HR MANAGEMENT - How to make a good hire and why?

by Vichitra Robinson

What is a good hire? A person who fits in the job as expected, motivated enough to perform beyond the line, is competitive to the level needed, should have problem solving skills and positive attitude towards the work.

May be all of the above qualities are required to have a perfect person for your job opening.

Here are some pointers on how to hire them and why?

Before making a good hire, the organization should be aware of its strengths and weaknesses. This will give you a clear understanding of what qualities you require in a new hire. Hire people would help you increase your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Of course you don’t want to hire people who force you to spend time where you are weakest rather you want somebody who would nourish your strengths. A simple example to this is suppose you are bad at managing and organizing simple task let say paying bills is often the one you miss to do on time and other such things, then you should hire a person who is good at organizing things and managing them.

Next important thing to keep in mind before you initiate a hiring process is why are you hiring? Are you hiring for the current requirement or you are foreseeing future with your new hires? Have a clear analysis of the organization’s needs. One can hire in combination to present and future need.

Hire capabilities and not credentials. It is observed that very often managers are attracted by the academic success of the applicant and qualification achievements take over the skills. While hiring one should not fall for applicant’s degrees or attractive resumes. Of course it is important that the applicant should be competitive enough but judging a person merely by his degrees will not make a good hire. You need to assess whether the applicant will fit into your desired role or not. How well he can perform for such given task. An applicant who is academically successful may not be a good performer. Your focus as an interviewer should be on an applicant’s capabilities.

Does your organization goal matches with the applicant’s life goal? If yes, then the chances are that the applicant will be more engaged in the job assigned to him and will put in extra efforts. Analyse and find out whether the job, the position and the role that you are offering matches the life goal of the applicant. If the applicant’s goals are inline to the organization’s goal there would be less retentions, more motivation for the job and the result is charged up workforce with a common goal to achieve.

Fast learners make a good hire. The ability to learn and adapt to the new environment should be analysed carefully. Hire somebody who can learn fast, picks things up and applies the learning to the job. Hand over some task to the applicant to judge the capabilities of his learning skills. An applicant who is open to new learning and is not afraid of taking responsibilities in the new environment can be a best hire.

Mostly bad hires happen because of untrained interviewers.

Some managers are trained to hire employees but the kind of training they have had is about the legal dos and don’ts and interviewing basics, they haven’t been trained on “How to hire the best”.

Most company fail to do the analysis on the basis of their needs. An employer should be clear about what his organization needs and what it doesn’t need.

It is better to let the position be open or be unfilled than to fill it with the wrong person. Because at the end of the day a wrong person will do more damage than the open position.