Your hiring choices can make or break your business. While it is rare to make hiring choices that please everyone at your organization, here are some guidelines to help you get it right.

How to Hire the Best People

1. Look for Commitment in a Particular Field 

While looking at a candidate’s employment history, look at how long they have stayed at a particular job. Check to see if they change jobs a lot. You might want to ascertain if constant job changes are salary motivated.

This is important because it can help you gauge their commitment to a certain career path or lack of it. If you discover non-commitment, do not engage them.

2. Pass Candidates Through Pre-Employment Assessments

A resume and an oral interview can only tell you so much. Chances are the candidates will be prepared for the questions you are likely to ask.

Pre-employment assessments, on the other hand, can give you more valuable information. Further, they can be customized to test for the actual skills that are required specifically for your business.

An added benefit is that they help you identify top candidates faster, regardless of which stage of the hiring process you introduce them at.

You can use them at the start, to sift out less suitable candidates. Or towards the end when you have a handful of great candidates to help you settle on the best.

3. Explore Less Traditional Ways

Did you know that over 90% of companies today are choosing to recruit via social media? Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are becoming increasingly popular for hiring needs.

The fact that 45% of Fortune 500 companies post job openings on social media platforms speaks to its effectivity. LinkedIn, for example, works great for headhunting especially, and gives you the opportunity to profile suitable candidates way before you make initial contact.

It may be awkward to ask personal questions to a potential employee during an interview. Not so with social media. As a hiring manager, you can discreetly get information on who a candidate is. This is Information that is unlikely to be on a resume, and that gives you a clearer picture of the person. What you are looking for is a feel of who the person is, their values and if they seem like a good fit for your organization and its culture.

4. Have a Clear Job Description 

This is pivotal to the hiring process. Be as detailed as you possibly can be when developing a JD. The implications are two-fold. One, a clear and detailed job description will get you applications from candidates who strongly feel confident for the role. This sifts out the barely-there applicants. Secondly, it helps you tailor your interview questions and develop accurate pre-employment assessments.

Simply put, it’s easier to find something if you know what it is. Prepare scoring sheets based on the competencies required on the job description. Use these to score candidates systematically to identify the top scorers for the next phase of the recruitment process.

5. Manage Your Reputation

Your reputation matters when it comes to attracting the best skill in the market. Ensure you create and maintain a good reputation and package yourself as an employer of choice. Good talent is drawn to employers who are known to take good care of their employees as well.

Think flexi-time for mothers with infants or remote working for young techies. Have opportunities for growth and advancement. Think about your organizational culture and work-life balance. It no longer stops at the paycheck.

These things might be your edge over other companies in attracting and keeping the best talent in the market.

6. Reduce Dependency on References 

Yes, references are excellent. However, companies will give glowing recommendations to people they want to get rid of or even to ease their guilt for letting them go. While you can use them to ascertain work history, do not depend on them entirely to gauge competence. Opt instead to do a simulation over a couple of hours. This will give you a more accurate evaluation of a candidate’s skills and work style.

Over time, it becomes very costly to keep recruiting, training and re-hiring. It also affects your continuity as a business. With these tips, you are sure not just to attract the best people in the market, but also to retain them over a reasonable duration of time.