How to Prevent Hiring the Wrong Candidate

In business, as in life, doing something right the first time saves a lot of trouble. This is especially true when hiring the right candidate for an IT job position. The hiring process takes time and money. It involves reading resumes, screening for tech talent, making calls to references, and training the chosen candidate. Choosing the wrong applicant is a huge drain on company resources.

By being proactive in your hiring process, you avoid repeating yourself and will hire the right tech candidate the first time. Below, we’ve outlined some of the key things to consider during the employee search process.

Tell Job Seekers Who You Are Before They Apply

It’s up to the applicant to research a company before applying. But if you create a detailed company profile, you weed out incompatible candidates before they even apply.

In your company profile, give a brief description of your brand, what you do, and what you expect of your employees. At the end of the description, leave an “Easter egg” for applicants to find. For example, at the end of your profile write, “In your application, please type your full name in all caps”. This way, you know who took the time to properly examine the materials you’ve made available. Those who don’t comply are removed from the candidate pool early.

Create a Job Description Which Encourages the Best Possible Outcome

Writing an effective job description can be time-consuming, especially when you feel like your team needed the new member yesterday. But it is certainly worth the effort. When you know exactly what your team needs in a new employee, you can be better prepared to go find it. Plus, applicants then know exactly what you’re looking for, they’re better able to determine their eligibility for a position.

A well-written tech job description should include things like:

  • A strong searchable job title

    • Cute and fun job titles might be part of your branding, but stick to searchable terms as the main job title as it will affect how well your job posting does online. You can pepper in the branding name, DevOpsNinja for example, within the text further down if appropriate.

  • A short engaging overview of the job in your company’s tone.

    • This description and tone should give the reader a sense of your culture, the reason this position is available, and most importantly what the candidate will learn, be doing and become once they join your team.

  • Description of the most critical skills and how they will be using them.

    • Instead of saying, MBA is required. A better approach is to state, A key aspect of this role is the creation of a 3-year road map which includes the current state, business strategy and a vision for where the department is headed. Describing how their skills will be utilized gives the candidate a better idea if they can tackle the position.

These are just a few suggestions for your job description. The more in-depth the description, the less room for error on the part of the applicant. At Poly Tech Talent, we provide our clients with a tech talent job description guide to assist in the completion of the best and most accurate job description they’ve ever written.

Consider Working with a Tech Talent Agency

Achieving success while hiring new candidates is tricky. After all you still have a business to run. In a world where tech and business is constantly evolving, it helps to get some input from services that specialize in tech job placement and hiring assistance.

A tech talent agency will go the extra mile to ensure you have the right tools and information at your disposal before you begin the hiring process. Having someone in your court tackline the many steps involved in finding the best candidate improves your chances of success in the first round of interviews.

At Poly Tech Talent, we know the amount of work that goes into finding capable staff. If you’re a company seeking new tech talent and want to find a great employee without wasting resources, download the Outcome-Driven Job Description to get started today. Or contact us and ask how our FlatFee IT recruiting service can work for your company.

For more valuable articles like this one visit our Ultimate Guide to Hiring Executive Tech Talent.