Hiring 101: Expert Tips for Hiring the Right Candidate

Michael McAllister

Michael is our Head of Division for the Commercial, Finance & Procurement team. He recruits both Interim and Permanent professionals, predominently into the Facilities Management sector.

The latest figures from the British Chambers of Commerce show that eight out of ten businesses are struggling to recruit. ONS data puts the number of open job vacancies in the UK at over a million.

With competition for talent so high, everyone wants to know how to fill their vacancies and get the right people. Here’s our top tips to help you with hiring the right candidate for the job.

so, how do you make them want you?

If you’re advertising a job but not giving any compelling reasons to come and work for your business, you might not be attracting the best talent. Salary isn’t the only thing candidates are looking for in their next career move, so you need to demonstrate your Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

What is an Employee Value Proposition?

EVP is what makes your business special
It’s the benefits of working for your company, beyond the salary package you are offering
It’s things like how you help create a work/life balance for employees and how you look after their wellbeing
It showcases your culture, what makes your company great to work for
It highlights the role employees play in achieving the company’s mission and goals
It shows the impact that employees can have and the opportunities to progress

Not sure what your EVP is? Sit down with your HR team or recruitment partner to work it through and ensure it’s a golden thread that runs through everything from your job adverts and job descriptions to candidate interviews and employee handbooks.

make it a blind date

Unconscious bias in the recruitment process often means great candidates get overlooked for shortlisting or hiring. You might think you are being completely open-minded and fair but if you make assumptions about people based on their work history or education, you might be missing out on a cracking candidate who just happens to have a back story.

Similarly, if you have a fixed idea about what your perfect hire looks like – maybe even down to their age, experience, and gender – you will unconsciously filter out people who don’t fit that description.

Five ways to cut out conscious and unconscious bias for hiring the right candidate:

Focus on the skills you’re looking for in your job descriptions
Remove gendered or ableist word choices – for example, stereotypically masculine-weighted words like self-confident, assertive or determined
Remove personal details from CVs
Screen candidates based on their current ability not their work history
No Uni, no problem! Remember, access to higher education can vary depending on a person’s socioeconomic background.

Most recruiters have standardised interviewing techniques to ensure unbiased benchmarking, so consider partnership working to ensure your business benefits from a diverse talent pool.

be keen, there may be others…

It’s easy to think that as a prospective employer, you hold all the cards in the pas de deux of recruitment. You don’t! With a shortage of talent in almost every industry, candidates are very much taking the lead and will undoubtedly have a choice of offers. Most will be speaking to up to five companies, so it’s up to you to convince them to join you over the others. You can help yourself in this respect by getting your recruitment in good shape with these tips.

Take your time

If you’re in a rush to recruit, you’re far more likely to settle for someone who isn’t right for the role or the team, just to get the vacancy filled. This is a false economy as you may end up needing to re-recruit for the role in a few months’ time when it doesn’t work out.

Bringing the wrong person into the team can also have a knock-on effect on other employees. For example, someone who doesn’t have the right skills may end up creating more work for others and you may find yourself having to not only replace the person you hired, but also the others who left as a result.

Put your trust in us to find your perfect match

Hiring the right candidate for your organisation requires more than a hastily written job description and a 15-minute trawl around LinkedIn. It requires an understanding of your culture, your company goals and your aspirations for the role. If you put your trust in a good recruiter who gets you and who understands the sector, they will go above and beyond to find the right candidate for you.

In an increasingly competitive talent market, having an experienced matchmaker might be just what you need to entice the best in the business to your business.