Rusty At Recruiting? A Short Guide To Finding Quality Candidates

If you want your business to be successful, then you need to hire the right people. The process of hiring and training a new employee can be expensive, and you want to make sure that money is well spent on employees who will be productive parts of your operation. Finding the best candidates all comes down to your recruiting process. Here are key tips on how you can fill open positions with the right people.

Write Detailed Job Descriptions for Available Positions

A detailed job description is a huge part of finding the right candidate. If you post the position on job listing sites, you can include the description to hopefully only receive applications from qualified candidates. Even if you don’t plan on using job listing sites, at least not right away, a job description still helps you hone in on exactly what you need in potential candidates.

A good job description should include information on what responsibilities the employee will have, along with the characteristics and experience they’ll need to possess to be successful. Narrow it down to anywhere from five to 10 qualifications. If you have more than that, it will bog down your hiring process and leave some candidates thinking that you’re too demanding.

Leverage Your Existing Personal and Professional Networks

Some of the best employees come via referrals, and it’s a good idea to reach out to people you know, both personally and professionally, to see if they have any recommendations. If your business already has employees, ask them if they have any recommendations on people to fill open positions.

Social media is another excellent tool to connect with good candidates. The two top social networks for this are LinkedIn and Facebook. LinkedIn is already focused on connecting with others professionally, and you could have qualified friends or friends of friends on there. Facebook doesn’t have that professional focus, but it can still work well for getting candidate recommendations.

Work with a Business HR Service

For large businesses, most or all of the hiring process typically falls on the HR department. Depending on the size of your business, you may not have an HR department ready to handle that. That’s where finding a business HR service to work with can be a huge help.

When you start working with a business HR service, you essentially get to outsource the tasks an HR department would be handling. This includes finding candidates for open positions and going through the hiring process. Some services even provide online programs with human resource management system features. You’ll still obviously have full control over who works for you, but you won’t need to commit nearly as much time to the process.

Search for Qualified Candidates on LinkedIn

We already mentioned seeing who you and your friends know LinkedIn to find candidates, but the social network also allows you to search among its users to look for potential job candidates. You can filter the search results to only look for users with specific qualifications, and then compare people based on their profiles.

Another benefit with LinkedIn is that you can check a user’s endorsements to see what skills they bring to the table. It’s good to take everything with a grain of salt, as anyone can endorse another user, but these can still help you get an idea of a person’s skillset.

Above all else, try to start your hiring process early. It’s better to have plenty of time to make your decision than to scramble to find the right candidate. Be patient and use the tips above to track down the ideal candidates for every open position.