Employees are the heart and soul of most businesses and without them, the business would fail to operate. Unfortunately, the top talent in any industry is highly sought after and is likely already gainfully employed. So how do you find the best available individuals who are hunting in the job market? Follow these tips to help find top talent that will help your business thrive.
Employee Referrals
As they say, birds of a feather flock together. If you are looking to fill a position, you might first provide your current employees with a small incentive for referrals. They may already know someone who would be a perfect fit for your organization. Plus, since your current employees already understand your organizational culture, they’ll be able to discern if their friend or acquaintance is a good fit for your organization or not. After all, they wouldn’t want to vouch for someone who would be a terrible fit. That would reflect poorly on them as an employee, and could harm their reputation.
Consider Job Ad Placement
Not all job advertising mediums were created equally, and you need to consider where your desired candidates go to look for employment opportunities. While Craigslist might sound appealing at first, do you really think someone seeking a management position or highly technical role is going to go look there first? Probably not. In addition, advertising jobs in the wrong places could cause a flood of the wrong type of people – which only results in wasted time and energy for your current employees and HR staff.
Make Sure Your Job Descriptions are Accurate
This step is crucial to attracting the right talent. You need to give a lot of thought to your job descriptions and ensure that they paint an accurate picture for potential candidates. Be as specific as possible and explain the requirements and expectations in great detail. This may sound like a no-brainer, but you might be surprised just how many job descriptions fail to create accurate job descriptions – which creates hoards of emails and applications from unqualified individuals.
Well-Rounded Employees
There is a lot more to an employee’s value than their knowledge and skills. One thing you should be especially concerned with is their track record and ethical history. This is where background checks come into play, and you need to be extremely diligent with this part of the hiring process. You are likely better off hiring someone slightly less talented with a perfectly clean history than someone slightly more talented with red flags in their background check. You are better off not taking the risk. One unethical employee is all it takes to set your business back years and years. And the worst part? Unethical practices could result in fines that crush your profits.
Business Consulting You Can Trust
If you need help structuring your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to John M. Ruh and Associates. Too many businesses make the same old mistakes, and your business is better off finding help you can trust.
Written by John Ruh
John M. Ruh and Associates are mission based business advisors who partner with growth oriented leaders to create the right P.S.T. support: the right People, the right Structure and the right Tools.