Recruiting, Talent

How to Narrow Down Your Candidate Pool and Make the Right Hire

Finding the right candidate can be tricky. The vacancies of top managers and their assistants; rare specialists, especially in IT; and highly qualified workers are considered problematic. The difficulty lies in the fact that employers set very high requirements for applicants for such vacancies, and the applicants themselves have high expectations. Plus, there may be very few accessible specialists on the market who would fit the position the company is hiring for. Below are a few tips on how to make the right hire.

Describe the Vacancy Correctly

Check with the employer about the specifics of the position and what experience, qualifications, and personal qualities would be suitable for the job. Understanding these will enable you to form a job description that will help you find worthy candidates. If the functionality of the position is described incorrectly or incompletely, you will most likely attract inappropriate applicants, thus significantly reducing the likelihood of filling your vacancy.

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Determine the Requirements for Applicants

Sometimes employers, unable to formulate requirements for jobseekers, artificially narrow the candidate pool. For example, you can use PEO Georgia if you have the need for a specific skill. This will help you understand what the employer is investing in this requirement and what competencies it considers essential. If we are talking about top management, then only interaction with the head of the company or the business owner will help determine the requirements. The main difficulty is that the employer may not fully understand what knowledge, skills, and abilities a new employee needs. When working with such vacancies, it makes no sense to form requirements like gender, age, and education; it makes more sense to describe the range of responsibilities a person will have to take on. Open-ended questions will help you determine:

  • What business tasks should a specialist working in this position complete?
  • Who is solving these problems now and how?
  • Why are the existing solution options not suitable for the company?
  • What signs will show you a person is qualified, and how do you decide if the person passed the test?

Determine the Exact Job Title

The choice of a worthy candidate often rests on the fact that the title of the position does not say anything about the employee’s functionality. For example, marketers solve completely different problems in different companies, and managers are generally those who deal with the company’s clients in one way or another. A person interested in a job must be able to understand whether he or she fits this vacancy. There are well-established terms that the market already understands, such as “project manager,” so if you call the vacancy “team coordinator” or “conceptual ideologist,” then people with extensive project management experience may pass it by.

Write an Attractive Job Description

At this stage, it is crucial to avoid unnecessary detailing; don’t describe the job in 20 points, but highlight its main tasks. It is also essential you show the employer’s attractiveness, not by saying “we have a friendly team and an office in the very center of town” but in terms of possible career and professional growth for the employee.

Study the Offers of Competitors

Find similar vacancies on job boards, and read their descriptions in terms of the position’s key functions and applicant requirements. Also, evaluate competitors’ bids. You may need to refine or adjust the salary on offer if it isn’t in the range of the market. It is not uncommon for company managers to be unaware of the labor market and thus underestimate what candidates should be offered, which can make it challenging to fill vacancies. Therefore, employers should conduct and study the results of an express market analysis.

Actively Search for Alternative Candidates

It’s important for HR managers to be proactive, as well, which means they should try and reach suitable candidates for a particular position where they are. In addition to job search portals, this may include thematic communities in social networks or professional forums. Having identified potential candidates, the HR specialist can contact them by e-mail, messenger, or phone.

Final Words

Close interaction with employers, analysis of the market and competitors’ offers, omission of excessive/unreasonable requirements, and an accurate job title and description will help you make the right hire to help the company grow and develop.

Beck Rana is a game developer who designs and creates video games for computers and video game consoles. She also writes out ideas and concepts for characters—levels she absolutely loves.

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