How to Hire the Best Talent

Hiring top talent isn’t easy. In many cases, a candidate may be very impressive at the interview, but doesn’t perform as well on the job. In today’s fast-paced environment, it’s important to hire the correct people for your company.
Bayt.com experts provide five practical tips that can help you do so.

1. Have a well-defined job description
Talented professionals have a very clear vision of where they want to be, and before applying for any job, they want to know what will be expected of them. Try rectifying any vagueness in your job description, and highlighting challenging aspects of the role. Another trick is to make your language less formal and more personal. Try using “you” as much as possible, with phrases such as “you will be responsible for” or “you should be experienced in”. Five in 10 professionals would want to work for a place where they feel their work is part of a greater purpose according to the Bayt.com ‘What Makes a Company an Attractive Place to Work?‘ poll, February 2014.

2. Improve your interviewing skills
It’s best to utilize interview time to be creative and ask clever questions, instead of standard ones, such as “tell me more about yourself”. You could discuss case studies or potential scenarios related to the job. You could also give the candidate an assessment. For example, if you are hiring for the position of a content writer, you could ask the candidate to come up with five lines that describe your brand effectively and so forth.

3. Ask for the right references
Often, references mentioned on the CV are biased and would not provide accurate accounts about the candidate’s past. Instead, you could ask the candidate for the contact details of their direct boss or HR manager. They are likely to be more honest with their recommendation.

4. Brand yourself as an employer of choice
In order to attract talented professionals, you need to brand yourself as a company that values its employees, especially online. Nowadays, social media is proving to be a great employer branding platform, with endless opportunities to share your company culture, news, updates, photos and much more. The intention is to connect you with your target job seeker audience. By offering regular insights into your organization you start to build a community of top-notch potential candidates. In fact, 76% of professionals will always turn to the internet to research a company when considering a job opportunity, according to the Bayt.com ‘What Makes a Company an Attractive Place to Work?‘ poll, February 2014.

5. Always check for cultural fit
Cultural fit has gained increased prominence among hiring managers recently. An assessment of the cultural fit allows a recruiter to go beneath the surface of a candidate’s skills, qualifications, and relevant experience to determine whether the candidate’s “on-the-job” behavior is consistent with the values and expectations of the organization. As a hiring manager, you want to hire the job applicant who, in addition to the required skills and qualifications, exhibits the best fit within your organization’s culture.
If you follow these five tips, you will attract top talent in no time, and ensure organizational success.