Does your company’s performance seem to have plateaued? If so, it might be time to shake up your hiring process to focus on getting better candidates and better hires to help you take your company to the next level.
“Change is hard. It requires looking in the mirror, and that can be tough,” says Tammy Colson, CEO of TalentCrib. But making changes to your recruiting process ensures you’ll attract the people who want to be there, she says — and that directly affects your quality of hire.
Here are three tips from Colson for improving your quality of hire.
Focus on the Work, Not the Background
Take a look at your job ads and what they describe. If your advertisements focus more on the person and the experience or background they should have, Colson says, you’re bound to get candidates who aren’t as strong. “When you ask for a four-year degree with a certain background and so many years of experience, you’re not looking at the work, you’re looking at the person,” she says. Applicants as well as hiring managers will focus on matching the requirements between candidate and position.
It’s a simple enough tactic to make your job ads focus more on the role, Colson says. They should describe the work that the person in the role is going to do and the results they need to achieve. Job ads and interview questions that focus more on the work will result in a better quality of hire, Colson says, as candidates will better understand the position and whether they’re a good fit.