Hire Right the 1st Time

Hiring right the first time can save you a lot of time and your company a lot of money. Today forward thinking companies are using HSM's and new tools to choose the best candidates. If you are tasked with hiring responsibilities, here are some suggestions from Robert Half to improve your chances of hiring the right candidate:

• Know what you want. Don't recycle past job descriptions because chances are the role has changed. Take a fresh look at your needs and the skills you'd like to add to your team. A detailed job description will help reduce the number of resumes you receive from unqualified applicants.
• Look for the intangibles. A candidate's skill set isn't limited to functional abilities - it also includes how well he or she works in a collaborative environment. Employers that don't take soft skills such as leadership and communication into account may set themselves up for a bad match.
• Make a personal connection. Hiring is more than just identifying a strong resume or profile - it involves having conversations with applicants to establish a rapport. Interviews, for example, allow you to delve deeper into an applicant's qualifications while also assessing whether he or she is a fit for your corporate culture.
• Use all your resources. Though you may have the final say, hiring should never be a solo effort. Take advantage of the tools available to you at your organization - for example, human resources can help with the job description, and your employees may be able to offer referrals.
• Woo your top choices. In any economy, people in high-demand may have multiple job offers. You need to show them why they should choose your organization over a competitor. Sell the benefits of working with your firm, and offer a compensation package in line with - or ideally, above - market rates.

The Harrison Suitability Profile is designed to measure likely job satisfaction for specific jobs incorporating retention into its suitability score and providing reports that empower managers to identify and hire top talent. The Harrison Assessment uses an online smart questionnaire to provide a robust tool that can help in the sorting and selection of candidates, as well as provide an interview guide and a road map as to what types of compensation and other benefits your winning choice will be attracted to.

As the talented workforce continues to shrink, the battle for recruiting and retaining great talent gets harder and harder. It takes a company's commitment to invest in updating recruiting technology that delivers information on everything from the best hiring sources to team and employee performance. Hire right the first time.