Tag Archive for: Employee Assessment Tests

Hiring the right people for the positions you need to fill is one of the most important and fundamental aspects of running a successful business. If you’re going to get to where you want your business to be and you’re going to ensure your business finds the long-term success you want for it, you’re going to need the right people on board.

If you’re about to go on a hiring spree and you want to make sure you hire the right people every time, we’re here to assist you with that. It’s more than possible to hire good people and not have any regrets about your hires later, as long as you approach the hiring process in the right way.

That’s what we’re going to talk about in more depth today, so if you want to find out what it takes to hire great professionals and find the right person for your business every time you make a hire, read on now and benefit from the insight offered below.

Make Sure All Candidates Under Consideration Are Properly Vetted

Before any other steps are taken, you should make sure that your candidates are properly vetted before they’re taken forward to the next stage of the process. If someone has something in their past that would suggest they’re not a good person to hire, you want to find out about that and rule them out of the running for the job at the soonest possible opportunity. Making sure all of your candidates are properly vetted and that they’re appropriate as a person for your company shouldn’t be overlooked.

Don’t Place a Focus Only on the Past

Placing a focus on the past is important to an extent, as we’ve already expressed above. But that doesn’t mean that you should fret over a person’s past too much either. It’s all too tempted to judge a candidate based on the list of things that they’ve got on their CV. But that’s not the way to do this. You should instead look at them as a person and try to find out what they might be able to offer in the future rather than focusing on what they’ve done in the past. After all, their future is what matters most here.

Understand the Interview Isn’t Everything

Understanding that your business can’t possibly get a clear picture of a person solely from the conventional interview process is key. There’s only so much an interview can tell you. Sure, they’re valuable, but in the conventional sense, they might not tell you a whole lot more than the fact that a person is good or maybe not so good at interviewing. And you’re probably not looking to hire a good interviewer. So try to dig a little deeper than that and understand that the interview process alone is not the be all and end all.

Get Various Perspectives from Within the Team

When hiring, you should try to gain a range of perspective on candidates and what’s needed from a range of different people from within the company. It’s not just the managers who should have a say on who the right person for the role might be. Also think about the people who the new hire is going to be working most closely with from day to day. Doing that will give you insight into what it really is you should be looking for. And gaining more insights and opinions is never a bad thing.

Listen to the Questions They Ask

Listening to the questions that your candidates ask you is something that can tell you a lot about them as individuals and what they might be able to offer your business moving forward. If they ask a lot about the business, its future and how they might be a part of that growth, it’ll already tell you a lot about their drive and motivations. That sort of stuff is really important and certainly shouldn’t be overlooked. The questions they ask are just as important as they answers they provide to your questions.

Ensure They Fit with the Culture of the Business

The culture and wider ethos of your business should inform you of where you should be looking to hire and what kind of person you want to bring on board. If, during the hiring process, you get the impression that the candidates you’re talking to simply don’t represent a good fit with your business and the culture that it embodies, that’s a sure sign that you should probably be looking elsewhere in terms of who you’re looking to hire. Culture is important and you can’t allow it to be derailed by the wrong kinds of hires.

Use Employee Assessment Tests

Using employment tests is a good idea if you want to get more insight into the people you’re looking to hire. As we mentioned above, the interview process alone often isn’t enough and it makes sense to do your best to gain greater and deeper insights into the people you’re considering bringing on board. There are all kinds of employee assessment tests depending on what it is you’re looking to achieve and what you’re looking for from candidates. So be sure to do your own research and find the employment tests that you feel might be right for you.

Ask Them About Their Own Perceived Weaknesses

Asking them about their own weaknesses can tell you a lot about a candidate. It should tell you a lot about how they see themselves and how willing they are to make improvements and how keen they are to learn from experiences. You ideally want to hire people who can understand and perceive their own flaws because that’s something we all need to do from time to time. So see what kind of answers you get and what this might tell you about a particular individual.

Listen to Your Gut

Listening to your gut reaction and your instincts regarding potential hires is often a good thing. Of course, this can’t tell you everything and you shouldn’t base your entire hiring decisions on an instinctive feeling that you get. But if something doesn’t feel right and it doesn’t seem like a good idea to you, there’s nothing wrong with listening to what you’re feeling. Stepping back and looking at things in the most objective way possible is important, but if you’re not getting good signals, think again.

Look for a Commitment to Their Own Development

Looking for commitment to their own growth and development is always a good idea. This is a good trait for your employees to have and it’s definitely something that you should be looking for if you want to hire people who are really going to help your business grow because they’ll be looking to grow and improve too. A person who wants to grow is a person who is driven and wants to make the most of their career, which is always beneficial to the business that they’re working for.

Seek Out Good Learning Skills

Seeking out good learning skills and people who know how to take on new knowledge and information in an efficient way is a good idea. This is something that’s going to be particularly important if you want to hire people who are at an entry level position and who are going to need to learn while on the job and pick up new things. A willingness to learn is a positive thing no matter how much experience a person has because none of us can know it all.

Ensure Your Job Listings and Descriptions Offer Clarity

The job listing you put up is going to need to offer real clarity and the right information if you want to ensure you get the right kinds of people applying for these roles. If you put up a poor listing with a job description that lacks details or relevant information, you really only have yourself to blame when you get a bunch of inappropriate candidates submitting applications. So take your time crafting your job listings and offer as much detail in your requirements as you can.

Get to Know Them from a Personal Perspective a Little

Getting to know people in a personal way and seeing them from that kind of perspective is something that can be highly valuable during the hiring process. When you can see what their skills are and how their professional lives interact with their personal selves, it can tell you a lot about who you’re hiring and whether they really are the right for the business and what you’re trying to achieve with it moving forward.

With all of that in mind, be sure to hone your recruitment process in a way that’s going to yield the best outcomes for you and the people you ultimately hire. After all, it’s in everyone’s best interests for you to hire professionals who are going to turn out to be the right fit and a good match all round.