It doesn’t matter how tech-based, autonomous or behind-the-scenes your business may be, the most important asset you have is the people that work for you.
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It’s the talent that makes your company tick, your profit margins grow and keep your customers happy, which is why you need to make sure you are choosing the best candidates every time a place in your brand opens up.
Of course, the best place to start is with their resume, CV or LinkedIn profile, right? Wrong.
The way we see it – and we’ve been doing this an awfully long time – resumes are a total waste of time.
As humans, we are wired to over-hype, glorify and exaggerate, especially when it comes to a job application where competition is going to be rife. But that’s only part of the problem. Resumes also leave you to make a lot of guesswork.
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That’s why we’ve pulled together a few techniques to help you look beyond the resume and land yourself with the best candidate in your waiting room. After all, this is your business we’re talking about.
1. Look For The Ones Who Care
This may seem like a crazy piece of advice, but you’ll be surprised at how many candidates are mass-applying for jobs without much care put in. So, to separate those who do care from the chancers out there, look for little details.
Look for those who have crafted a personalized cover letter, for those that have chased up their application a week later and those who want to be remembered.
Another sneaky tip is to spike your job posting with a #iactuallyreadthis and ask them to include it in their application. That will help you out a lot.
2. Highlight The Proactive Candidates
Nothing is worse than a passive employee. The good news is, you can usually spot these personalities early-on, in their applications.
To do this, you just need to highlight all those that have demonstrated proactiveness.
Maybe they were the social sec at their last job, maybe they did an online marketing masters while working, maybe they worked their way up the chain of command – there are a thousand ways someone can be proactive at work, but it’s these people you want on your team.
3. Do More Than Just Ask Questions
Some people have the gift of the gab and will be able to blag their way through the stand interview questions without breaking a sweat once.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask these questions, it just means you should go one step beyond and have them show they are good at what they do instead of just telling you.
If it’s a sales position they are applying for, have them sell you something. If it is a bid specialist role, have them come up with a USP for a mock-problem.
If you want a creative copywriter on your side, have them write the copy for a product or service you offer. This will separate the great candidates from the great talkers. That’s a fact.
