Is your hiring process the best it can be?

Hiring the right employee can be a challenging process. With an influx of resumes, names and potential new hires coming in the door, how can your company streamline the process for a better, more focused applicant pool?
Maintaining a successful, effective process for choosing employees is crucial.
Millennials, for example, seem to be everywhere in the news today. Should you hire them? Are they good candidates for your specific business? As the now largest applicant pool to choose from, some believe they should take them solely because are all that’s out there. This reasoning couldn’t be further from the truth.
Millennials are controlling the media consumption, technology and spending of 2015. Despite being portrayed as disloyal to their jobs, millennial actually stay with their employees longer than their Generation X counterparts did at the same age.
Once these millennials find a workplace that shares their same values, allows their voices to be heard and uses innovative technology they stay. And really, isn’t that what every new hire, from any age bracket, wants in terms of a new position?
HR departments should stop focusing solely on millennials, and focus instead on their expectations, and how it relates to the other side of the applicant pool. Millennials may make up the largest choice of applicants, but catering to only their needs and desires could eliminate interest from a more diverse background of potential new hires. Although other applicants may share these desires, meeting somewhere in the middle in terms of benefits and expectations is crucial for the inclusion of everyone.
As a whole, HR departments should structure their hiring process for all types of applicants to ensure a better, more diverse group of new employees.
How else can an HR department change their hiring process?

• Be clear about expectations: During an interview and possible follow-up meetings, be sure to define exactly what the job entails. A candidate should be ready to tackle all responsibilities the first day, and knowing each part of it beforehand will only help streamline the process.
• Create an optimal employee checklist: Make a list of qualities you would like your new hire to posses. As you interview candidates see if this changes or remains the same. No candidate may be perfect for the job if the list is 100 bullet points long. Narrow down your list, and understand why exactly each part is important, before the process begins.
• Ensure they are the “right fit”: Does this potential employee fit into your company culture? Will they “click” with other team members? Finding someone who can communicate and collaborate with others is a vital component.
• Look at older job practices for highlights and changes: As the new workforce emerges, changes will be made. Take a minute to seriously look at how your business operates, what seems to work and what hasn’t for a while. Noting this information ahead of time will help determine the candidate that can evolve as you do.
• Recruit your team to help: During the new hire process, ask for feedback and help from the rest of your team. They may know the perfect candidate, or what the office needs in a new hire. Utilizing your team as a resource is a great way to find the right person.

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