Hiring the wrong person for the job can send ripples across multiple functions of your organization. Hiring the right people is one of the most overlooked processes within small companies that are in growth mode. Bringing on a new employee that does not fit the culture of the company nor have the correct technical skills can lead to unwanted expenses, wasted time and resources, and it can be detrimental to the work environment. Here are a few way to help eliminate the costly mistake of hiring the wrong candidate:

Before you even begin to think about making a hire it is imperative you conduct a job analysis. A typical job analysis will allow you to be able to gather specific information on the job that consists of responsibilities, essential skills needed to perform the job, and the overall work environment of the role. Completing a job analysis will help you create a job description that will allow you to attract and evaluate qualified candidates for your job.

After creating a job description, the next step is to find out who will be involved with the selection of the candidate. In most cases the main person for this is a Hiring Manager or the Team Lead that will be managing or supervising this individual. Once the interview team has been selected it is very important to create a checklist system to help organize your recruiting efforts. This checklist may sound simple, but it is an important tool to help communicate and track your progress.

When the recruiting process begins it is important that the candidates you add to your potential candidate pool possess the technical skills in your pre-established job description. The more qualified candidates you can identify prior to recruitment can only lead to a better chance of you finding the best person for the job.

As recruitment is in full force, you will need to dedicate time to reviewing resumes and applicant profiles. When reviewing resumes, it is important to compare each candidate to the job description you and your team have created instead of against each other. This provides for a more fair process and will allow you to do is find the most qualified candidates in a time efficient manner.

Prescreening candidates are often overlooked during the hiring process, but shouldn’t be, as there is only so much information you can garner from paper. Prescreening candidates will allow you to get a better understanding of the candidate’s technical background and experience before you have them meet with the selection committee. It happens quite often that a candidate looks great on paper, but ends up not have the relevant experience necessary. Prescreening can save you and your team time and money if done correctly.

The job interview is one of the most important steps when making a hire. In this stage, you should be asking questions that separate desirable candidates from average candidates. These questions should be prepared before the interview and not done ad hoc as it could lead to inconsistent questions. When preparing these questions, the entire interview committee should have input to create well-rounded questions.

The last stage of selecting the right employee is conducting background and reference checks. The main goal in this stage is to verify what the candidate presented on their resume and in their interview is valid. When conducting reference checks you must include work references, specifically from former supervisors.

These are a few steps you can take to help avoid hiring the wrong person for your organization. This process may sound simple, but making sure everyone is on board with these steps can be challenging. Hiring the right person for your company can bring many benefits to a variety of different ways such as employee productivity and it provides a positive impact on the culture of your organization.