One of the most important decisions in your company is hiring. The people you bring into your company create its culture and can have an impact far above and beyond the work they’re responsible for. When you’re recruiting for executive level positions, it’s even more important to get it right: they influence far more employees than any ordinary team member, so the benefits of a good hire and the risks of a bad one are both magnified.
Today we’re going to share some hints and tips about how to make the hires you need and get the right people into your business.
Plan
It’s never too early to start planning your hire. One of the most important things you need to do is produce a person specification. Interrogate your business and work out exactly what you need from the new hire – make sure you are focussed on the specifics of your business, and consider your future plans, not just the current state of play. There’s no generic best candidate for a role, there are only specific people who will be good fits for specific businesses.
If you’re looking to expand over the five years, your executive team will need a different set of skills and priorities to the one for a business that is trying to weather a tough period and retrench.
Once you’ve got your person specification you can discuss it with…
Expert Help
Make sure you get in touch with a good Executive Recruitment firm. Seek recommendations from peers who have hired recently: they know your personality and needs and can direct you to a firm that you have a productive working relationship with.
The right firm can give more insight into hiring in your particular niche and help you round out that person specification. They can then use their specialist networks to find the right shortlist of applicants for your needs in time for your…
Interview
Make sure you use your interview effectively so you can make the best decisions about your eventual hire.
Try to draw them to specifics, rather than allowing them to make broad claims about their skills or qualities that go unquestioned. For example, if you’re recruiting a Sales Executive, and they say they’d be great at driving revenue for your business, turn the conversation round to other occasions when they’ve done that: previous businesses they’ve worked with to drive an increase in revenue and how that can be tied to their work specifically.
With these specifics, you will be in the position to make the hires your business really needs.