If you are a business owner or perhaps the hiring manager at your place of work, you might often wonder: “how do I hire the right person to fit particular roles?”. This challenge is not far-fetched as the labour market is filled with very qualified and seemingly qualified folks. As a matter of fact, the larger population of people that must have applied for a job role are qualified for that particular role – considering academic qualifications and professional certifications, by the way.

Being qualified for a job role goes way past having the right academic qualifications and certifications. It also goes beyond years of experience. These, notwithstanding go a long way in determining how qualified individuals seeking job positions are. But, there are many other qualities that you must find in a job seeker before you conclude on whether or not they qualify for the roles they seek. This article will discuss how a recruiter should go about hiring the right person for a job role. 

HIRING THE RIGHT PERSON

Job seekers often prepare well for job screening processes. They apply for jobs with polished and well-drafted resumés. Even the interview sessions are not left out as job seekers go as far as rehearsing answers to interview questions. The internet is filled with many articles on how to ace job interviews. These are the reasons why job recruitment is now a herculean process for job recruiters. Job recruiters are often faced with the challenge of who to pick for job roles.  It now comes back to the question of “how do I hire the right person?”

The following are ways to go about hiring the right person(s):

• Skip the norms.

The idea that comes to mind when people hear of an interview, is a meeting held in a conference room, upon submission of your resumé, to which you must be punctual for, and are expected to provide correct answers to questions you’d be asked. Questions like, “why do you want to work with us?”, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”, “Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?”, and so on are always asked.

 As expected, the person who would most likely be offered the job would be the candidate that synced well with the recruiter or that candidate that gave impressive answers to the recruitment questions. Later into the job things may start going wrong and the recruiter might start regretting why he hired that particular person for the role. This kind of scenario always plays out in job recruitment settings just because the recruiter followed the norm which the job seeker would be a fool not to be prepared for. 

To avoid such mistakes, a recruiter must make sure they work outside the box. There are better ways to go about job recruitment processes asides the norms. Job recruiters should be creative and think of ways to understand how their interviewees think. They must be well aware that interviewees are always prepared for common interview questions. They must try to put the interviewees in situations where they will show their true colours. You may want to ask some of your trusted employees to join you in the recruitment process as you are definitely not going to be the only one to work with the selected candidates. Also, make sure you listen to your employees that would be helping you through the recruitment process.

• Take note of key qualities.

The time you would have with your prospective employee during recruitment is not enough to completely learn of them. This notwithstanding, it is possible to subtly learn of some of the qualities they possess if they fall into the job description. You can learn of this by doing something unconventional or informal. You may share a meal with them or just take them around the workplace. Introduce them to some of your staff. 

While at these, you must make sure you are well observant to know if they are genuinely interested in what the organization does. You must also observe whether or not they are curious. Do they ask questions? Or just accept everything you say hook, line and sinker in a bid to be in your good book? When you introduced them to your staff, did they treat everyone equally or were they only warm to the people with titles? Can they hold a conversation? Do they look people in the eye when communicating?

All these might seem as though they do not matter but they are subtle ways to know whether a candidate is qualified for a job role in spite of their well drafted resumés and good looks.

• Ask unusual questions.

There are several ‘out-of-the-box’ questions recruiters can ask interviewees to find out how sincere and honest they are. These questions will not be anticipated by the interviewees, but a smart and honest person would provide answers to them, and truthfully so. Interviewers may ask questions like these:

1. What abilities do you possess that you can never fail at?
2. What do you like the most about your parents?
3. Are there any misconception (s) people have about you? What are they? What quality do you possess that you wish you didn’t have?
4. etc.

These questions may not seem job related but they go a long way in uncovering who they truly are.

• Ask around

Asides the internal recruitment process, you can also ask around about the candidate. Former employers and close colleagues who may have worked with the candidate can come in handy. Also, social media can also be a very valuable resource. You can learn about people from their social media. In this 21st century, it is not unusual for you to get information about people on their social media pages. Go to their Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media pages and what you’d see might surprise you.

Other things to consider if you will hire the right person include:

• Make sure they have skills that are lacking in your workforce. Go for diversity
• Do not hire based on bias.
• Most importantly, follow your instincts.