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How to Choose the Best Candidate or Applicant for a Job

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Recruiting employees for an organization can be a thought-provoking task. When a wrong candidate is hired, then it leads to expense and waste of time.

On the other hand when a right candidate is picked, good employee productivity, booming employee relationship and also an affirmative work environment is obtained.

When the right applicant is picked, the work culture around you is enhanced, payment in the form of productivity is got back to the organization, advanced thinking and planning is accomplished, and challenging goals are met.

There are a number of aspects to be peeped into in order to pick the right candidate for employment. Let’s glance through a few points.

How to choose the best candidate for a job

1. A good description of the job prior hiring:

Job analysis is the initial step for hiring an employee. Through job analysis one can gather information regarding essential skills, responsibilities, duties, results and work environment for a particular job. To assemble the right candidate for a particular job, a perfect job description is necessary. For job analysis a few activities to be glanced through are

  • Brushing up the responsibilities of a job for the employees.
  • Making a comparison with other job descriptions online or either offline which highlight similar jobs.
  • Assess the duties, tasks and responsibilities which the employee needs to fulfill for that particular position.
  • Researching and discussing with other companies about similar jobs
  • The more clearly the job description is mentioned, the right candidates would appear for recruitment.

2. Plan your recruiting team:

With the job description ready, gather a recruiting team which holds key employees who are for recruitment purpose. The hiring manager is the key person who plans a recruiting strategy. The execution starts with this team, and employees who possess experience in recruiting can accomplish this task in a better way.

3. Follow a checklist for recruiting employees:

To make a perfect and orderly recruitment process plan, follow checklist during a recruitment process. The process should be systematic and more over keeping track of checklist in this process eases your efforts. By following checklist, the progress is updated to the hiring manager and also the candidate.

4. Fix yourself with hiring standards:

It is mandatory to follow a criterion in the hiring process and behave strict throughout the complete process. There should never be an instant where the recruiter changes the rules to employ a candidate they desire. There are three common pits that occur during the hiring process.

  • The halo effect is one aspect where the recruiter gets delighted with one particular aspect such as appearance, credentials, or interest of the employee.
  • The cloning effect is another aspect which is hiring someone who is not fit for the job.
  • Third is picking the candidate you like.

All these aspects can be avoided in a recruitment process when a standard criterion is followed.

5. E mail communication:

The basic interview process starts with an email application. The immediate acknowledgment from the candidate is ample enough to show that the candidate is much interested in the job vacancy. When the candidate is responsive to emails and reads them, then they are eligible for the next level of process.

6. Screening through phone:

phone interview screening

A phone screening is conducted before setting forward for an interview. A conversation through phone helps to know whether the candidate is enthusiastic and articulate. By making a conversation through phone you can also get to know the reason for the candidate’s interest in this job.

7. Collection of application:

There are numerous tools popped up these days which help in recruitment process. Online application tracking systems are available which assists in assessing candidate’s applications, share with the recruitment members and measure up candidates online.

8. Never believe Resume completely:

A traditional resume is not the only aspect to be focused on when recruiting an employee. Though there are lot of things a resume has to tell you, there are many factors which are apart from the resume. It is always best suggested to look beyond to pick the right candidates.

9. Glance through every application:

It is best to take more time and look into the application over letter. Check whether applicants have worked on for a personalized and interesting cover letter and also follow up. Candidate with an interesting cover letter are meant to pay attention to her details.

10. Apart from questions let them do the job:

Test for candidates

When its recruitment, it’s always bunch of questions about work, interest, previous work and so on. It would be a better choice to perform their job tasks rather than speaking them out. For instance, if it’s a customer care or BPO segment you can ask them to attend mock calls. If the job is for developers announce them to prepare coding section.

11. Usage of references:

References can be utilized in the right way; you can always ask the candidates to provide references. To reference, a number of aspects and doubts can be clarified, they tell a lot about character, sense of humor and lot more. When the candidate is more serious type or a very humorous person, may not fit into the organization.

12. Take time for decision:

When you rush and end up with decisions in a very short time, it’s sure to end up by picking the unqualified candidate. Making decisions out of urgency may result with over estimation of marginal candidates as perfect ones. It is always suggested to take your own time for decision and recruitment.

13. Offer comfort to the employees:

Initiate the interview with normal and easier questions and later build on to complex ones. This will relieve the candidate and pave way for you to ask more questions. Reading through the resume is another important part of the interview so that you engage in conversation with the candidate. Speaking about hobbies and interest will deepen the relationship and release tension for the candidate.

14. Seek minimal help for conclusion:

Interview team

When filling up an important position or making a final decision, it is suggested to avoid too many people to decide. When many people open up their suggestion it would be a compromise. Three to five decision makers is ample who knows the company culture, working style and charisma of the hire manager. All these category of hurdles can be overcome with multiple interview panels. This will help in perfect decision during the final decision.

15. Employ trail periods:

It is always better to test and trail the employee before making them permanent. Trail periods can be a few weeks of employment like internship or probation with a descent salary. By this period the candidates performance would show whether they are fit for the company or not.

16. Good interview question:

It is always a better option to ask for job related and performance based questions in the interview. Their past experience and performance can make way for them for employment. Review responsibilities and raise questions which will update you about their performance which is apt for your job.

17. Conducting interviews:

Pick out an interview arena without obstacles, hindrances and disturbances. A friendly and comfy place can be the right choice for an interview where you initiate with a smile and thank the candidate for coming.

18. Shortlist Candidates:

Shortlisting candidates

Apart from all the processes, shortlisting candidates are the next step. In certain organizations, short listed candidates are offered case studies which are close together to the actual job. The assigned case study along with mandatory back ground details are asked by the candidates to be submitted back within a fixed period of time. After this process is done, a committee would take up the hiring decisions depending upon the performance done on the case studies.

19. Background checks:

The candidates who are to be employed are subjected to background checks for various reasons for finalist’s credentials. These effective back ground checks are very important before recruiting an employee. It is important to check out that the credentials, skills and experience are the candidate’s asset. The back ground check involves a number of aspects, where a few of them are work references, educational certification, criminal history, and actual jobs held.

20. Double check many sources:

Though many checking and assessment for the candidate is accomplished, hiring experts come to a conclusion that ample information is not available from their sources. It is suggested not to depend on the information on just a single source but make a wide view on all the available sources.

21. ‘Top of mind Syndrome’ can be restricted:

During the employment process make sure to stay alert and focused to other external factors. There are instances where employers pick candidates across others. The key reason behind this aspect is that these people are interviewed later and they are considered fresh in recruiters mind. So it is best suggested to stay focused on the interview process.

22. Pre-screening is mandatory:

Pre-screening is a vital part in any interview process, by following pre-screening the time of the selection process is saved. A candidate can be best on paper but may not, when it comes to meeting up. With this pre-screening process, it is quite easy to make sure whether the candidate is fit for the particular job, and if the individual is satisfied with the salary norms.

23. Job interview questions matter a lot:

It is important to focus more on job interview questions during the hiring process. Interview is a strong tool for recruitment and the questions probed here are important as they open up the importance of picking the right employee. Interview questions are the best tool which helps in parting average candidates from best ones. Job interview questions are thus important.

24. Selection:

Selecting candidates for a job

Review and analyze the applications again for selection process. Make a meeting with other hirers who has interviewed the same applicant. The candidate to be picked should fulfill the qualification required as well as job criteria. Though there may be masses of applications that fulfill the same, the candidate to be picked should be nearer to the requirements.

25. Offering job:

Offering job must be made orally as well as in written form. After successful recruitment process the right employee can be picked and offered the job.