Many employers focus all of their energy on trying to find the perfect employee during the hiring process. While you don’t want to take this process lightly, it is important to be aware that there is no guarantee the candidate you choose will live up to expectations.
One area in which employers often fail to invest the time and energy to ensure that they have the best team is employee development. Even the best applicant can flounder and wash out if an employer fails to help them grow into the position. At the same time, an applicant who shows promise but isn’t the most polished of the bunch can quickly excel if given the right environment in which to grow.
Interviews Have Limits
Many employers run applicants through the wringer in an attempt to find the perfect employee. However, even after several interviews and a grueling set of tests, you can not be assured that you are getting the best of the best. When you have a hiring process that takes months to complete, you may find that you actually miss out on the best applicant because they find other employment in the meantime.
Top candidates can often find employment from a wide range of sources. If they need to start making money, they might not be willing to wait around and jump through all of your hoops if there is other work available for them now.
All hiring processes also come with flaws. Just as there are brilliant people who are terrible at taking tests, there are incredible employees who are awful in interviews. A list of strategic interview questions to ask candidates is certainly good to have and should focus on a few key traits, rather than looking for someone who ticks every possible box.
Focus on Development
The most important thing when it comes to hiring is to find a candidate who shows an eagerness to learn and an ability to adapt. As long as they meet those two qualifiers, they have the potential to become an amazing employee.
Provide Room to Grow
One of the most important factors in employee development and retention is providing employees with the opportunity to grow within your company. When there is no chance for advancement great employees will look for those opportunities elsewhere, and you will lose your best employees to your competitors.
Nobody wants to work in a dead-end job. The possibility of advancement will also motivate your employees to work harder and avoid mistakes, especially if there is competition within the company for an open position.
Sometimes you need to create new positions in order to give your employees the career advancement they desire.
Provide Educational Opportunities
Providing your employees with opportunities to grow their skills is a win-win situation. Not only do your employees feel valued by the fact that you are willing to invest in them, but you get a better-educated employee. The more training your employee has, the more they will be able to bring to their position.
The cost of paying for employee training courses is always worth it if it helps to ensure that a great employee sticks around and continues to get better.
Show Employee Appreciation
While you don’t have to go as far as the “everyone gets an award” approach, it is still important to show your employees that you appreciate their work.
When an employee does a good job with something, be sure to compliment them, and if they do something that is above and beyond, acknowledge it in your next company meeting. Make sure that when offering criticism, you also recognize the things that your employee is doing well. A purely negative approach can be disheartening for an employee and foster a negative work environment.
Also, be sure to show your employees that you appreciate that they have lives outside of work. Try to be flexible with scheduling and, if possible, allow for remote workdays.
Foster Creativity
Businesses need to be able to grow and adapt to the ever-changing world. While having structure is often important in a workplace, too much rigidity can lead to stagnation. When a company fails to adapt, it gets left behind. You need employees who are able to look at a problem from a new perspective.
Always be open to new ideas from employees. Even if an idea ends up not being right for the present situation, shutting it down without consideration will decrease the likelihood of your employee expressing new ideas in the future.
Invest in Current Employees
Many companies spend far too many resources on potential employees with exaggerated hiring processes. Scaling back the hiring process and focusing those resources on the growth of employees once they get into the company is a far more efficient way of doing business.
A streamlined approach to your hiring process can ensure that you get good candidates with the potential for long-term employment into positions where they can help your company quickly. Getting good employees, making them great, and keeping them works a lot better in the long run than constantly searching for the perfect applicant.
