There are no right words to explain how important the recruitment process is. Not only that you have the opportunity to pick the best talent, but also, if you fail to recognize that person, you will most likely have serious issues. To not make such a mistake, you can’t be biased, and you have to focus interviews only on relevant skills. Here are five ways to keep an open mind while recruiting.
Many factors might lead to bias, including age and gender. Also, some hiring managers tend to favor candidates because of their names. In a fair recruiting process, such things mustn’t be allowed. The right candidate has to possess the necessary skills and job requirements, and things such as demographic characteristics and names should not be relevant at all.
There are many potential ideas on how to eliminate bias from the recruiting process. One of the best is to remove the name, age, and gender from job applications. Tell people to send their CVs without this information. Once you make the decision based on skills, then, of course, you should ask new employees to tell you their names and age. Excluding this information in the recruiting process should lead to non-biased decisions.
Each year, Google gets over 2.5 million applicants. That’s equal to 6,849 per day and about 5 per minute – and Google reviews each one. Don Dodge, a current Google employee shows how thorough Google is with each applicant. What’s not important is the logistics of each hire, but why they hire this way and what we can learn from it. Because it’s the people that make Google what they are today.
When you get interviewed at Google, you’ll receive questions like:
“How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?”
“There are 8 balls. Seven of them weigh the same, but one is heavier. Using a balance scale, how do you find the heavier ball with just two weighings?”
“You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?”
Google says the answer isn’t as important as your thought process and how you think under pressure. The worst possible answer would be a non-answer. Quickly saying “I don’t know” won’t get you a job at Google.
These interview questions may seem unnecessary to some, but they are one method Google uses to filter and find the smartest, most thoughtful candidates. If you want to run an extraordinary company, you need to hire extraordinary people. And to do that, you need to be very good at hiring and firing.
Diversity is vital
Diversity is one of the most significant characteristics of a great company. Especially in huge countries such as Australia, where you have a massive number of ethnic minorities. There are also other important factors, such as the balance between women and men, or young and old employees. That should be part of your business strategy.
On top of that, one of your priorities should also be to hire people with disabilities. You can be in touch with disability employment services such as atWork Australia and find great talents that suit your business requirements. Offer them a clear career path and a pleasant working environment. Also, have an open ear for their specific needs and try to understand them. It is essential to have diverse employees, and at the same time, to show that you equally care for each of them.
Well-written job description
Removing restrictive terms from your job description, including (again) age and gender, is an excellent precondition to have a successful recruiting process. Believe it or not, many people tend to skip job advertisements because people use the wrong words in the text. And some of those people might be extremely talented newcomers.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to dump all words which might favor only one group of people (women, men, older or younger people). Instead, try to focus solely on relevant skills and requirements and stick to them in your description. If you can’t find adequate words, don’t hesitate to seek the help of professional copywriters.
Structured
interviews
There are two types of interviews – unstructured and structured. Unstructured interviews, according to Harvard Business Review, usually lead towards bias. In those interviews, candidates are allowed to speak freely, without strict questions and guidelines. Because of that, hiring managers can come out with the wrong conclusions and unreliable predictions regarding the future job success of each candidate. On the other hand, structured interviews are fairer.
Each candidate has precisely the same set of questions. Every answer should help managers to decide which person possesses the most relevant job skills. That way, all applicants will have the same treatment, and it is a lot easier to find the right candidate. He/she will be chosen based on skills, job requirements, and (sometimes) experience.
Dump intuition as a
factor
Intuition is the enemy of a non-biased recruiting process. Even though it might be useful for some people during different periods of life, when it comes to hiring, there is no room for such a thing. The reason is pretty obvious and straightforward –intuition is filled with biased assumptions.
Hence, hiring managers should not be allowed to make decisions based on intuition. The only fair way to pick the right candidate is through their skills and abilities. Nothing else should be involved.
Finding the best candidate is very tough since there might
be a fierce competition. However, with the right approach which follows these
five ways, you will, for sure, find the right talent.
