I wrote a post some time back in which I mentioned that looking at CVs and LinkedIn profiles only is not a good way to recruit. It is much better to spend time with candidates and get to know their stories if you are interested in their character rather than just skills.

Expanding on that and thinking about the entire recruitment process recently for a client, I have noticed how organisations indulge in what I call “hopeful” recruitment, meaning that they live in the hope of being right about their new recruit. This is mostly because they do not spend enough time getting to know the candidate.

Of course, jobs differ, and the recruitment process for a CEO will be quite different from that of a salesperson. Whatever the role, the hiring lottery can be rigged in your favour if you follow a few basic steps;

Do not ever cut and paste a job description (JD)! Think deeply about what the role will require – not just now but a few years later. Get different people to provide input for the JD. Various levels and departments could be asked what a particular role requires from their perspective.

Communicate clearly what it is like to work in your organisation. You could be recruiting an ideal candidate, but she may not be comfortable working in a particular environment- such as an extremely hierarchical workplace where you are expected to just do as you are told!

Use a mix of interviews and psychometric testing to probe the candidate’s capability and values. Cognitive testing is a bit new for people from my generation, but I have seen it being used extensively nowadays.

I must admit that it provides more insight into the candidate’s potential as it removes the biases which can come up in an interview. Also, critical thinking, creativity and social skills, which can be more important than technical skills, are difficult to gauge in interviews.

Hiring talented people is the best thing that one can do for their organisation, but that does not mean that it will always work. Be prepared to undo your recruitment error if it is not working out. Good to remember that people join organisations as individuals, but results are produced in teams 😊