5 Keys to Make Sure That You Get Team Hiring Right

Stop what you’re doing right now. Collaboration should be the foundation on which your entire hiring process is built.

Hey, if Vanilla Ice can lead off his most timeless classic (we know, Go Ninja, Go Ninja GO! is tough to beat) with a call for collaboration, you can incorporate it into your team hiring.

Here are five (5) ways to stop, collaborate and hire:

1. Assemble a crew

Pull in people from your company who:

Will directly work with the new employee;
Understand the position and its needs
Worked closely with the former employee of this open position (if that person exists).

You can’t expect to fully understand every position in your company, but you should know how to loop in the people with that knowledge? You don’t need to be the smartest person in the hiring room, just the one who gets everyone in it.

2. Use custom questionnaires

Pull your team together and develop a set of questions that will correctly evaluate an applicant’s ability to do the job. Do not make it about everyone in the company having their voice heard.

Ask about specific activities they did that translate to the new position.
Ask them what they know about your company and the job they’re trying to fill.
Ask them what they’d like to contribute immediately, if they started tomorrow.
Use these six (6) interview questions too!

What’s needed in the new hire? What will the position demand? What skills are critical and what can be taught to someone with the right fit and passion?

Figure these questions out and you’ll be in good shape.

3. Consistent questions

Now you have the people and the questions. If you’re going to conduct interviews with multiple interviewers, structure the questions to make each interview effective and manageable. Your custom questionnaire should have a few questions that are absolutely critical.

Ask those critical questions in each interview and make sure to note the differences if there are any. You’ll be able to compare the differences easily in the applicant dashboards of your hiring software. An example would be a particular skill the applicant will need to do the job.

4. Take notes

Notes aren’t for giggling girls in the back of the classroom. They’re critical elements for passing valuable information around team members, departments and decision-makers.

It doesn’t matter if you’re half of the entire hiring team or the head of 25 head-hunters. EVERYONE. TAKE. NOTES.

5. Bring it all together

Take all that great information, all those notes and all those gut feelings and start sharing them with one another.

Discuss what each of you liked and didn’t like about the candidate. Use quantifiable scores in the candidate evaluations section of your hiring software.

This way, your team can compare and contrast scores, not just feelings and opinions. It makes the entire discussion much more tangible and objective.

What do you think? Can you think of any other ways to help you incorporate team hiring into your recruiting process?

This article originally appeared on The Resumator Blog.