5 Important Factors to Consider When Making a Hiring Decision

Making a successful hire is more than just scanning resumes and finding the person that best fits the criteria for a position. A hiring manager has to go through a complex process to filter out those few that will truly fit in with the company in every aspect. If your business is looking to expand its workforce, it’s a good idea to once again go through the most crucial factors that influence a hiring decision. Here’s what you should know.

Before the assessment begins

Even before you begin the assessment of the candidates and the evaluation of their competence according to the criteria that are to follow, there are a few things worth keeping in mind. It is easy to let subjective biases influence our impression of others. However, there is little room for this in the hiring process. So, it should go without saying that you should develop an objective hiring process that will help you reasonably compare candidates. Be sure that you know exactly what you are looking for, and make your interviews well-structured and the evaluation process clear. Have a well-defined system in place before interacting with candidates.

Qualifications and competency

Naturally, one of the most vital factors that will influence your hiring decision is the candidates’ qualifications. Check whether the certifications presented are relevant. Besides the educational background itself, other skills and competencies of the candidates are deciding factors, too. You have to make sure they possess all the essential skills that the business world needs today. Both hard skills and soft skills should be taken into account.

Experience

Equally important as qualifications, the next thing to look at is the candidate’s experience. If the candidate has worked in similar positions before, you can safely assume that they will be able to do the job and become independent in their work pretty soon with much less training than someone with little or no experience. Needless to say, this scenario has a much better payoff for you, considering that you won’t have to invest much in their training, and they will contribute to work from the get-go. However, besides experience, you should also consider the candidate’s willingness to learn.

Impression and potential

As we just mentioned, the candidate should ideally exhibit a willingness to learn in some way. It is one way to determine their potential, which is yet another important factor in any hiring decision. Your business will experience growth and changes as time goes by, and your employees must be ready for this as well. Therefore, the impression the candidate makes at the interview is crucial. One of the questions you should not skip is the one regarding the candidate’s vision of themselves five years in the future. The interviewer should also make judgments about the candidate’s personality. Some positions require vastly different personality traits than others, so make notes about this aspect as well.

Background checks

The next factor that will influence your hiring decision is the candidate’s background. There are several background checks candidates must undergo. First and foremost, you should do a background check on the candidate’s credentials. Check whether all the documents are valid as stated. Besides education, you might also want to check the candidate’s past experience through contacting their former employers. It can give you valuable information about the candidate’s work and personality. Next, you should go online and do a background check of the candidate’s online presence. These days, a spotless online presence is paramount. A less than satisfactory one will reflect negatively on the whole company, so a candidate must be clean. Finally, police and drug checks are also highly recommended. You can speed up the process by getting drug testing kits that give results instantly.

Cultural fit

Last but not least, another factor that determines whether the candidate in question is the right person for the position is how well they fit into the company culture. This aspect is often disregarded, however, an ill-fitting gear in the machine that is the company will become a bigger problem than you might expect. If a candidate has similar values and expectations as the company, they will be satisfied and happy while the company stays productive. In the opposite case, frustration is inevitable. So, ask questions to determine whether the candidate is the right cultural fit.

A lot of thought needs to go into making a hiring decision. It is a crucial decision both in the life of the candidate and the future of the business, so be sure to cover all the bases.