With the imperative role that people play in organizations and the strikingly high cost of turnover, employers across industries understand that attracting and retaining top talent is a major priority. From finding skilled and qualified candidates, to ensuring cultural fit and longevity of a new employee, there are many steps involved in making a successful hire.

The following are 9 critical steps for making a successful hire:

1) Defining an Effective Job Description

Make sure your job description takes into consideration both the requirements of the position and personality traits a candidate needs to excel in your company’s unique culture. When writing job descriptions, ask yourself what that “X Factor” is that makes people successful in your organization?

2) Candidate Sourcing

A critical, yet widely underestimated element in the hiring process is candidate sourcing.  The most common method used by employers to source candidates is online advertising through job search websites and community boards. While this method can be effective, it is also limiting and can cause you to miss candidates who are not actively looking for a new job, yet would move for the right opportunity. A variety of sourcing techniques are required if you truly want to find the best talent. 

3) Candidate Pre-Screening

Candidate pre-screening is an important step in ensuring that you are identifying any potential hiring barriers early in the process. By establishing a set criteria of critical factors, you will save substantial time and ensure a fair and unbiased screening process. In addition, by introducing an alternate person in the pre-screening process such as a recruiter, you are able to maintain a higher level of objectivity in your interviews, drawing from the expertise and experience of the recruiter in the screening process.

4) Skill Assessing

Utilizing skill assessments during your hiring process is essential in determining whether or not a candidate’s abilities match the skills, certifications and experience they have listed on their resume. There is a wide range of skills assessments available to employers, from typing to medical terminology. If you need help finding the right assessment, contact TPD.

5) Interviewing

The interviewing phase provides major insight into a candidate’s fit with company culture. In this phase, the goal is to get a better understanding of what will motivate and engage the employee to ensure his or her success and longevity with your organization. Spending time to better prepare for and structure the interview process can be extremely valuable. This process will ensure that you are getting the best insights into the candidate’s character, potential, strengths and limitations.

6) Reference Checking

Reference checks are a very important step, as they can help you determine if what the candidate has told you is accurate. When completing a reference check, always position yourself to lead the conversation and ensure you ask the right questions; that way, you will receive an honest response and unveil potential red flags. Developing and using a set questionnaire will ensure a consistent and equitable screening process. When performing reference checks within one’s own industry, be mindful that the person on the other end of the line could likely be your competitor. If you’re not careful, you might be putting yourself and your competition in an unethical situation. For this reason, employers often elect to outsource this step of the hiring process.

7) Background Checking

In many cases, background checking practices are legal and even mandatory. In other cases, background checking is deemed to be discriminatory and has serious legal repercussions. For this reason, you should speak with an HR professional to ensure that you’re protecting yourself from exposure to undue liability before performing background checks on your candidates.

8) Onboarding

Once the new addition to the team has signed employment papers to secure his or her position, you must ensure that your new employee is set up for success in the role. Proper training, constructive feedback, follow-ups, and performance reviews will help to ensure they successfully integrate within the company.

9) Contingency

Imagine this, after investing substantial time, effort, and money into your hiring and onboarding process, you discover the employee you’ve hired is not the person you perceived them to be. Though there were no red flags and the employee seemed to be the right fit, the individual has unexpectedly left the position. Now, you’re back to square one. What is your back-up plan? Are you prepared to repeat the steps listed above to find another suitable hire?

As you can see, finding the best person for any role is no easy feat. While there is a great deal of work that goes into making the right hire, these steps ensure that all your bases are covered - Happy hiring! 

• Read More: Turnover's Coming... What's it going to cost you?