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Small to medium organisations rely heavily on employing the right people to make the business owner’s goals and aspirations a reality. But there’s more to it than just placing a job advertisement online and hoping for the best.

Hiring for Success: How to Build a Dream Team That Will Take Your Business to the Next Level

May 26, 2023

Small to medium organisations rely heavily on employing the right people to make the business owner’s goals and aspirations a reality. But there’s more to it than just placing a job advertisement online and hoping for the best. 

The importance of building a strong team

Building a strong team is crucial for the success of any organisation, and it is even more important for small and medium sized businesses where there’s no room for passengers. 

Strong teams with an appropriate mix of qualifications and experience work together more efficiently and productively, and can collaborate to produce new ideas and solutions that will help you stay ahead of the competition. But your business could be badly disrupted if you don’t recruit the most suitable people for your dream team.

The costs of hiring the wrong people

Hiring people is expensive, even if you decide to do your own recruiting rather than engaging the services of a professional agency. 

First of all, there’s an upfront financial cost, including advertising fees, time spent reading resumes and interviewing, and onboarding and training a new employee. 

Then, if the new person doesn’t measure up to your expectations, your team’s morale, your relationship with your customers and overall productivity could all be adversely affected. 

If you are left with no choice but to terminate the employee, you could be involved in legal costs. And you will need to start the hiring process all over again.

So, how do you get it right the first time, every time?

Going beyond job descriptions: How to identify the exact skills and qualities your business needs to hire

A job description is a good start, because it can identify definite expertise and experience requirements, such as bookkeeping or marketing. But this won’t tell you much about the other qualities and soft skills you would like your ideal employee to have.

So, make a list of the additional core traits you feel you cannot do without. An example list might look something like this:

  • Trustworthiness 
  • Alignment and culture fit with your organisation
  • Ability to work in a team
  • Readiness to learn
  • Communication skills
  • Enthusiasm

Deconstructing the resume: How to read between the lines and spot the right talent

Now, suppose you are lucky enough to be presented with a tsunami of candidates with the necessary qualifications and experience. You can’t spare the time to interview them all, so you’ll need to explore their resumes to find those core traits you listed.

  • Trustworthy? No unexplained gaps in work history. Solid referee list.
  • Culture fit?  Personal interests and goals mentioned. 
  • Teamwork? Achievements involving collaboration or leadership.
  • Learning? Past or present vocational education.
  • Communication? Well constructed and error-free resume targeting requirements specified in job advertisement.
  • Enthusiasm? Past career development and current volunteering are good indicators.

Game-based assessments: The new wave of talent selection

An assessment contained in an online test game is another recruitment tool to consider. Candidates are asked to complete a set of interactive tests and game-based elements which are designed to accurately measure their cognitive skills, agility, creativity, personality and ability to solve problems.

Game-based online assessment platforms are offered by organisations such as AonCriteriaHireVue and Pymetrics.

Effective recruitment is a vital part of your business strategy

Having a strong and efficient team will be a major success driver for your business, so aim to avoid costly hiring mistakes. Carefully define the skills you need, including soft skills. Identify the most suitable candidates by a shrewd analysis of their resumes. Then pinpoint your potential dream team member with a game-based assessment.

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