Recruiting the right person is a tough decision for any kind of business. Your employees are one of your most important business assets. So, obviously you want to make sure you are recruiting the right people to form the right team. The right human resources will help you achieve the right results. This essentially brings you and your business closer to your long-term goals. So, how do you go about recruiting? Here are some tips to help you make the right recruiting choices.

Know your company's culture

Before recruiting, you need to understand your own corporate (or un-corporate) culture. Make sure you have established your company's values and visions. Are you sure about what kind of people you need by your side? Who do you need to recruit to help you achieve your business goals? Brand consultants can help you establish your company's culture, if you haven't already done so.

Describe who you are looking for
Put together a detailed job description about who you're recruiting. Include information about your business. Explain who you're looking for, what the job requirements are, and what responsibilities the position entails. Having an in-depth description about who you're recruiting might avoid receiving spam applications. It will also help you find the relevant candidates who actually want the job, and are interested in your company.

Bonus tip: Include salary information to avoid wasting anyone's time (including yours). Recruiting is faster with transparency.

 

Ask the right interview questions

Once you're at your interviewing stage, make sure you know what to ask to get the right answers. As a result, you can make the right recruiting decisions. Try finding a good balance between job-related questions and character-focused questions. That way you can determine the pros and cons of each candidate. Understand what they're like as a person and as an employee. Also, let candidates ask their own questions. Both parties need to be sure they want to work together.

Bonus tip: Try avoiding cliché questions like "where do you see yourself in 10 years?"

 

Look for good character

Sometimes recruiting someone with character over skill may be more rewarding in the long run. You can always teach and train an employee to improve their skills, but you can't do much about their personality. Recruiting someone with a can-do attitude, great motivation and loyalty is sometimes much harder than finding someone with mere experience. If you see potential in someone you may want to groom the perfect employee (despite their lack of skills or experience). 

Filter your applications
Receiving too many CVs can be a recruiting nightmare. Going through all of them, and interviewing each and every candidate can seem almost impossible. Filter your candidates and fish out the right applicants. Acknowledge candidates and politely inform them that due to the volume of applications, they may not get a response if their application is unsuccessful. Courtesy costs nothing. However, if you're recruiting someone bilingual, then you can go ahead and focus only on those people, without feeling guilty.

Bonus tip: Set an automatic response (auto-reply) to all job application emails. 

Put your candidate to the test

If you're stuck choosing between recruiting two candidates, invite them both back for a second interview. Better yet, invite them to join you for a trial day. Have your candidates meet the rest of your team, and see what your colleagues have to say. Depending on the job role, you can also give candidates some test work. A task that's similar to what they would need to do on a day-to-day basis can prove (or disprove) their competence.

Call to check about references
Does anyone even bother checking candidates' references when recruiting? You definitely should! Hopefully your candidates have all managed to gain some kind of experience (and have added some references to their CVs). Asking around for a second opinion before recruiting is a great way to confirm positive impressions, opinions, suspicions, and finding out whether or not a candidate is right for your business. Word of mouth works, therefore, don't underestimate it.

 

Hopefully these important things to consider (and look out for) when recruiting have helped you put things into perspective. Now, are you ready to assemble your dream team and recruit the right person?

If you're too busy handling your day-to-day business, or feel like you lack the energy to go through the time-consuming and challenging process of recruiting, leave it to the recruitment specialist.

There are 38 Employment Agencies and 11 Human Resources & Personnel Consultants listed on yellow.com.mt — all waiting to help your business achieve success.