but that is a fact by the way. Unfortunately, hiring the right employees isn’t easy, which is a slap in the face because getting your staffing wrong can have a negative effect on both your bottom-line and your reputation (which then affects your bottom-line).

So, to help you land the talent your business is absolutely crying out for, we have come up with some strategies that can make your recruiting process really work, and here they are:

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
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Think About You

You cannot possibly hope to land the perfect employee if you don’t know what you want from an employee. It’s that simple. As such, always start by figuring out what it is your goal is. Could be customer service mixed with adaptability, proactive mixed with technical skills, friendly but dedicated. Once you know what you are looking for it becomes much easier to find it.

Honest Job Descriptions

The more detailed and honest your descriptions are the more chance you have of walking into an interview and knowing they understand exactly what you want. Just look at Applebee’s application information at jobapplicationcenter.com. They give it to prospective applicant straight – hours, wage, positions, experience, training etc. Don’t be scared that your description may put a lot of people off because that is what you want. You want to find those that meet your very specific needs and wants so that you know you are getting the right person.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
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Look At Social Media

When you get an application, it is going to be tailored to meet your needs and say the thing you want to hear. That is why it is so important that you have a little look at their online profile and find out a little more about their personality as businessnewsdaily.com explains. This will give you an idea of how they may fit in with your other employees, which is crucial to your success.

Two-Way Interview

It is so important that you don’t paint a picture of green fields, red roses and the sweet smell of a fresh bread when describing your company because that won’t weed out the chancers from the serious candidates. Instead, give them the reality so that they can paint an accurate picture in their head and decide for themselves whether they will be a good fit. Interviews should be two-way, and the person in front of you will only excel if they want to work in your company.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
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Skill Isn’t Enough

Too many employees get it wrong by focusing on technical skill and past experience. What you want to focus on is personality traits so that you can understand what their future with you may look like. That’s how to nurture leaders from the get-go. You can teach someone new skills, but you cannot teach them how to be responsible, respectful and great to work with. That’s another hard-to-measure fact.

Recruitment Strategies – What To Look For In A Resume

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These days any employer advertising a post knows they will be inundated with applications. That mean you will have a large number of resumes to sort through before you can narrow down your choice of candidates for interview. This can obviously take a long time. Many recruiters choose to use recruitment agencies or talent scouts to select the very best talent to come into the office for an interview. It can take a lot of the time and hassle out of the process, but there will be a cost added. If you’re currently recruiting, what do you look for in a resume?

Cover Page

Many recruiters read only the covering letter to gauge whether a candidate will be right. This can be a little naive though, as it will only give very brief information. Still, it should provide an insight into the level of professionalism you can expect. Spelling errors are simply unacceptable to recruiters today. Some won’t accept anything that isn’t personally addressed to the manager. A cover letter should offer you enough detail that you want to read on.

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The First Paragraph

Many resumes feature an introduction paragraph designed to sell that candidate to recruiters. Not everyone is a great marketer, and self-promotion can be difficult for some. Still, a candidate with the confidence and clarity to identify relevant qualifications and achievements in a single paragraph could be worthy of an interview. Look for insights into the candidate’s personality in their writing style. Sometimes quirky, chatty styles fit well in the company.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
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Qualifications

Some companies have strict policies about the schools they will recruit from. Others simply demand a degree. The qualifications should be clearly listed so you can quickly identify the level of education for the candidate. You should be able to see any recent continuance of studies. Some colleges like UAB offer degrees online. Candidates that study this way can manage work and study in tandem and so might be of more interest to demanding employers.

Work Experience

Do you frown upon candidates with gaps in their work history? There are many reasons why a potential recruit had time away from work. Before you completely dismiss them, consider how rounded their experience might be. Have they taken on non-salaried projects? Perhaps they were studying, raising a family, or running their own business? If they’re unemployed now, consider the benefits of a well-rested candidate!

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article
Photo courtesy of Kathryn Decker via flickr

The Closing Paragraph

If you’ve read this far, chances are this candidate has piqued your interest. Now they have a chance to let you know if their personality could be a fit for your firm. This final paragraph often offers an insight into their hobbies and interests outside of the workplace. We’re all trained to include something artistic and something that suggests we look after our health. You might ignore those references because every resume has them. What else can you find that fits in well with the culture of the company, the products you develop, and the customer base you’ve built?

Recruitment is expensive and time-consuming. It’s important to find candidates that are right for the business. That’s not easy without a recruitment strategy.