Why do companies continue to waste money on hiring talent over and over again? Isn’t doing something over and over again the definition of insanity? The reason this happens is the same reason so many companies and people still work 9 to 5 in an office at a cube. It’s because that’s the way everyone has done it for so long. Finding talent in the market we all are facing needs to be much more defined and strategic. The employer needs to look at each individual and determine if they are someone who is low maintenance and high on return. There is no time to waste on paper pushers these days. Not to mention interviewing and vetting candidates takes a lot of time and costs a good amount of money. The bottom line is that putting a little more effort up front will save hours and time down the road.

Reviewing social networks, organizations they belong, guest speaking engagements, past colleague feedback, and then critically deciding if their skills fit your business are all crucial. Obviously we know you know that it’s part of the process because you’re already here reading the article on our website. That being said it’s key to drive these points home across all your teams when hiring. Dig a little deeper and challenge your potential candidates to problems facing your business. You can do that on our ShinyNeedle website, but frankly we’re saying take it a step further. Here is a couple ways to do just that:

1) Have candidates do a mock presentation on a given topic
2) Require candidates to do a mock client phone call
3) Ask for documentation on how they might approach a certain project 
4) Request direct feedback from 3 clients they have worked with or for in the past
5) Ask them what professional communities they belong to and more importantly why they belong and how the interact
6) Have them sketch their ideas on a white board in the actual interview
7) Finally have them write a white paper on your company and how they would improve it

This may seem like your asking a lot of the job seeker, but if you bucket these items into templates it will become easier over time. You can reuse the questions and tests across just about any type of career. The idea being that you slowly make more and more quality hires which reduces turnover and increases ideas and project turnout. It may seem like a little more work as mentioned, but in the end it could save significant dollars for you and your company. This could also be a great way for a recruiter to present the potential job seeker as well. Who doesn’t want that to happen?