Throughout 2018, a competitive job market had many employers struggling to find the top CT job candidates for their open positions. How will 2019 turn out? Time will tell. But to be successful in your organization’s hunt for the best of the best, follow these 4 proactive hiring tips.
#1 – Write Good Job Descriptions
As we’ve shared here before, the path to hiring a great job candidate starts with a great job description. It’s one of the most critical elements of any hiring process and it lays the foundation for attracting and keeping the best employees for your organization.
- Don’t forget the essentials when writing your job description. Include Job Title and Job Summary, Duties & Responsibilities, Skills & Qualifications, Salary/Benefits and Contact Information.
- Consider adding a Purpose Statement which highlights your company’s mission and culture.
- Include language that touches on the importance of the position, any potential career growth opportunity, and how the position and the candidate will contribute to the success of the organization.
- Avoid generalizations when highlighting the job duties don’t use ambiguous words that can be open to interpretation (like some, multiple, frequently, complex, etc.)
- Keep your job descriptions up to date – and always try to be improving upon the descriptions for the primary job duties and required skills.
#2 – Conduct an Awesome Job Interview
A thorough, productive job interview can be the difference between hiring the best person for the job – or losing the best person for the job to another employer.
- Before the interview takes place, do these pre-interview drills – carefully review the candidate’s resume. Review the job description you’re hiring for. Draft any questions you may have after reviewing their cover letter, resume and application. Be ready to answer any questions the candidate might have.
- At interview time, don’t rush the process. Stay on topic and take enough time to ask questions and listen to what the candidate has to say. Many experts say 80% of the interview conversation should be led by the candidate. Put your listening ears on!
- Assess the candidate’s skills and qualifications for the job, but also take note of their soft skills. These are equally, if not more important, than hard skills. Evaluate their level of enthusiasm, temperament, their attitude about being a team player, and their willingness to be flexible.
#3 – Leverage an Employee Referral Program
Your current employees often hold the key to finding more amazing employees for your organization.
By establishing an employee referral program, you can leverage the professional and personal networks of your current workforce, while acknowledging them for their help in the recruiting process. If it’s feasible, offer a bonus to employees who help refer successful hires to your organization. And always encourage employees to share job postings with friends, family or colleagues who might be a good match.
#4 – Hire a CT Staffing Firm
Staffing agencies are playing a bigger role in providing employment services to companies of all sizes. Just in the state of Connecticut, there are more then 230 staffing agencies that employ over 130,000 people each year.
Most staffing agencies can support the hiring needs of an employer through temporary/contract staffing, temp-to-hire staffing and direct hires/permanent placement services. For direct hire positions, an agency like A.R. Mazzotta helps the employer find talent and hires the candidate directly on behalf of the employer. Most agencies offer a 90-day guarantee for direct hires. At A.R. Mazzotta, we offer a 6-month replacement guarantee with 100% protection for the first 90 days of employment.
The services and benefits that a CT staffing firm can offer are many. In addition to their hiring services, many firms offer job posting and resume screening services and pre-employment skills assessments. Not to mention access to a vast network of active and passive job candidates – and the ability to streamline the recruiting-interviewing-hiring process and get more qualified hires in the door faster.
Contact A.R. Mazzotta and start off 2019 with the top CT job candidates you can get! Get started.
Sources:
Ten Tips to Hire the Right Candidate