Your company hires people all round the year almost and they invest hundreds of dollars on this. But all this investment will go for a toss if you hire the wrong people.

1. How to improve your Hiring/Recruitment and
Selection Process
Your company hires people all round the year almost and they invest hundreds of dollars on this.
But all this investment will go for a toss if you hire the wrong people. After the hiring process is
over the training period starts where you will get to know whether your choice was perfect or not. If
they fit the bill, then it is alright otherwise you are stuck with a bunch of people who are not right
for the job. What do you do then? This is the reason it is important that you improve the hiring
process and make it much more organized so that you select the right candidates. There are several
things that you have to take into account when you are starting a recruitment process and as a hiring
manager it will be your responsibility to see to it that everything is going according to the plan. All
these will only be possible when your company follows the best talent selection procedure, but in
most cases the companies lack consistency and are not thorough with the process. Due to this the
end result becomes a complete disaster. The recruitment is a process and not an event and it should
be treated that way only.
Here are some pointers that will help you in improving the hiring process of your company –

2. 1. Come up with a proper job description – The job description is the first step towards
successful hiring. You need to provide proper information about the requirements of the job and the
skills that are important for the job position. If you come up with too little information about the job
position, then you will be flooded with applications which are not even worth taking a look and in
case you come with too many accountabilities then there are chances that you will be losing out on
deserving candidates as well. Therefore, you need to be accurate and concise while writing the job
description. The perfect job description will be the one which will explain the expectations that you
have from the candidates and also the mandatory skills for the job position.
2. Asking the perfect questions in an interview –
When you are conducting an interview it becomes very important that you select the right set of
questions for the candidates to figure out how talented they are. If you keep on asking irrelevant
questions, then you are wasting your time and the candidate’s time as well. Moreover, you will not
be able to gauge whether the candidate is fit for the job position or not. If you are in search of
critical information about the candidate, then it becomes all the more important that you evade an
unstructured interview. In order to avoid premature decisions in favor or against the applicant it
becomes necessary that you chalk out specific questions.
3. Maintaining a timeline –

3. In the beginning of the interview if you can convey the time period of each stage, then it will be
better for your company as well as the candidates who are appearing in the interview. If you have
any written test mention the time that they will get in order to complete the test in the timeline, so
that the candidates are aware of the time limits. The main objective of this is to maintain the
timeline that you have set for yourself to wrap up the whole interview process. The time consumed
during the interviewing process may differ a bit, but do not stretch it too far by asking questions that
are not related to the job position.
4. Coming up with a response – If you are saying that you will inform the candidates later then
make sure that you do that. The candidates will be waiting for your response, therefore you need to
set a goal for yourself that you have to follow stringently. If you think that it will take some time
before you can start responding to the candidates then communicate that to them. Tell them that you
will contact them after 3-4 days so that you have the time to go through the list of the applicant and
make your pick.
5. The end result is important –

4. When you are conducting the interview then what is the thing that you are looking for – is it hiring
rapidly or is it hiring correctly. If it is the latter, then you have to organize everything accordingly.
You must keep on reminding yourself that you are there to select the right candidate for the vacant
job position and you will see that your work has become much easier.
6. Jot down the key elements –

5. In order to make the correct decision you will have to create a scorecard where you can score your
candidates based on the educational qualifications, certificates they have, training and work
experience he possesses. The standard should be equal for everybody and it will help you in
avoiding the biasness as well.
7. Train your interviewers properly –

6. Conducting the interview correctly is not everybody’s cup of tea, therefore it is important that you
train your interviewers properly. If you want to get the best possible result by ensuring consistent
structure, then you need to go for the training. If you have someone in the office who is an expert in
this and he is responsible for taking all his interview, then it is different, but if you are looking for
assistance then training interviewers becomes a must. It will help you maintain the standard and the
end result will be exactly what you wanted. The interview will be conducted in a consistent manner
and it will remove all kinds of ambiguity too.
8. Looking for references – Do you think the candidates will provide you with contact information
about their previous boss when they know that they might speak ill about them? No is the answer,
then why bothering them with that. Instead, you decide whom you want as reference and ask for the
same in the interview. This will also help you to study the body language of the candidates. You can
either go for the former colleague or the professor or even the friends who will be able to give you
some solid information about the candidate.
9. Checklist prepared beforehand –

7. It is always better that you prepare the checklist beforehand, so that in case someone questions you
about how fair you have been in the interview process, then you can show them how they were
scored in each round as per the checklist. In the list you can also come up with the bunch of
questions that you need to ask the candidates during the interview. It will also help if someone
challenges you as they will see for themselves that every candidate was asked the same question
and they are scored as per their answer. Asking the same questions to everybody only if they are
appearing for the same position will help you in assessing who the right one is. It will be even better
if you can take a memo on how the candidates replied in bullet points.
10. Staying connected with the candidates – Now with the presence of the social media
networking everybody is using the platform to the optimum level. As a company you can also use
the platform of LinkedIn, which is the professional networking media to keep in touch with the
candidates who have appeared in the interview even when they haven’t got selected. In the future if
there is a requirement of staffing then you can call them back. It is also nice to stay connected with
the professionals who have left your company and also with the people with exceptional talents, so
that if required you can utilize their talents in the future.
11. Take the help of software – You will find recruitment software too, so if you think that you are
not equipped properly for organizing the interview in a structured manner then it is best to take the
help of technology. It will help you in simplifying the workflow for you moreover if you are using
the system for applicant tracking then nothing can get better than that. It is highly effective and is a
perfect solution for any type of company.
12. Have a hiring team prepared –
When the requirement for a particular position have surfaced, then from day one you need to start
working together to hire a perfect candidate for that job position. In order to do that you have to sit
down with the team members with whom the candidate will be working after getting hired, and they
will be able to tell you what the requirements are in that position, the top managers will tell you
what they are looking for in the deserving candidate. Apart from these members the hiring team will
naturally have the HR and the hiring manager.
13. Being flexible is the key – There is no hard and fast rule that you have to follow in order to

8. select the right candidate for the job. But that doesn’t mean if you are not getting the perfect
candidate, then also you will have to continue with the same structure. Instead, try and be flexible
so that you can adapt to the changes that is required in order to make the process of selecting an
effective one.
14. Test your candidates –
Even when you like to believe what is written in the resume is absolutely correct, the fact remains
that mostly the candidates exaggerate the truth. Therefore, there is only one way of testing whether
they are lying or not and that is through written test or may be role playing in case the candidate is
appearing for a PR job. You can either ask them to write down a press release to know whether they
have done that prior to this or not. Within minutes you will know whether they are lying or telling
the truth.
15. Mention the salary on offer – In order to attract the best candidates you have to lure them with
something and in this case salary is the key. When you are coming up with the job description make
sure to include the salary. Even the benefits will also work just fine if you are curbing down the
salary, but remember as a recruiter you need to have something extra in order to attract the most
efficient candidates towards your company. Now if you are a small company who is not in the
position to offer big money then you need to work on other things that you can offer like the
opportunity to work from home may be. Think about the opportunities that you can offer in order to
stand out in the crowd and make the applicants take notice of your company.