.png)
It’s a fact: finding and keeping great employees is challenging. 82% of business leaders don’t believe their companies recruit highly talented people, and of those that do, only 7% believe they can retain them. So, how do you recognize who’s a long-term A-player? What determines their aptitude for greatness within a specific organization? It’s not always about the candidates who stand out in interviews. Selecting and nurturing quality candidates goes beyond the interview process.
Here’s how to pinpoint the specific traits of great employees, how modern HR technology simplifies the process, and how HR tech can help effectively onboard and retain your A players:
Ask the right interview questions
88% of hiring decision-makers believe that an informed candidate is a quality candidate, but it can be hard to see through the charm of a well-informed candidate to find the great employee beneath the surface.
To determine which applicants will make great employees, cut to the chase and ask about their professional goals. The first trait that separates great employees from top candidates is motivation. Some topics your hiring team should be asking about include:
- The individual’s work ethic – What drives it? Is it aligned with the rest of the company?
- The individual’s decision-making process – Do they understand their decision-making process? Can they articulate it? Can they give you an example of when it’s worked well? Of when it has failed them?
- The individual’s motivations for improvement – What are their goals for growth? Do they have personal goals? How do they follow through on their goals?
The above questions must align with the company mission, vision, and values for the candidate to succeed.
Did you know 82% of #HR leaders don’t believe they recruit highly talented people? @ClearCompany shows you how to do it with #HRTech:ClearCompany’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS) provides Interview Guides and Candidate Management tools that streamline the interview process. Creating the right strategic interview script will offer proactive solutions that ensure every interviewee is given a fair chance at demonstrating their aptitude to be your next great employee. Here are a few examples to consider:
Company Values
- “Which of our values do you feel you most embody, and how has it helped elevate your career?”
- “Please describe a time when you feel that you have effectively demonstrated our company value of ________.”
Skills & Performance
- “I see you worked at [Company] as a [Job Position]. Can you think of a time you had to help one of your customers through a stressful interaction? If so, please explain.”
- “When you were at [Company], please describe a time when you helped solve a problem that arose. What part did you play in solving the issue?”
Work Environment Fit
- “What kind of work culture do you flourish in the most?”
- “Describe someone who shaped your career and why you find them so important.”
Download the HR Buyer's Guide to learn more about the HR Tech that's right for you!
Use a goal-based approach that enables your hiring team
Many leaders read “hire for cultural fit” as “find a person who looks and acts like me and will fit into my circle.” This cultural fit misunderstanding has plagued the hiring process for even some of the most well-known employers - those that have their pick of applicants.
A Talent Operating System helps hiring managers develop scripts that discover who shares similar work values, can perform in the environment, and has reached goals that align with the company or department. The Talent OS helps articulate and identify excellence by giving each role in an organization its own mission, goals, and defined set of responsibilities.
Questions to consider when developing interview scripts with Talent OS:
- Can the person sitting in front of you in the interview room accomplish the specific goals of the role you are looking to fill?
- Is the person lacking any specific traits or experience the position requires? If so, what traits? What training would your business need to include in its onboarding process if you decided to hire them?
- What departments in your firm would benefit from having this person added to their team?
Hiring teams often stop at the attributes mentioned above to find good candidates. Take it a step further:
- Establish the overarching goals of the hire’s specific team or department, then work back to the individual tactics and projects that would need to be completed.
- Using those overarching goals, formulate interview questions or assessments that will determine an applicant’s ability to perform.
For example, ask the interviewee how they would approach a challenge your team has faced in the past. This will help you understand what they value in times of crisis (processes, organization, collaboration, etc.) and will give you a taste of what skills they hold and use confidently. Using a goal-based approach like this is especially helpful in understanding what transferable skills can make a successful employee.
Analyze top performers and assess your internal talent pool
Six out of ten employees are looking for growth opportunities internally, and if they don’t find them, chances are they will be looking externally. Great employees stand apart from savvy candidates because they reflect a desire to take on new challenges that will help improve themselves and the organization.
Say you want to hire top talent, but what about promoting internally instead? Performance Management tools can help you source from within. These tools keep track of employees as they progress within their roles, monitor benchmarks, and identify strengths. If you’re looking for the best candidate for the role, your performance management tool uses data and manager feedback to do the work for you.
And once you promote, you’ll be able to see how to fill the role they’re vacating by pulling that employee’s performance data and using that to define skill sets, job responsibilities, and goals. You’ll be able to base your interview questions around a well-defined set of expectations and assess any new hires against criteria set by an example of someone who truly excelled in the role.
20% of your turnover is happening because you aren’t #onboarding right. @ClearCompany says #HRTech can change that:By promoting top performers, the return is two-fold: You reward current employees for a job well done and set up new hires for success by providing them with an accurate, attainable model for their job.
Don’t stop when they’re hired.
Onboarding is a major part of candidate success. Onboarding technologies help you organize your new hire training, provide goals and checkpoints, schedule reviews, and monitor progress. 20% of turnover happens within the first month and a half of starting a new job, so ensuring that you’re meeting your new hires’ needs is crucial to their ability to become proficient in their role and boosting their happiness and retention.
Great onboarding technology can also help you build a dynamic process that streamlines a number of administrative tasks like paperwork, handbooks, and benefits enrollment so that it’s easier to complete and move on to more meaningful training. Supervisors and HR managers are notified as they’re completed, and the process moves like clockwork. New hires know what to expect, what’s yet to come, and where to find all of the resources they need throughout the onboarding process. It’s a seamless transition every step of the way, from simple clerical tasks to more complex role-based training.
By utilizing onboarding technologies, you can plan a program that makes your new employees feel welcomed, accommodated, supported, and you’ll be able to spot any obstacles along the way. You’ll cut down on the time it takes to get that staff member to proficiency, and you can start developing them into an A-player sooner. Getting them over the new-hire hump is much easier when onboarding software automates the process, and setting the goals ahead of time so your new hires hit the ground running.
Sometimes, developing the perfect talent acquisition process can be long and arduous. More than a few factors could be stopping you from consistently hiring and retaining A-players. The point isn’t just to rack up applications from a new source or two but to improve the quality of your talent pool. Modern HR technology like ClearCompany’s complete Talent Management Platform can help you along the way to total talent success. To learn more about the HR technologies ClearCompany offers, speak to our Talent Success™ experts today.
