Difficulties In Hiring Right Resources & Tips To Help You Do Resource Hiring Right

There are challenges in recruiting candidates for global organization. Randstad states 82% of organization experience difficulties in hiring right resources (2012 survey, infographic link). In previous post we saw how bad hiring decision can negatively impact your company, employee performance. If I were to draws analogy about on-boarding a resource to your project team, those points would largely hold true. The only aspect that would be different is ‘cost of hiring’. It would again depend on whether the resource is new to company or s/he is an existing resource.

The real success of the hiring right candidate lies in

• Clearly identified, defined responsibilities of the job role
• Identification of personality traits required to be cultural fit, communication
• Involvement of apt interviewers
• Collecting, presenting information of candidate’s interview in right order to the decision maker

Do you need Jack of all as well as master of all trades?

In the past, I have seen job description (JD) circulated by my previous organization (not naming it here J). To my surprise, the job descriptions would expect a candidate to be super champion in all aspects (various technologies, experience level, communications, willingness to travel, etc.). When I knew that 70% of what was mentioned is NOT even required for that job. Badly defined JD certainly has downsides like

– It gives wrong impression to prospective candidates

– Given job expectations, s/he would quite likely expect higher compensation, travel opportunities, etc.

– Since you are defining it improperly, you are unlikely to get such super-champ; the job which otherwise could be done well by optimally skilled candidate

5 tips for the successfully hiring right candidate

1. Know what are you looking for

As mentioned above, loosely defined job description leads to nowhere. You will have to be clear about job profile, skills required, experience level, etc. In the next section, let’s see what elements you should focus on.

2. It’s not only technical skills or degrees that matter, look for personality traits and cultural fit

Not everything on paper or at technical level can justify a right-fit. The personality traits and cultural fit, team fit are equally important. Some of these characteristics are

– Openness

– Emotional intelligence

– Team spirit

Observe candidate’s interaction through the process and even beside interview process.

3. Need to build a personal rapport to get to know right guy

When we develop a good rapport with a person, we get to know that person better. Let’s say, you found few candidates exceptionally good on paper and during interview. The best way to make selection from that stage, is to build a personal rapport to know more about him/her and read-between-the-lines, know his/her aspirations, preferences, etc.

4. Collective decision is better, rational

Though you might be given autonomy to select candidate of your choice; be sure to involve your colleagues from other department while interviewing them; have couple of more rounds to do your checks-and-balances. Research indicate better results attributed to collective team efforts.

5. If you got top picks, entice them to join

Once you get to know top choices for your team or a job/position, you should entire them to join your team/organization. Everyone knows this, in today’s competitive environment – finding best candidate (talent, fit) is becoming rare. If you come across such guys, you need to make an offer that will entice them to join your team/company. You can entice them with compensation, better visibility, relocation option, travel opportunities, career-path, etc.

Just keep in mind, getting a right candidate or resource for you team takes time. Organizations have to use innovative ways to reach potential candidates (e.g use of social media site like Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc).

Many time we make compromise just to keep up with pressure and time constraints. You can only hope that it should not get worse over the time. So it takes time and you should be clear about pros and cons of quick but compromised or pro-longed but right selection.

Image Credit: Design You Trust, The Undercover Recruiter.

Additional readings about project management, leadership

• Case Study: What Happens When Project Team Has Dual Reporting
• Avoid These 10 Most Common Mistakes That Leads to Project Failure
• Back2Basics: Ultimate Project Management Guide: Project Planning
• Ultimate Guide to Select The Right Project Management Software
• 8 Reasons to Decide Whether Your Organization Needs Project Management Office

Your life can be become easier with the right project management system. ZilicusPM is the right PM tool for you and your team. Get started now.

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