3 Easy Steps to Hire “A Players” FAST during the COVID-19 Rebound

How to hire fast without hiring a nightmare employee?

Many of us have been on a hard pause the last few weeks and possibly in the upcoming months. We are all looking at how to ramp our businesses back up into hyper drive once we are all free to leave our homes. This could be a daunting task. I promise you we have a process that can literally help you find, identify and hire GREAT employees in 5 days. Here is a step by step guide on how to do this:

Step 1: Get Ready… Be Prepared to Move Fast

Get your job descriptions dialed in, do your job analysis, reevaluate what types of people have done well in the role and those who have struggled. Identify the key measurable outcomes for the roles and responsibilities. Determine which qualities those previous winners and duds had in order to create a candidate profile of the person who is most likely to crush those measurable outcomes. 

Figure all this out with our Candidate Scorecard tool here. 

If you really want to master hiring during your downtime, please read our book “Hiring Talented Team Players” Or take our FACT Based Hiring eLearning course. 100% Discounted for FREE. Use Code covid19help

Spending this downtime to get prepared will greatly improve your outcomes when you need to ramp up fast and fill those jobs in 5 days or less. 

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Step 2: Get Your Tools Ready to go

It’s almost impossible to hire fast without the proper tools in place. The best thing is that these tools are not expensive, costing anywhere from $100 to a few hundred dollars and will be able to pretty automate the entire process. 

The first tool you need is an Applicant Tracking system there are lots out there. We offer one called RapidRecruit if you like to explore all your options  before you buy then start trying and learning more about these tools TODAY. Even though most of these tools are super easy to use, the bottom line is any new tool always takes a little bit of time to get comfortable with, so get started now!

Pre-hire Assessment testing tools will dramatically change the quality of hires you will make and prevent disastrous hires that we cannot afford when you will need to be moving fast and getting back to business at a lighting speed. Pre-employment tests working with your Applicant Tracking System will allow you to take the hundreds of applicants you are about to receive and screen them before starting any interviews. These will help you figure out who the highest potential candidates are before you invest precious time interviewing them. 

Automated Reference Checking tools such as Reference Hunter play a vital role in accelerating your hiring process and selecting “A Players”. Too many employers skip the reference checking step (Check out this eBook) for lots of reasons but the number one reason is because it takes a lot of effort and time to do them properly. Reference Hunter will allow you to collect, contact and receive feedback from your candidates’ previous SUPERVISORS without lifting a finger. I personally strongly advise clients to only accept reference checks from previous supervisors since they are the chief consumer of your candidates previous work outcomes, they know best if this person is a rockstar or a bum.

Candidate Scorecard and scripted interview guide such as our thoroughly tested and proven free Power Interview Guide will allow you to create a structured interview process which, based on science, is statistically proven to dramatically improve your hiring outcomes and the quality of hire. Get your interview plan ready to go. Having a structured interview process also speeds up the interview process. Imagine winging it with every candidate. Some interviews will last minutes while others will last over an hour because there is a lack of structure. Also, it makes it very difficult to compare candidates if you have assessed them based on different questions. 

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Step 3: MOVE FAST! Make Hiring “A Players” Your Top Priority

We understand you have a 100 other things you are worried about when trying to ramp your business back up at lightning speed, but getting the wrong people on the bus will dramatically slow your ability to execute your business operations and plan effectively and quickly. 

Make sure you set aside a lot of time to review candidates quickly and get them in for interviews FAST. If you have no time available, then it will be impossible to quickly figure out who is good and who is not. I recommend a 2 step interview process that can be done with minimal logistics and coordination. 

Use a Scheduling Tool

Use a self-scheduling tool to invite candidates to a phone or video interview. We all know how annoying it is to send 7 emails to find a time where both parties are available. Self-scheduling tools such as Calendly.com, Youcanbookme.com, or others speed up the interview scheduling process dramatically. 

Do a Phone or Video Interview First

It’s much easier to set time aside for a virtual meeting such as a phone or video interview than plan for an in person meeting. Use your interview guide such as the free Power Interview Guide to run a highly effective interview that can be done in 30 minutes or less. Think about that. You can interview 10 people in less than 5 hours of work AND gather strong evidence and information about whether this candidate has the potential to be the rockstar you’re going to need to get your band up and running fast!

Do an In-Depth Career History Interview Second

Think about it if you have a powerfully predictive pre-hire assessment test done before your first interview, have already collected those supervisor’s reference checks and had a powerfully predictive first structured interview. You will now be ready to tie up loose ends and make a fast, predictive hiring decision during the final interview. 

The final interview can be done via video conference or in person, depending on your COVID-19 lockdown situation, both do a great job of connecting effectively with your candidate. 

I would do a Career History Interview for this final interview. A Career History Interview is a technique taught by the folks at Top Grading, a great book highly recommended read. It is a simple concept where you start candidates talking about their career and their achievements at their very first job. Have them walk you through the timeliness of each employment and focus on what was expected of them and how they performed in relation to those expectations and what their past supervisors will have to say about them. All this is summarized here in the free Power Interview Guide. Go through their reasons for leaving and their motivations for each move in their career trajectory. We are looking for a sustained and substantial history of kick ass results. Anything short of that you might have a B or C player on your hands. 

Now use your Candidate Scorecard to rank your candidate on the key qualities you determined to be the drivers of success and you can now make a fast predictive hiring decision.

Hire Top Performers

Get prepared by creating your Candidate Profile, setting up your Applicant tracking System, implementing your predictive pre-employment testing tools, and Automated Reference Checking tool. 

Have a strong structured interview set up and use self-scheduling tools to streamline the interview process 

Use a candidate scorecard to make your decisions decisively, consistently and FAST.

We wish you all a speedy and successful business recovery, hope everyone stays healthy and sane while getting after it.

If you are interested in learning more about these techniques or tools please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are here to help. 

For reading this , I am offering our eLearning course on the FACT Driven Hiring System for FREE (Use code: covid19help) f you want to become an expert lightning  speed hiring guru. Also if you are an HR Professional you will get 8 SHRM or HRCI Continuing education credits 

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