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Assembling Your Dream Team: 10 Tips for Pre-Screening Your Potential Employees

Finding your ideal employee is no easy feat. In fact, many companies have inefficiencies due to hiring the incorrect employees for various roles in their organization. It is important for both Human Resources Managers and senior management teams to carefully look at their hiring processes in order to be sure they are bringing in potential job candidates that are an appropriate fit for the future growth of their organization.

The firms who fail to take the proper time to find the right team for their strategic objectives end up sustaining a major loss not only in human capital but in fiscal capital as well. It is vital for all firms to carefully examine how they are hiring and periodically assess how they can improve their overall processes.

The firms that take the time to complete the proper hiring protocols will absolutely see exponential improvements in productivity as a result. One of the most important parts of the hiring process is to pre-screen employees. When considering how your organization needs to pre-screen your job applicants, consider the information below:

1- Look at Facebook and Instagram

Looking at Facebook, Instagram or other social media networks is important. You need to see what your employees do in their free time and see if they are partying too much. You need to see who they are and what their sincere objectives are. By glancing at social media, you will quickly realize whether they are appropriate for the culture of your organization.

Having a work-life balance is important and you need to see if your employee has the same decorum outside of the office as they do inside the office. This is particularly true if the individual will end up representing your company’s reputation. Be sure to consider this as a free pre-screening option to weed out employees who may not be the image you want to be representing your organization’s prestige.

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2- Do Check LinkedIn

LinkedIn is different than other social media platforms because you can see a potential applicant’s employment history along with how many colleagues have recommended them on skills. In addition, you can see how that individual was promoting their prior firm and how they interacted with other business professionals in their prior role.

LinkedIn can also serve as a basic resource for your firm to approach potential employees who may be ideal for the positions that you are trying to fill. Once you have narrowed down potential employees that you are interested in, LinkedIn is an excellent resource for pre-screening employees to make sure they are worth bringing in for an interview.

Lastly, there is a feature on LinkedIn where you can browse anonymously so that the employee is not aware you are looking into their background. This can be valuable to get a clear picture of who they really are and whether they are the right fit for your organization.

3- References

If you want to verify dates of employment or an employee’s job performance, then it is wise to ask for references. Any employee who does not want to give you a reference should raise a red flag for you that they might have something to hide.

By knowing how long they were committed to their prior role, you can gain insight into their employment patterns and whether they may be an individual who hops jobs or someone who is looking to build long term loyal employment relationships. In addition, it is not permitted for firms to provide direct bad feedback, but you can usually tell with the tone of the conversation about how the employee performed.

4- Background Checks with Their Consent

Even though it is legally required to screen a potential employee’s background, you should ask their consent to do so. If they do not want you to screen their criminal background, then that is something that should be concerning to you. Remember, if an individual has nothing to hide, they will have no issue consenting to the criminal background check.

5- College Transcript

Due to how many individuals have lied about their educational credentials, it is important to check on their transcripts and even call their university to check their graduation date. Any applicant who is uncomfortable sharing their transcripts should also be a red flag. Some employment positions may require high-grade point averages and it is important to ensure the employee actually did achieve the grades they mentioned on their CV.

6- Meyers-Briggs Test

Meyers-Briggs is a test that tests what kind of personality a job applicant has and reveals extraordinary data about which roles are the proper fit for their personality. When considering the role your company is looking to fill, consider what skills are required for the role. Then have all applicants take a Meyers-Briggs test to see how their personality would potentially fit for the role. Meyers-Briggs tests have impressive accuracy and are invaluable to companies for hiring the right employees.

7- In Person Interviews

Another important way to screen potential employees is to actually have in-person interviews. Even though many candidates are interviewing from diverse geographic locales, there is value in meeting them in person, seeing whether they will dress professionally, and how they blend in with the company’s culture. Having an in-person interview rather than a phone or Skype interview is another great way to screen potential employees.

8- Multiple Interviews

In order to get the full story behind a job applicant, it is wise to have multiple team members interview them. By doing this, it will be possible to learn more about unique parts of their experience that may be ideal for your company. Have one senior manager enter the room as well to see how the employee manages senior staff members and whether they have the decorum to speak to them professionally.

You can also integrate a collaborative hiring model, whereby one or more of team members can also be the part of hiring process. This will not just share the load of responsibility, but can also be helpful in making a better choice.

9- Diagnostic Test for MS Office

It is a common misconception that every employee knows how to use Microsoft Office well. It is important to assess these abilities in order to see what an employee actually can do. For example, many prospective employees will be skilled at Microsoft Word and Outlook but may be rather weak in Excel. For more analytical positions, assessing this weakness upfront will prove vital to understanding whether an employee will be the ideal fit for the organization.

In addition, for an employee that has an administrative role, verifying how many words they can type per minute is important to measure their ability to keep up with their job’s requirements. Lastly, if an employee’s role needs PowerPoint, then they need to know how to make professional PowerPoint presentations. Having tests to verify an employee’s potential skillset in not only Microsoft Office but also more advanced applications, if they are necessary for the job, is vital to ensure whether the prospective employee will be an ideal fit.

10- Using Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is being integrated more often into hiring practices. In fact, many major banks are integrating Stella to sort through candidates to find the proper fit. Stella serves to not only present relevant job opportunities to potential job seekers but to also find the right candidates for Human Resources managers. As Artificial Intelligence gets even more sophisticated, it has the potential to match the perfect candidate to employers. Firms that have invested in Artificial Intelligence efforts are smart because later on, these programs will become vital for a business to remain successful.

Final Remarks

Finding the ideal employee is no easy feat. Many firms make mistakes in how they hire by putting the wrong applicants in roles not appropriate for their skill sets. It is wise to realize that if an applicant is not properly placed, they will not perform at their top possibilities. In addition, applicants that are not the ideal fit will disrupt the success of a department or even a whole company. Human Resources managers have to carefully plan how they are screening prospective employees and if the role they are hiring for is beyond their expertise, they need to consult a senior manager to be sure they are looking for the right qualifies in potential applicants.

Firms can also lose out if the Human Resources department is not knowledgeable about the roles they are hiring for. The companies that do invest in implementing proper protocols for finding the right team for their organization’s objectives will see the benefits in the short, medium, and long term. Employees that are placed in environments where they are properly suited to perform better and ultimately, greatly benefit their company’s success. As Artificial Intelligence continues to grow, it will have a profound impact on the hiring process and how firms approach finding the right candidates for the positions they are looking to fill. That said, the problems will remain the same.

Having the right screening process, no matter how basic or advanced they may be, is vital to a firm finding the exact team they need to be successful with their objectives. It will be fascinating to see how the hiring landscape changes in the coming years and how firms hone in on their strategies to find the absolute perfect applicant.

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