The Key to Strengthening Your Workforce | Upscaling Your Team This Fall

The Key to Strengthening Your Workforce | Upscaling Your Team This Fall

Right now, your workforce is in decent shape, but you know it could be better. As the boss, you know your team is only as strong as your weakest employee, so you’re focused on improving the quality of hires this fall.

Of course, saying you want to hire better is one thing, but actually doing it is another. You’ve been using your current hiring practices for so long, you’re not quite sure what changes need to be made. Here’s some advice to get you started.

Five Tips to Hire Better

Create an Employee Referral Program

No doubt, your employees have some seriously talented professionals in their networks. Their former classmates, colleagues, and friends might be a great addition to your team, so give them an incentive to help with your recruiting efforts, by starting an employee referral program.

Offer a bonus to any employee who refers a candidate who is hired, and stays on board for a certain amount of time. This is a savvy way to find quality hires, because employees won’t want to sully their reputation by recommending someone they don’t truly believe is a great fit.

Give Candidates a Skills Test

A candidate can claim to have certain abilities, but it’s impossible to truly understand their skill level unless you put them to the test. This is the easiest way to make sure they have the abilities needed to succeed in the job. Those who really do have what it takes will likely be eager to take the test, because they know you’ll be impressed with their results.

Ask Behavioral Interview Questions

You won’t learn much about a candidate with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. Really get to know them during the interview by asking behavioral questions that help you learn more about their personality. For example, questions like “Describe your ideal management style” and “Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker” will offer telling clues about what they’d be like as part of your team.

Make Interviews a Group Effort

When a new employee is hired, the entire team is impacted. Despite this, many companies only have candidates meet with their potential new boss and maybe an HR rep.

This is a problem because you need to see how candidates interact with your team to gauge their fit. Plus, feedback from the group can help you avoid overlooking key red flags you might miss on your own. Group interviews can be formal — i.e., in a conference room — informal — i.e., invite the candidate out to lunch — or a combination of both, so do what’s best for your team.

Need more time to concentrate on strengthening your workforce? ECS is here to handle your employer of record services, so you have more time in your day. Contact us today to find out what we can do for you!

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