The Modern Rules for Hiring The Perfect Candidate

In an economy where the unemployment rate is so high, you’d think it would be easy to find amazing talent to fill open positions, and for less than it would have cost in salary just a few years back. I was prompted to write this article by an article I read in Inc Magazine…here’s the link. It’s a good article with some great tips. 5 tips to hiring the right people. http://t.co/uMCGiAjy

The reason I didn’t simply retweet it was because I had a few more tips of my own I wanted to add. I’ve gotten pretty good at hiring the right people (I founded/owned a recruiting company at

one time) and have an amazing team here at PrinterBees. These are great tips to make sure you KNOW who you’re hiring.

Check your candidates Facebook page before you hire them. If they have their profile set to private, check out their friends to get some insights about the person you are considering for a job. Birds of a feather flock together! I’m not suggesting you don’t give people the benefit of the doubt, but I am saying you should definitely do your homework before you commit to hiring someone. It’s costly to train a new employee.

Who is your candidate socially connected to on Linked In? Do they have the sphere of influence that’s the right fit for your business? Are they even on Linked In? Being socially connected is important in this day and age, especially in jobs where technology and sales is involved. It just is what it is and it’s another clue to how technology or social media savvy your candidate is.

Read your candidate’s Twitter Feed. What do they tweet about? What do they respond to and who do they communicate with? What are their interests? It’s easy to determine what a person is “about” and what they are committed to when you read their social media feeds. It also shows you how this person presents themselves publicly from a social media perspective.

Google their name…needs no explanation. Check on Google Images as well.

Don’t chase your candidate down. If they really want a job with you, they will come to you and follow up with you showing genuine interest in the position. I understand about “recruiting specific talent” and that situation is different, your “on the hunt” for someone specific. I’m speaking of a pool of candidates who are all hunting for jobs. The ones who follow up and are attentive to the opportunity are the ones I would laser in on. At PrinterBees we do NOT hunt people down to work for us and we let them know that is the case right up front. I tell people I interview that my expectation is that they will follow-up with me so I know they are indeed interested. I also tell them that their follow-up is part of the interview process. I make candidates hunt us down, it shows us the level of commitment a person will have to the job, should we choose to offer them one.

Hire to your weaknesses: Business owners need to hire people who compliment them, especially small business owners. There’s no sense in hiring someone you can’t actually delegate to and trust with certain responsibilities. The best way to make sure you delegate certain responsibilities is to hire people who are better at “it” (whatever “it” is) than you are. I myself struggle with time management and organization, the people I hire excel in those areas because thats where I’m the weakest in my abilities and I’m totally comfortable with knowing my weaknesses, so I’m able to rely on others to compliment where I fall short. We can’t all be the best at everything and it’s okay to admit it.

Communicate with your candidate in person, on the phone and over email. Most jobs in this day and age require all three modes of communication. The only way to determine how a person will represent you and your company over email is to have email communication with them. Take note of grammar and the person’s ability to have proper email etiquette. Resume’s are many times prepared by someone else and isn’t necessarily a good test of written communication, email communication is and it’s really important!

Good luck on your next hire, make sure to subscribe to this blog via your RSS feeder or email for great tips and ideas for any type of business/business owner. If you’re in business, you’re “in” sales and marketing, this blog is filled with all kids of great content to help grow your business! You can unsubscribe anytime, it comes right from Google Feeder, so there’s no spam. .