Hiring skilled professionals has always been a challenge, but especially now in 2018. With technology advancing at a rapid pace and more career opportunities available than ever before, finding a quality candidate to fill your open position might seem elusive.  If your organization lacks efficient hiring processes and tools it can be easy to make less than optimal hiring decisions, which can have negative repercussions. Here are 3 ways to reinvigorate your hiring process in 2018.

Write better job descriptions 

Asking for everything and the kitchen sink actually deters prospective talent from applying due to lack of focus in the role description or intimidation by the overwhelming requirements.  Instead, focus on the core skills and make clear distinctions between “must have’s” and “nice to have’s.” This approach clearly states what the true expectations of the job are, versus your desired attributes that would be an asset to any potential candidate, and will serve to invite more accurate applications.

Improve your interview skills

The interview process can oftentimes be cumbersome because, as a manager, you are looking for technical competence as well as other attributes that factor into employee success, such as emotional intelligence and coachability. You might struggle with a lack of confidence in your interviewing abilities, your lack of time might inhibit your ability to pay attention to red flags, you may be new to the process; there are a number of reasons why you might be struggling with hiring the right person. Interviewing is a skill to acquire as much as any other aspect of a job. Use resources to learn best practices, speak with a recruiter, whose job consists of interviewing hundreds of applicants, about different tips and tricks. Learning how to interview properly can save you early terminations due to hiring the wrong person.

For instance, if you don’t know how to represent the culture of your company accurately in an interview, it can result in a bad culture fit and low retention. A good place to start is to allow candidates to ask questions and have a conversational approach. Be transparent about what it will be like to work for your company. Give perspective on the work environment and set realistic expectations. Give the candidate a chance to determine if they want to keep pursuing a role at your company, or to realize it’s not the right fit for them.

Give timely and thoughtful feedback

We all want the hiring process to be quick; as they say, “time is money!” There is a healthy correlation between timely feedback and faster hires; The sooner you can provide feedback, the quicker your hiring team can reach a decision, which significantly improves the candidate experience. However, It is important to remember that even more than the delivery of speedy feedback to the candidate, it is important to give quality reviews to your hiring team after an interview. Avoid common mistakes like evaluating traits that don’t pertain to the job itself, or summarizing a candidate’s resume with vague statements like, “not the right fit,” as it does not provide valuable insights on what you or your company are looking for. Instead, provide a quality review such as, “The candidate possesses great leadership capabilities which will be helpful in this role, because he/she will be mentoring other employees,” or, “This candidate had a strong resume with good experience, but in conversation it was clear that he/she lacked the initiating, leaderlike personality required for the role.” By pointing out specific positive and negative attributes you can provide discernable deciding factors that will help you to streamline your prospective hires.

It can be tricky to attract and retain a good hire in 2018, but there are actionable steps you can take to improve your process. Start with these three, and you’ll find that taking the time to refine the process will save you time and frustration in the future!