A lot of attention has been given to the job market lately; reports and articles are popping up across various news organizations about how the market has cooled and is settling back down to pre-pandemic levels. If you’re active on LinkedIn, you’ve probably seen a dozen—or more—posts from connections struggling to find their next step. Job hunting has become a full-time endeavor for many skilled, out-of-work individuals.
The flip side of this coin is that hiring the right individual has also become a tremendously important and laborious task. More job seekers equal more applicants, and more applicants mean more opportunities to make the right decision…or, critically, a wrong decision.
With this in mind, I want to offer four suggestions to help your hiring process so you can find the right fit. You know, someone who is not only a position fit and culture fit but will find satisfaction with your firm. This ensures a long, successful relationship with your business.
Step 1: Understand your company culture
First, understand the most important, absolutely essential aspects of your firm’s culture. These are crucial to your team’s success and are more than “easy to get along with.” Poll your team to identify what matters to them in teammates and what traits to avoid. This important part of the hiring process helps attract prospective employees who seamlessly fit into your company culture.
Step 2: Identify critical skills for success
Second, identify the skills that are actually critical to success in the position. Automation, generative AI and upskill training have removed advantages that came from many technical skills. Being proficient with a particular software or knowing a specific process are outdated ways of thinking about success. The world is moving too quickly today, and tools are changing rapidly.
Instead, look for things like critical thinking and analytic skills, communication skills and leadership traits. These are harder to replicate with technology and can exponentially grow success.
Step 3: Craft a unique job description
Third, make sure you’re getting quality candidates for your open position—a position that’s unique to your firm. Your job description should reflect what’s different about your firm and the open position. Use this opportunity to explain why working for you is the right decision for the job seeker.
Don’t list the basics that any qualified job seeker would already assume are responsibilities. Instead, list what makes your organization unique. Remember, right now, job seekers are applying to multiple jobs daily. Sell them on why they should spend additional time and effort on your job postings.
Step 4: Prepare for the interview process
Finally, prepare for the interview by reviewing your questions and making sure they address what you identified in steps one and two above. Find a unique way to ask about these traits and skills. Most interviewees will have prepared responses to standard questions, and you’ll learn nothing of value unless you get them to open up and go off script.
Outside-the-box thinking: A fictional real-life scenario
To see how this may work in your hiring process, here’s an example from a position I had to hire for in the past. Every day, the job required an ability to research and solve unique problems. We needed to know how someone would go about finding information to make an informed suggestion. The team also told us that two of the keys to success within our team’s culture were self-reliance and a sense of humor.
Thus, the fictitious “Great Cheese Wars of 1683” came to be.
Instead of asking how the interviewee would solve a problem they’d never encountered before, I walked them through a hypothetical situation. They would receive a $10,000 prepaid Visa card and a round-trip flight to New York City for a week’s stay.
Upon their return, they’d be asked one question: How many slices of pizza are sold in NYC annually?
It was up to them to determine how to reach the solution. The only catch was this: Because of the Great Cheese Wars of 1683, all pizza producers within the city were prohibited from divulging any sales information to anyone under penalty of an instant $50 fine. And, no, Google didn’t have the answer.
Answers to this question showcased:
- Critical thinking skills
- Research skills
- Listening skills
- Outside-the-box thinking
Obviously, there was no right answer. All we cared about was how they’d arrive at an answer and whether they could tell us why. And by doing it with a fun, unique question, we seeded the idea that working here was unlike working at other companies.
This was not the only offbeat question we asked; our interviewees also answered questions about marbles, the sound of colors and time-traveling penguins in sombreros. The interview has become legendary, but more importantly, over the course of over four years and 100+ hires, we struck success more than 95% of the time.
Invest time in the right hiring process
Remember, hiring is a two-way street and making sure you have the right person is more important today than ever before. Taking time to ensure your hiring process is driving to this outcome is time well invested.
For more hiring best practices, check out our “Staffing for Success” blog series, starting with Staffing 101.