Hiring a new employee for your organization is an important decision making process that should not be rushed.  Making the wrong hire can be very costly to the success of business, so you want to take time to make sure the candidate you select is the right one.  Making a quick hiring decision may also mean hiring before the perfect person for the job has even applied.  However, in a competitive job market, talent is constantly moving on and off the market and a delay in a job offer can mean the loss of a prized applicant. Here are a few things to consider when weighing your options and deciding whether a candidate is right for you.

Throw out hiring assumptions.
Most employers flip through a stack of applications and only keep the resumes that have experience and skills directly relevant to the job description.  With this process, mediocre candidates with all the right keywords and relevant experience and automatically get a pass. Extraordinary candidates, on the other hand, lacking a one-to-one match could get thrown into the rejection pile.  If you focus too narrowly on your company’s needs, you might miss a candidate that has a lot of “raw talent” to really excel at the position.  While the applicant may need extra training initially, their intelligence, drive, and general competency will surpass a mediocre candidate in no time.

Define desired candidate qualities.
To avoid the bias of hiring assumptions, sit down with your hiring team and make a “wish list” of the qualities you’re looking for in a candidate. If you don’t know what you want in an employee, you’ll have a much harder time determining who is right for the position. Your wish list should give you a more concrete understanding of what you desire in a candidate and having it written down will hold all members of the hiring committee accountable.  During an interview if you find there isn’t enough in common between the candidate you’re speaking to and your dream hire, you’ll know you need to hold out for a better applicant.

Establish a timeline.
Do you need to hire someone right away?  What does the candidate need to know immediately, and what can be added later through training?  Focusing on what the organization needs most immediately to sustain the workload will help you decide if you need to choose from one of the applicants at hand or if you have time to continue your search for the perfect applicant. 

Think about training and retention.
Sometimes it is difficult to find even matches for every open position.  Bad location, a labor shortage, or the need for specialized technical skills can limit your number of hiring options.  If competition is fierce in your local market, you may benefit more from hiring competent individuals for your positions, rather than holding out for the “perfect” applicant.  You should also focus on training and retaining the employees you have, rather than waiting for a new hire to meet all of your needs.

Make sure you’re hunting.
Gathering candidates means doing little more than posting to a job board and waiting for applications to fill your inbox.  Though gathering is less expensive than “hunting” for your applicants, it often takes much longer to gain a quality pool of applicants.  Locate quality candidates using a recruiting agency and the quality of the applicant pool will improve significantly.  Staffing services have the experience and resources to find the best candidates, and can be a great resource to save time without sacrificing quality. 

Are you looking to hire new employees this summer? Let recruiters at RealStreet Staffing help.  We know the market, and have the contacts, resources, and experience to help you find the best staffing solutions. Contact us today and we will have you a great employee in no time.