Your human resources team wears many hats:

• Hiring
• New hire training
• Dealing with pay or benefit discrepancies
• Settling disagreements between employees
• Handling workers’ compensation situations
• Managing unemployment claims
• And more.

There is so much to be done as an HR professional and we love them for everything they do for us! However, is it realistic to place all the sourcing, screening, and interviewing on your HR team alone?

It could be the time to take a look at the cost of hiring and how much time your HR team is actually spending in the hiring process due to other obligations.  So, what can you do to help your HR team and help your company’s overall success?  

Your next step may be to connect with a hiring agency like Hire Quality Strategies. Hiring agencies can take on the bulk of the hiring process for you! HQS has an all-star team that can help take pressure off your HR team so that they can better focus on all other aspects and responsibilities of their position.

Our full-cycle recruiting team has extensive experience:

• In sourcing
  
• Screening
• Interviewing potential candidates in several different industries:
  • Supply chain  
  • Plant management
  • Human resources
  • Accounting/Finance
  • Engineering

Instead of your HR team scouring job boards and databases for potential candidates, we can take that step out for you. We can compile a list of strong candidates that are pre-screened and aware of job responsibilities before the resume even reaches your HR team. The last steps are just final interviews and paperwork - giving much needed time back to your HR team.

If our recruiters have sufficient knowledge of your company and the position requirements, they can do the leg work for you!  
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Happy hiring! 

There is nothing worse than doing all the leg work of finding the perfect candidate for an open position, but then losing them because they were hired quicker elsewhere. After this happens several times, it may be time to take a step back and look at why.
 
It may be time to reevaluate the steps in your hiring process:

• Is it necessary to include an entire work history section on an application? 
  • Perhaps just ask for the most recent employer.  Eliminate the need for an applicant to input their entire resume into an application.  
• How many interviews are required?
  • Is there a need to meet with more than the hiring manager, HR and 1-2 additional team members?  How many people is this person overseeing and/or working with? Are they cross-functional or can they be hired directly by the hiring manager? 
  • Do you have multiple locations? Does the candidate need to visit each location?
  • If you are asking the right questions, interviews should be limited to one or two. We also now have the technology to conduct interviews remotely which can help expedite the process! Using these resources will increase efficiency! 

 

• What about background checks?
  • Are you doing background checks in-house? Do you rely on a 3rd party for background checks? What types of background checks are you using? Background checks are a necessary part of the hiring process. 
    • One way to help prevent potential candidates from walking is to discuss the hiring process and background checks required during your initial conversation. For example, a national background check or fingerprinting may take several days. If you discuss that with the candidate ahead of time, they will be more willing to stick with the hiring process because you were transparent. 

 
Hiring processes should be thorough and in-depth, but this does not mean it needs to take 10-14 days. If you ask the right questions, use reliable 3rd party services/background checks, and utilize an efficient interview process, you will better your chances of hanging on to a potential candidate. 
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Happy hiring!

The dreaded interview! Interviews are often plagued by feelings of anxiousness of the unknown. It does not have to be this way! Here are a few tips for a successful interview: 

1.Make sure you have everything you need for the interview ready the DAY BEFORE. 
Print your resume, have your required identification, write out a list of references, write down questions for the hiring manager. Don’t wait until the last minute as feeling rushed can make pre-interview nerves worse! This also allows you to get focused for the interview instead of focusing on not forgetting anything! Pick out your outfit the day before as well. There is nothing worse than rushing to get ready and realizing your best shirt is a wrinkled mess! 
2. Check over your resume! Making sure you list all previous employment is important, but also look at your resume and make sure that the appearance is professional and appropriate. Resumes do not need to be 20 pages. Keep each section short, sweet, and to the point.  Resumes need to be spot-checked and edited for any grammar or spelling mistakes. Saying that you spent 7 years as a mechanic at a “cat” shop may not be what an employer is looking for and they might point you to the vet’s office down the street! Why not have a loved one or job placement office check over your resume as well? 
3. Practice basic interviewing questions with a loved one!This can be done over the phone, FaceTime, or in-person. Make a list of common questions or field-specific questions. Then, give it to a loved one to practice with you. Do not be afraid to ask for advice/critiques. Try not to over-rehearse responses. Ask loved ones to ask follow-up questions if they think of any. This will prepare you for the flow of a real interview conversation.
4. Have an idea of your strengths and weaknessesEmployers will ask these tough questions. This is a great question to practice and have an answer lined up. Coming up with strengths is relatively easy, but coming up with job-specific strengths may take some consideration. Also, in my experience, weaknesses are difficult to think of and even harder to describe/discuss on the spot. No one wants to talk about things they are bad at, but employers want to know what skills you are passionate about improving on. Have examples of how you think the job you are applying for will help you build those skills you may not be great at! Employers LOVE to see ambition and desire to improve. 
5. Dress for success. 
This tip seems obvious. Dress appropriately! This does not mean wearing whatever you decided to roll out of bed and throw on. Take time and think about your attire.  Though hiring managers are typically skilled at not judging a book by its cover, first impressions are vitally important during interviews. Therefore, you should dress professionally in a way that makes you feel confident. I have personally dressed for an interview in an outfit that was appropriate, but completely uncomfortable. Because of this, I did not feel as confident as I should have and most of the interview all I could think of was how bad my feet hurt. We all know that feeling when we choose an awesome outfit and we just ooze confidence. Do that for your interview -dress professionally, comfortably, and confidently!

​Happy job hunting!