You’re sitting across from a candidate that said all the right things. They’re personable and their experience is everything you’re looking for, but is that ‘golden ticket’ resume fact, or fiction? How do you know that the candidate can do all the things they say? Here are a couple of tips to help you continue the hiring process with confidence and know the skills they bring to the table are the real deal:

Conduct Better Interviews

One surefire way to increase your hiring effectiveness is to improve your interviewing. A well-crafted fib on paper falls apart quickly when held up to the light in interviews. Don’t waste time with traditional, vague interview questions. Rather, determine beforehand 1) what skills/experience you feel someone needs to have to be successful and 2) specifically what you want this person to accomplish in the next 6-12 months. Then START your interview laying all of this out, which saves valuable interview time and gets right to the heart of the matter. Instead of the candidate wasting time trying to guess what you’re looking for, they can now start talking about the specific areas of their resume that relate to what YOU need. NOW your most important job is digging into specifics of what they say, peeling back the onion by asking for examples and probing with several follow up questions to see if they can back up with facts what they said they’ve done. Candidates that look good on paper but are poor performers will wilt under these questions. Conversely, candidates that are great performers, but not necessarily great interviewers, will blow you away because they’ve actually done the work and can speak intelligently about it.

If you are working with a quality recruiter, they will always meet candidates in person to vet them before they cross your desk. They will use the experience they have from placing countless other candidates to assess if this candidate is the real deal or not.

Network Sleuths

Taking the time to make effective reference check calls and comparing the candidate’s employment history on the resume with their profile on LinkedIn can be very eye-opening. Look closely at dates and titles to make sure they match, then compare the specifics of the work performed. Often you’ll find an entire job is left off one or the other. Make sure you check out Facebook and Google as well. You’ll be absolutely shocked sometimes at what you’ll find there.

Reference calls can be valuable if you do them correctly. Obviously, 99% of the references a candidate provides are going to paint a positive picture. However, if you follow the model provided above by asking for details and specific examples, you can glean a lot of useful information. It’s much easier to say someone is “a great guy” than it is to back it up with specific examples if they’re talking about a mediocre employee. Utilizing your own network to reach out to peers who may have worked with this candidate can also give you a better picture of what they’re like to work with. You must make sure the person you are calling is trustworthy and will keep your conversation confidential. You do not want to be responsible if your contact blabs to someone and it gets back to the candidate’s current employer that they are exploring job opportunities.

Professional Recruitment

Using professional, quality recruiters can make your life easier because they should be meeting the candidate in person before you ever see the resume. Trusted recruiters will be your first line of defense in screening out pretenders. They have a vested interest in conducting a thorough interview since they will get some egg on their face if the candidate they have presented bombs the interview with you. You can even have your recruiter do some homework for you, which helps zero in on the most qualified candidates and prevents you wasting time conducting needless interviews. This can be in the form of specific questions you want the recruiter to ask or requiring them to provide further detail on a specific part of the candidate’s background to help you determine if you want to set up an interview.

Make the Right Choice

If you are feeling overwhelmed by resumes, or aren’t sure of a candidate’s credibility, hire a quality recruiter. With extensive experience in job placement within a specific niche, recruiters can take the stress of job searching off your shoulders and help you vet candidates thoroughly and quickly. Local recruiters will have even more insight into your market, and get you the perfect fit fast.

If you have any questions about anything in this article or would like to talk to a professional, local recruiter about candidate qualifications today, contact the Talance Group at (713)-357-9565 or visit our website: https://talancegroup.com.customers.tigertech.net/.