You’re realizing that your company is starting to grow or some openings just came up and you need to hire new people to join the organization. So far everyone has been either someone who joined through a referral, but now you really need to get your hands dirty and find the right candidates for the new openings. You have heard from your fellow colleagues in HR how such a daunting task it is and even after all this work you can still get the wrong person to join your organization. So how do you avoid this and get the right person? Here are some ideas to think about.

• Focus on the application

Resumes are not the only way to assess candidates for a position. Actually, most HR specialists say resumes are slowly becoming obsolete. More of the focus should be on the cover letter (letter of motivation). The cover letter is the first touch with the organization and it shows who the person is. Also, it shows some form of motivation to get the position. This can be shown by applicants who not only hand in the relevant documents but also follow up with an email or phone call within a week of submission.

• Attention to detail

One way to weed out candidates who are just sending out applications is to put something in the cover letter that is particular. For example, you can ask for them to add a hashtag (#pleasechooseme) in the cover letter. This way, you can be able to see the people who paid attention to detail and it makes it easier to shortlist your candidates.

• Reinvent the interviewing process

Candidates are always prepared for the average interview. So you must always try to reinvent the old interview to make sure you get to know the best about the employee. So try to bring something challenging for the candidate. For example, try to bring something practical from the job opening into the interview. If the job entails calling to do sales, provide a space in the interview where the candidates have a mock call with a potential client. If it’s a web designer, try to make them refactor some code. This will help to see the candidates’ practical skills.

• If all fails, go rogue

If you do not trust the interview process, go out of the box and don’t have any more interviews. Try having lunch with a candidate to see how they react in a different environment. You can also ask some curveball questions to see how they trigger the candidates and how they react to the questions. This will give you a greater perspective of the individuals’ characteristics.

There you go, folks. An amazing checklist you can integrate into your organization to make sure you get the right candidate(s) to join your company. All the best in your search for the ‘one’. If you need more assistance with this, find out more by clicking here.