Today’s business landscape has become increasingly volatile with higher turnover rates than before. Between trends like the Great Resignation and “quiet quitting”, companies can expect to face a tougher time retaining employees – for example, a Gartner study1 found that voluntary turnover is expected to spike by 20% in the US this year compared to before the pandemic.
As such, it has become more important than ever to hire the right people to reduce operational disruptions, mitigate risks and lower costs.
With more people switching jobs at a higher frequency, businesses need to be more careful when hiring. This means developing robust hiring strategies and ensuring candidates’ CVs are vetted thoroughly to avoid bad fits.
Choosing the wrong candidate will cost the company in terms of time, resources and reputation. In fact, research has shown that the organisational costs of a turnover can range from 100% to 300%2 of the employee’s salary, while the US Department of Labor found that the average cost of hiring the wrong candidate is approximately 30% of the worker’s first-year salary.3
So, how does a company ensure it picks the right candidate and how can HR leaders tell if a job applicant is being truthful on their CV? Here are five things companies should pay attention to when it comes to preventing bad hires.
5 Important Tips for Hiring The Right Candidate
1. Set the job expectations clearly
To find an employee that’s a good fit, it’s important for the company to not just match qualifications on paper, but also define and establish its corporate culture so that there’s a mutual understanding between the business and the candidate regarding the role.
If the job listing doesn’t clearly outline what the company is looking for in a candidate, it risks the possibility of getting workers who are either less qualified than they appear to be, or bad cultural fits, which can affect team productivity and morale.
It’s therefore critical that the company develops a hiring framework and strategy to align its HR department with the company’s vision and hiring objectives.
By developing an effective hiring strategy, the potential of securing the best workers will increase while the risk of hiring an unqualified candidate will decrease.
2. Standardise your hiring process
When the company has developed the optimal hiring strategy, it should also aim to standardise the hiring process. This involves establishing interview protocols, including how the interview is conducted, the number of rounds that will be needed and the types of questions that candidates are asked.
In addition, companies should ensure that their hiring criteria are updated to fit the talent they hope to hire. Conducting job interviews with missing key criteria and qualifications required of candidates will lead to a waste of time and resources, and the business may end up hiring workers that cannot perform according to the company’s expectations.
3. Assess your candidate thoroughly
Every potential hire should be assessed in work competency, personality and cultural fit. Skills testing can easily help the company identify and evaluate the candidate’s current and potential ability, helping the hiring manager gain qualitative data regarding their skills.
This not only allows the company to get an up-to-date perspective on how well the candidate can perform, but also helps keep the candidate engaged and allows them to demonstrate their capabilities efficiently.
Cultural assessments are also vital for any business. By conducting a comprehensive personnel assessment, companies will gain deeper insight into the potential hire’s personality and behaviour, helping them get a clearer picture of whether or not the candidate is suitable for the role.
4. Use a hiring platform or recruitment company
There’s always an element of risk when hiring. However, it’s possible to reduce this by partnering with a recruitment company.
While this may contribute to added upfront costs in the hiring process4, the help of expert recruiters who are experienced in finding the best candidates can go a long way in preventing bad hires for the company.
Additionally, it can be beneficial to use a job portal that caters to certain specialist roles. By leveraging these industry- and job-specific sites, companies can filter through a large number of candidates and narrow down their potential hire list to find a person who matches their requirements as closely as possible.
5. Perform pre-employment screening
Every job seeker wants to ensure that their resume looks as impressive as possible to land their next big job. This can lead to several challenges for companies when interviewing potential hires as they may not be entirely truthful in their resume.
To combat this, companies must do their due diligence and conduct pre-employment screening to verify that the information provided is accurate and truthful.
While there are some myths about the overall effectiveness of pre-employment screening and whether it’s necessary for smaller companies, the fact is that having a neutral third party conducting this check can play a big role in preventing a bad hire. This will ultimately save the company time and money required in hiring and training the candidate.
Prevention is better than cure
There are many pitfalls when it comes to the job market today. With high turnovers and many job seekers fighting for the best opportunities available, there are bound to be situations where a candidate turns out to be less than ideal.
By ensuring that job expectations are set, hiring processes are consistent and background checks are done appropriately, companies can decrease the chance of a bad hire and filter out candidates who are not truthful in their CVs. Get in touch with us to learn how you can begin your pre-employment screening process.
