No matter how much you spend on various aspects of your company or keep up with the latest technology and trends, your business will only be as good as your employees.

All your staff, from the lowest rung to the highest rank, represent a facet of your business to your clients or customers and to the world.

It is therefore important that you get the right person during your first try since hiring the wrong person can cost you more than just time and money.

Selecting the right recruit the first time around

According to seasoned recruitment consultants, when you choose the ideal person to add to your team from the get-go, you will save time and money through the following ways:

  • You won’t go through the whole time-consuming hiring process again. Recruiting the best talent for your company will ensure that all the time and effort you spent on getting a new staff won’t go to waste. If you chose the wrong person to hire, you just wasted a lot of time and energy. Unfortunately, you’ll also have to go through another time-consuming and tiring hiring cycle. This is something that can negatively affect your schedule, work, and overall business operations.
  • You’ll save time onboarding new employees who will just leave immediately. Training new employees, orienting them in detail about company processes and policies, and helping them fit into your team takes a lot of time. It can take even the most talented and experienced person months to reach optimal productivity and work seamlessly with your team. If you onboarded the wrong candidate, all the time spent on training and integrating them into the company would be fruitless, especially if this person leaves after just a few months.
  • You will reduce the overall cost of your hiring activities. The whole hiring process is one of the most expensive parts of any business operations. You will have to spend money on job vacancy ads, skills tests, and criminal background checks. When you hire the wrong person, aside from devoting additional time and energy to find a replacement, you will also pay for the same expenses. As such, you will double your recruitment cost. This is something that you could avoid when you hire the ideal candidate from the start.

Hiring the best employees

Adding people to your team who will fit in effortlessly, will understand your business goals, and contribute to achieving them is not impossible. You can do this by following these useful hiring and practices:

  • Have a great hiring strategy in place. Hiring the wrong candidate often stems from the mistake of not having or following a standard recruitment operating procedure. This is a mistake that small businesses tend to make. Having a hiring strategy from the start will help you avoid bypassing important steps such as not considering your company culture in choosing candidates. You will also be certain that your shortlisted applicants met all your requirements.
  • Be as specific as you can with your job description. Create a checklist of all the qualifications, skills, and requirements your ideal candidate should possess. Be as detailed as you can, but avoid being too specific with your job ads. The important thing is you have a list of everything you’re looking for and need in the new employees you want to hire. Some of the key items you can put on your checklist include:
    • All the tasks the new employee will have to take on. Aside from the usual ones, add some possible duties or responsibilities, if necessary.
    • Complementary skills.
    • Relevant experiences.
    • Personality traits that will help the employee have an easier time fitting in your company.
  • Consider the company culture. Every company has a culture. Each one has a unique way of approaching business, thinking, operating, and dealing with customers or clients. It is essential that you know the kind of culture your company has now and consider this when shortlisting your candidates. In general, it is always best to hire someone who will fit into your company culture. This is especially true if your team is already running smoothly.
  • Go through the interview process meticulously. Lastly, the interview is the best opportunity for you to assess all applicants and find out which one of them would fit in your company. Some helpful interview tips you can follow to find the most suitable employees include:
    • Come up with an assessment strategy on how to evaluate an individual’s suitability for your company culture.
    • Closely observe each candidate during the first few moments of the interview; meeting the candidates and shaking their hands for the first time will allow you to gauge their confidence and enthusiasm
    • Use the interview to know more about the candidate’s communication skills, personality, work habits, and perception of the job and his or her role within the company
    • Ask the candidates if they have any questions at the end of the interview; candidates who are really interested in working for your company will want to know to know more about your business just as much about you as you want to know about them

Following the right hiring formula will allow you to avoid a lot of hits and misses and ensure you will hire the ideal candidate from the start. This will ultimately allow you to gain new employees who will work well with your team and contribute greatly to the improvement and growth of your business.


Authors
David Mackenzie

A recruitment professional with over 20 years’ experience in the field and a record of entrepreneurial accomplishment, David Mackenzie is Managing Director and Head of HR at Mackenzie Jones. In 2003, David set up Mackenzie Jones in the UK, growing the business across two offices in London and Birmingham. In 2005 David established Mackenzie Jones in Dubai to serve the Gulf region and neighboring countries. As the Group MD, David is responsible for the overall direction of the Mackenzie Jones Group including Mackenzie Jones, MumsAtWork, MENA Solutions, Simply Digital and ThinkTech. You can follow David and Mackenzie Jones on Twitter @MacJonesME or connect with him on LinkedIn.