In order to be successful, a company has to rely on several different factors. Naturally, factors such as quality goods and services are irreplaceable, and structured management practices will always be necessary, but arguably nothing is more critical to a company than its employees.
Employees are the heart and lifeforce of every business, and without their efforts and commitment to the job, no company could survive for long. This fact has been true for as long as the idea of “business” has existed and is unlikely to change any time soon. Keeping this in mind, you would imagine that most, if not all companies, are highly invested in their employees, especially when it comes to hiring new ones.
Surprisingly, however, many businesses have started to focus less and less on the hiring process and more and more on increasing their profits in other ways. In a departure from traditional business practices, hiring has been boiled down to algorithms and automation, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
In the past, hiring new employees could be an extensive process, entailing multiple interviews and background checks to determine the most qualified candidate for the job. More often than not, this process allowed hiring managers to find the ideal employee who would do their work well and mesh into the company culture seamlessly.
Nowadays, thanks to one-click applications, company recruiters, and other hiring innovations, the human aspects of hiring are rapidly disappearing. What companies might gain in time and money, they often lose in the quality of employees.
Unquestionably, every company is different, and the automated approach might work for a select few, but for most companies, the hiring process needs to be reexamined. This article will go into more detail about modern hiring practices and why they may not be as effective as they are advertised. Additionally, we hope to provide you with a few resources to nudge your company back towards a hiring program that focuses on bringing in the highest quality employees rather than the employees who fit general criteria created by an algorithm.
“Efficiency” Shouldn’t Replace Quality
The never-ending drive for efficiency is a common goal for most areas of a company. The modern business era has made efficiency its highest priority, and for some aspects of a company, that’s a good thing! Finding newer and more efficient ways to accomplish tasks can significantly increase the success of a business, but when it comes to hiring, speed shouldn’t be the most important thing.
For one thing, rushing through the typical hiring process steps (analyzing the job, defining its parameters, and publishing a detailed job description) doesn’t allow for any focus on quality. Rather than allowing a human resource department to take its time to develop a well-rounded and comprehensive description of the open position, many companies hire recruiters to seek out candidates.
Recruiting your employees certainly allows for a faster employee selection process, but it only focuses on the technical skills of the job and very rarely evaluates the potential employee for what else they bring to the job. As a result, companies are hiring employees that can fulfill all of the actual tasks of the job and simply hoping that the “human being behind the employee” will fit in at the company. This brings us to the next point…
Culture Is Just As Important As Skill
At any company, big or small, the company culture is far more important than many people realize. Consider the fact that the vast majority of adults spend a minimum of 40 hours per week at their jobs, with a considerable percentage of people working more than that. When you spend such a significant chunk of time in a workspace, you need to be comfortable and able to work well with the people around you.
Unfortunately, many employees across numerous industries simply don’t feel comfortable, appreciated, or able to collaborate with their coworkers. More often than not, this is due to the lack of human interaction throughout the hiring process. Without a structured interview process, potential employees cannot gauge company culture as quickly, and without thorough background and reference checks, a company can often have no clue about the person they are hiring.
You could hire the perfect candidate on paper, only to find out they cannot work in a team and refuse to take criticism on their work. By overlooking their fit in your company culture, you can end up with an entire staff that struggles to work together, making it much harder for your company to succeed.
Use Technology Without Sacrificing Human Intuition
All of this is not to say that you have to avoid online application forms or shun the evolution of business technology. As our world becomes increasingly digital and online, these changes are all but inevitable. However, utilizing technology should not come at the expense of quality, particularly when it comes time to hire new employees.
If anything, technology should be making it easier to focus on finding the best candidate for the job, rather than simply sending job offer letters to any potential employee that fits a description. People and companies can communicate like never before, and with each passing year of innovations in technology, hiring processes should be doing a better job than previously achievable instead of the opposite.
There’s no easy solution to fixing your approach to hiring, but by following some of our advice, you should be able to determine the areas of hiring that your company may be lacking in. To summarize:
- Focus on finding quality people before finding the most skilled candidate.
- Make sure your new hires will fit in by taking your time to find the correct person for the job.
- Balance the modern advantages of technology with the insight and perception of talented humans.
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