Best practices while hiring

Article, Business, Publications
October 23, 2023
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James ndambiri

The growth and development of any organization depend heavily on the hiring of new talent. Bringing new talent can result in the development of new ideas and insights. The process of hiring can be a time-consuming and resource intensive process. Hiring employees who have not been thoroughly screened can end up being costly to the business and investment. This is referred to as “Bad Hires”. Establishing best hiring practices helps to safeguard your business/company during the hiring process. A bad hire is simply an employee who proves not to be a good fit or match within their individual role or for the organization.

In other cases, a bad hire could have misrepresented or exaggerated their qualification or expertise during the hiring process and unable to perform after being hired. Bad hires are frequently believed to be people with high turnover rates. However, they can also be employees that perform poorly or don’t fit in with the company culture. This is can be challenging to spot during the recruitment process.

In order to reduce your risk of onboarding bad hires this article will assist you to develop a standardized method that can apply during the talent acquisition process.

The following are best practices an employer can use to protect his / her company during the recruitment process.

BUILD A STRONG EMPLOYER BRAND

Building a strong employer brand help in reducing the risk of bad hire this is by making sure that your organization is desirable to high-quality candidates and your current employees. This can make your company desirable which can lead to an increase in qualified applicants. Having a strong brand identity, image, culture, and personality are key. This not only lowers the rate of turnover but it also reduces the likelihood that your ideal candidate makes the effort to seek you out.

CLARITY ON THE OPEN POSITION.

Properly determining the status of each open position from start is another important measure of protecting your company from a bad hire. Determining the status of the job positions refers to whether the position is subject to Kenyan labor laws or qualifies for an exemption. The labor laws’ status of a position will impact eligibility for overtime, the applicability of minimum wage requirements, and other wage and hour requirements, and any exemption from the Kenyan labor laws is determined based on a position’s job duties and salary tests.

CONSIDERING INTERNAL PROMOTIONS

Looking at your current job force and sourcing for internal advancement can benefit your company greatly. Your qualified internal staff makes excellent candidates as well, even though fresh applicants might provide a different perspective, promoting from within can help save your company time and money. Along with employee retention, it can boost your staff’s morale. When a promotion is made from within, there is less risk. Since you are aware of the candidate and have previously been screened and observed, the confidence is high and the element of uncertainty is eliminated to a good degree. Your internal applicant is already familiar with the workplace environment, culture, and objectives and is probably interested in staying with the company.

CREATING AN EFFECTIVE JOB DESCRIPTION

To attain the best talent, it is very important to streamline the process of talent recruitment. This involves creating effective and engaging job descriptions that will attract the right people. It is essentially important because it is the nerve center of the qualification and role for the position to be filled. Be specific as you can, the more information you provide about the position’s responsibilities and qualifications, the more likely it is that you receive applications from qualified candidates. The company’s culture and values should be highlighted in the job description as well.

APPLICATIONS REQUIREMENTS

It is a wrong idea for businesses to do hiring without the use of applications. While it can be tempting to use a referral and shorten the hiring process, this is not an ideal way to reduce the risk of a bad hire. Applications are legally binding documents that require a signature. This means that there is accountability regarding the legitimacy of the information you receive. It may also help protect you from employment claims such as discrimination.

CREATING AN INTERVIEW PROCESS

When you begin to interview applicants, you need to have a process in place that allows for replication over time. This helps increase the likelihood that your interviews are consistent and compliant. If you do not have a system that is followed in the same manner for each applicant, you may open your company to serious legal risk.

Some ways to improve the interview process include training managers about proper techniques and preparing questions in advance. You should have a list of open-ended questions that encourage the candidate to speak and a list of pre-approved follow up questions that may be asked as needed. The questions should only be based on any knowledge, skills, or abilities required for the job. All questions that may elicit information about age, gender, religion, national origin, marital status, disability or other protected classes, even indirectly, need to be avoided in the interview process. You should also avoid asking any prohibited questions, such as those that have to do with criminal or salary history. You should also avoid making any hiring decisions based on a person’s physical appearance. The main goal is to conduct each interview without allowing any personal, sometimes unrecognized, bias to affect the decision-making process. The interview process should be well-tailored to achieve objectivity for valid and successful results.

Considering background checks and screening

Conducting background checks is a way to secure information about your potential candidate. Make sure the background screen is administered at the proper time in the application process. The background checks can include criminal screening, verifying employment and education, or more depending on the job responsibilities. The past and history of the candidate are very important during the hiring process for it provide the character information necessary for any organization.

Employees references check

Employee references should also be checked once a candidate has cleared their background screening. While it can be cumbersome, doing so can give you direct information on how qualified an applicant is. It can provide additional detail that the background screening cannot capture. Ask for the job title, job responsibilities, and any special projects that the candidate has worked on in the past. You should create a standardized list of questions and utilize them for each applicant to avoid complication issues. While checking references, keep in mind that some may only provide you with hire and termination dates, but others may give you a better understanding of the candidate’s qualifications. Avoid any questions that could put you at risk of legal issues.

At MNC, we assist you in protecting your company from bad hires by:

Advising on how to create a strong organizational brand to make sure that your organization is desirable and attractive to high-quality candidates and your current employees.
Creating an effective job description – this is done by creating detailed job responsibilities and qualifications for the positions your company is recruiting for.
Creating effective interview techniques. Our HR experts have a well-designed interview process that is aimed to achieve objectivity and produce the best candidate for the identified position. This includes telephony interviews, written tests, oral tests, and practical tests where the need arises.
We do conduct a thorough background check for any candidate who is to be onboarded in your organization/company.

Once you make a decision to hire a new employee, make sure that the right onboarding process if followed. This can help set your newly hired employees and your business up for success. MNC CONSULTING HR experts assists help reduce the risk of a bad hire. Using our expertise and HR products and technologies, you can transform employees into productive and effective teams while aligning employees with company goals.

Consult us

Author: James ndambiri