How to find the perfect candidate for your team
MANY employers often presume that finding a candidate from a pool of potential employees is a straightforward task.
Where many employers fall short is failing to recognise their candidate’s skills as only part of what they are looking for in a future employee — a significant part but on their own not enough to call them the “right fit”.
Any manager knows all too well what a bad hire can cost their business, or alternatively the value a great recruit can add to their team. Out of the entire recruitment process, making an informed selection decision is one of the most complex and it cannot be taken lightly.
Ultimately you need to find someone who fulfils the responsibilities of the role.
I like to apply the 80:20 rule. That is, a candidate overlaps with 80 per cent of the responsibilities and/or duties listed in the position requirements. The same applies for their qualifications, however, that is much easier to distinguish.
It’s important to point out that savvy applicants will pull the skills you have requested in your advertisement into their resume and therefore it is necessary to delve further during the interview process to ensure these do, in fact, align.
Once you have found a candidate that you consider fulfils the position requirements, you need to look at whether the candidate’s personal attributes overlap with those you are seeking.
Will they work well within the team and will they fit with the organisation’s and your corporate values?
As a starting point look at your company’s vision and mission and what you and your company are striving to achieve.
From here take note of what values you subscribe to as an organisation, what is you your team like. And importantly, what does your ideal team member look like in terms of attributes they display?
A helpful exercise is to consider an employee who has worked well and someone that perhaps didn’t quite fit into the team and discuss what can be learnt from both hires.
Secondly, it’s important that the individual being interviewed can see themselves in the role and as an integral part of the company.
As an employer you should look at what will be the measures of success in their first weeks or months with the company.
Questions like these will help a candidate see themselves as a team member and will confirm to you what the “right fit” looks like.
An ideal fit addresses the role, its title, responsibilities, qualifications and skills required, but also looks at the individual’s attitude, values, team orientation, work orientation and personality. Maree Herath is the director of Harvest Recruitment.