With an overabundance of talent in today’s workforce, many potential employees share similar skillsets, making them eligible candidates for many companies and organizations. With so many qualified people out there, how can HR professionals determine which candidate would be the best fit for their company’s culture? While a potential job candidate might have a good skill set, it’s important to find the right person who can work well with other employees as part of a team to ensure the organization’s success. Below are a few ways that HR professionals can spot potential job candidates and find the right hire for their company.
Talk to current employees to obtain feedback
One of the best ways to find the right hire is to talk to your current employees. Current workers are in a good position to provide HR with information on the characteristics that they are looking for in a potential team member. To incentivize employees to contribute to this search, management and HR staff should consider rewarding the employees who recommend candidates with a bonus that could resemble a type of “finder’s fee.” HR staff can also use social media outlets to communicate to potential candidates the employee qualities that the company considers to be important.
Paid Internships as a recruitment ground
HR staff should consider recommending to management the creation of paid internships as a way of recruiting potentially permanent hires. Internships provide opportunities for employers and interns to ‘test drive’ their working relationship with each other. Employers can determine which interns are the most talented and the best match for their organization while interns can determine if the company is one in which they would like to remain within. Internships which subsequently lead to long-term employment, allow companies to hire individuals who are already well-acquainted with the company culture, who knows how things are done in the organization and so who can hit the ground running once hired.
Check places other than job boards
While perfectly good hires can be found on relevant job boards, it is important for HR staff to know that this is not the only place where potential job candidates can be found. The best hires might already be working at your company and you can use tools such as performance reviews to see in which areas some of your existing employees excel. In doing so, you can help employees to move laterally within the company and into roles which utilize their skillset in the best way.
Other areas in which HR can source potential candidates include chapters, organizations, and unions who are affiliated with your industry. Members of these organizations are typically already certified or accredited in their profession, so you know that you’ll have a group of good potential hires who have the skills needed for their job. You can also look to your competition to see who they are hiring and contact these individuals (albeit tactfully) via phone, email, or sites such as LinkedIn, if they show signs of wanting to look elsewhere for work.
Good potential hires are out there and HR staff should not solely rely on job boards to find them. By consulting employees within their own company, staying in touch with industry related organizations, and even looking to whom the competition is hiring, HR professionals can create opportunities to hire and retain only the best for their company.
