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The truth is that in theory, hiring new team members always seems like a simple process. However, the fact is that realistically it is far from simple. It’s not just a case of posting an ad on a few job boards, cherry picking candidates and asking a few interview questions, it’s far more complex than that. As many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs will tell you, hiring the right team will give your company the best chance of success. When a business fails, usually it is not simply down to who is at the helm, but who is on the team steering the ship, as it were. So what goes wrong?

According to business experts, far too often business owners hire team members to fulfill their short-term goals, instead of thinking further afield regarding their long-term goals. When it comes to the hiring process, you need to be thinking about your long-term business plan and how much growth you want to achieve. What this means is that if you only take on team members with the short-term in mind, you will need to constantly repeat the hiring process as your company grows and develops because your needs will change. Doing this is costly and time-consuming, and wholly unnecessary.

Of course, that doesn’t have to be the case. If you are mindful about who you are hiring and strive to take on the very best talent and choose people who you know will benefit your business in both the long and short-term, you shouldn’t have to deal with this problem.

Want to know how you can find the very best talent for your business? Read on for all the best tips and advice.

Make a plan

The first step to hiring new team members should be making a plan. As a business owner you are naturally eager to surround yourself with the best talent, but what you don’t want to do is rush the hiring process. That’s why making a plan is such an important step and one that should not be skipped. Don’t hire team members based on anything other than your business’s long-term needs and goals. By putting a plan in place, you can use your long-term strategy and business budget to ensure that you make the right staffing choices.

An example of this is that influencer marketing is big right now – everyone is talking about it and how essential it is for businesses. This may make new business owners feel like they need to hire an influencer strategist immediately, but this would be a mistake. You won’t be able to afford a strategist straight away – it will take time to build up the budget to be able to afford the strategist and the process of working with influencers.

By having a plan in place that acts as a roadmap in regards to the team members you need and when you need them, you can ensure that you are not hiring unnecessarily.

Be specific

Before you start listing your job openings online on networks such as LinkedIn, it’s important that you know exactly what you want and need. You need to create a specific job description – you need to know what you need. You don’t want your job description to read exactly like every other one on the site.

A generic advert means a generic number of responses. If you want to source all the most unique talent, you need to create a more unique job advert. Tailor your job advert perfectly to suit your needs as a business owner. Be clear about what you’re looking for and what you require. The more comprehensive the job description is, the better. You want to attract the right kind of people, so being specific is key.

In the personality traits section, ensure that you add some relevant information. What kinds of person do you require? Be clear about this – if you need a specific personality type you need to state this. Remember, it’s essential that you look for diversity – diversity in the workplace is vital for success, which is why you want to ensure that you are hiring a diverse team of people.

Put skill ahead of experience

Often, experience is something that business owners put ahead of skill, but it shouldn’t be. Just because someone has more experience that doesn’t mean that they have the best skills. So as a business owner, take the approach that skill comes before experience – just because a candidate is fresh out of university that doesn’t mean that they aren’t the best person for the job, and it’s crucial that you remember that.

Say, for instance, you’re interviewing two candidates; one with five years experience and the other fresh out of university. While the experienced candidate might have more industry knowledge, the graduate may have a range of skills that the more experienced candidate may not have. Courses change all the time, methods are updated, so often younger and more newly qualified people can be the better choice.

There you have it, a guide to how you can find the very best talent for your business when it comes to hiring.