It’s time to hire. The resumes come flooding in, and in many respects one is the same as the next. You shuffle them into piles laid across your desk, setting priorities, but how to choose? Hiring decisions don’t have to be an isolating process. Rather, involving current employees as part of the hiring process can help find team members who fit smoothly into the corporate framework and whose values align with larger company goals.
Engaging Your Employees
Current employees typically enjoy being involved in the hiring process because it makes them feel as though their needs as workers are being acknowledged in the search process. Whoever is hired will become part of their team, so it makes sense to involve them. Additionally, satisfied employees reflect back well on the company when they meet and interact with potential hires. When potential employees interact with current team members, they typically walk away with a more positive sense of the business than when they interact only with superiors.
Read the Referrals
An internal referral system is your best friend when it comes to hiring. Current employees should be allowed to refer individuals outside the company for consideration; after all, who understands the skills necessary to execute the open position better than those who already fill similar roles? Peer referrals can also indicate pre-existing positive relationships that can help quickly integrate a new staff member into the team. Referrals don’t have to be restricted to the same job level, either. Employees may know someone well equipped to take on a higher managerial role, or to take on a more minor role in the company. Use this real life social networking to your advantage.
The Professional Mixer
Too often, hiring happens entirely behind closed doors, but that kind of system means that both employer and employees alike ultimately have no idea how well the candidate will interact with the existing team members. In order to get a sense of this type of interaction, employers are encouraged to hold the professional equivalent of a social mixer. Set up a situation in which current employees and potential hires have an opportunity to interact. It is especially valuable if there are opportunities for problem solving, even of the casual variety, built into this interaction. Observing these casual interactions that are still framed by the professional environment can be an ideal way to determine which candidates to have onboard.
