The best business leaders say that their secret to success has always been to hire the right people for the right job. Many would even say hiring employees that are smarter than the business owner is also the key to success. But how can companies do this? How can you know that you even have the right candidate, let alone the right job bit? We have answers.

Understand the Position You’re Hiring For 

You can hire great people but set them up to fail by putting them in ill-defined positions or failing to set expectations for their success. That’s why the first step toward making the right hire for the proper role is to have a very clear understanding of three things about the position you’re hiring for: 

  1. What are your expectations for this position? What does success look like? 
  1. How will the role and the employee interact with the existing team? 
  1. What happens after this role—what growth opportunities exist as a stepping stone from this position? 

The first step toward hiring the right person is to develop a clear job description that defines the employee’s responsibilities and what skills they’ll need to be successful.  

Next, you must define a kind of organizational chart that incorporates the position into your company’s overall big picture. Who will this candidate report to? What kinds of salary is possible in this role? 

Finally, define what this job will look like in five years. Will the role morph into something else, or will it start entry-level and move up to a senior position? 

If you can do all this on the back end of your job search, it will help you define the type of candidate you need. 

Finding the Right Candidate 

Once the job is clearly defined, it makes it much easier to find the right person. However, it’s just as important to find the candidate that fits the job description as fits the culture. Making sure your organization is hiring for cultural fit and work environment is critical to finding the right person for the job. Does your organization have a mission and values? If you don’t, you should, and you should hire candidates that believe in the same values your current team does.  

Defining the overarching mission of the company will help you get all of your employees rowing in the same direction toward this goal. Values are the cultural norms of the organization that define behavior. If you don’t believe corporate values and missions matter to your candidates, the latest data shows millennials would be willing to take less money in their paychecks to join a team where they fit in.   

All of these steps will help you ensure you’re hiring well, but there’s still one thing missing. 

To find the right candidate, you need a reliable applicant tracking system (ATS) that lets you systematically conduct a search for one or 1,000 candidates. Exelare offers our clients a crucial tool to help you find the right candidate quickly. Talk with our team about how we can streamline your hiring process.