Getting the right people fast

Getting the right people is a vital task in building a strong business so it needs to be taken seriously, but it is also possible to take a good thing too far. If you're not careful the process of hiring it can balloon to take up excessive amounts of time and resources. Here are some tips for keeping the hiring process slim and streamlined.

Make sure the job description is clear

If you're clear about what the job requires, you'll get a more focused pool of applicants to start with. It will also provide a solid criteria for anyone tasked with going through the pile of applications to use when sorting them.

Think ahead

You're going to need to do a reference check at some point. If you leave asking for references until you have a short-list sorted then you'll probably have to wait two days for the applicant to get back to you, add another two days for getting in touch with their references and you could be looking at an entire week added to the process.

Avoid excessive interviewing

First-round interviews are often one of the most time-consuming parts of hiring a new employee. Slim down the list of candidates wherever possible; you don't want to have two days of interviewing 15 people when only five genuinely impress you.

Don't pine for a purple squirrel

A "purple squirrel" is a candidate who is so qualified they might as well already be doing the job. They're called "purple squirrels" because that's how rare they are. When using recruitment software be careful not to go overboard with filtering for that perfect candidate, as you may just exclude a whole host of well-qualified candidates and create the illusion that there's no-one out there. Use software to sort for core requirements then use your judgement.