Picking the Right Candidate: 5 Recruiting Strategies

Choosing the right candidate is challenging at times but essential for company growth and productivity. If you have ever been in a position to choose between hundreds of great resumes, you know the feeling. To find out more, we sat down and talked with our talent and acquisition recruiter. Here are the top 5 strategies he uses to pick the right candidate.

1. Searching for good fits, not just good skills.

Picking the right person doesn’t mean they are going to be a great employee. Sometimes an expert can have a difficult personality and be impossible to work with. This demonstrates the lack of interpersonal skills needed for the position.

2. Quality over Quantity

This one is an excellent follow-up to the first. It takes practice to spot the right candidate. The right candidate should be able to thrive in the job you’re hiring for. It’s possible it won’t be someone with extensive work experience. I’m looking for someone with the right personality and work ethic. I look for qualities like honesty, integrity, and kindness.

Every skill and position in a company is learned over time. It’s hard to teach the intrinsic items listed above. Maintaining a company’s culture is just as important as any skill a candidate has to offer.

3. When Opportunity Knocks, Open the Door

As a person who helps hire for the company, I always keep an open mind regardless of the current positions available. If I come across a person I know would be a rockstar for our company, I will hire them. I try to create a position and do what I can to secure their entry into the company. They will be an asset regardless.

4. Great Communication

The way a candidate communicates before and during the interview will impact the impression they make. Prompt, confident communication can go a long way toward making a good impression.

The right candidate comes prepared with knowledge of what the company is about, its products, and its mission. They should ask challenging questions that indicate an interest in the company. All of this serves to highlight a candidate’s ability to effectively communicate.

5. Unique Interview Process

Most people go into an interview expecting to be asked the usual set of questions. However, picking the right candidate requires a little bit of brain-picking. I try to avoid questions like “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” since they generate predictable replies or lock individuals into certain responses. This is a doomed question from the start. If the candidate responds with something that isn’t relevant to your company, it’s not a great sign. Or they’re compelled to say something implying that the current interview is their dream job and that they want to spend the rest of their lives working for your company!

I’m more likely to ask, “If you could take a dream vacation, where would you go?” This has nothing to do with hiring for a specific position, but it does provide insight into whether that person likes to travel or if there is another open position that would be a better fit. But most of all, I find that these sorts of questions help them relax, and you might get a few moments where they let their guard down, and you get to know them a bit more

Here are some questions that help reveal more about a candidate’s character.

Final Remarks

Picking the right candidate is essential for making summer camp a great experience for your campers and for you as a hiring manager. And for more tips on running a smooth camp, check out this tutorial.