Can an Outside Company Really Understand Your Hiring Needs?

July 12th, 2010 by Kira

 It’s hard to believe that someone outside of your company could often find that perfect match for your new hire when they don’t work in the company, fully understand the culture, and have hands on experience within the workplace.

Well, that’s one side of the argument.

The flip side to this is an objective, third party, who can understand the cultural dynamics yet still be able to choose a candidate solely on skill, qualifications, and personality without letting any previous discord get in the way.

If you’ve questioned whether or not it’s possible for a third party to choose the best candidate consider these factors:

1.  An outside company generally does the hard work for you – meaning they get to choose through the hundreds of candidates to find the few that are a good fit for your company.

2.  You still get to ultimately choose who is RIGHT for you – but it’s easier on your end because all of the backend work has been done for you. (They’ve been prescreened, pre-interviewed, and are already noted as qualified candidates).

3.  A lot of companies and hiring managers are more emotionally involved in the choice of the applicant, an objective third party is often able to see the potential pitfalls with a candidate and company match prior to the company being able to see them.

These are just a few of the differences that are seen when utilizing an outside 3rd party in hiring your next candidate.   To find out if FORTIS is right for you, simply give us a call or email to find out how we can be of service to you.

5 Ways to Freshen Up Your Interviews

February 8th, 2010 by Kira

Going through the interview process can become tedious if you have to sift through too many candidates, so why not try some fresh interview techniques to liven up the process and find out who is really underneath that resume.

  1. Talk about their passions. You can discover a lot about someone when you hear what they are passionate about. You’ll find out if they love to volunteer, read and learn about new things, or just enjoy soaking up the sun.
  2. Where do they like to vacation? Beach, mountains, or do they never even take vacations? Do you have an adventurous person in front of you or someone who values family time?
  3. Let the staff who will be working with the new person do the interviewing first. Avoid having to interview everyone and find who will best fit in with the team by allowing the team to do the interviewing.
  4. Take them out to lunch. Instead of staying in the office all day and plowing through interviews, meet them out to breakfast, lunch, or coffee. People tend to relax a bit more when out of the office.
  5. Never underestimate the power of humor. While it should be used only in appropriate settings, humor can help people to relax and show a bit more of their “humanness” during the interview process. It’s often unexpected during an interview, but can take away some of the routine feelings of the questions.

There are plenty of ways that you can add a personal touch to your interview style, most importantly the interviewer should be relaxed and welcoming and allow for the interviewee to open up and be themselves as well.

Can you share your own experience with being yourself in your interview?

How Using a Staffing Service Can Literally Save Your….

December 16th, 2009 by Kira

Have you ever found yourself in a hiring-crunch? You’ve got meetings, appointments, paperwork, and more and between the two minutes you have to get your coffee and a snack you are reviewing resumes and chasing people down for interviews and you needed someone yesterday.

Do you know the feeling?

A hiring-crunch isn’t any fun and can often lead to making a bad hiring decision just so you can be done with it and get back to your regular to-do list.

This is where a reputable, dependable, and trustworthy staffing service can literally save your…. Well you can fill in that blank. When using an outside third party to find your next key staff member you not only save the time, the stress, and the hassle but you could literally save money too.

You’ve heard the statistics before; it takes more money to hire the wrong person than it does to find the right person and spend money doing it.  When you hire right the first time you get someone who is qualified, fits into your company culture, and can easily provide the skills you need to get the job done. However, when you do it on your own and when you are in a crunch an emotional sense of urgency can cloud judgment – making it even more critical to have an outside objective third party help with the decision.

It’s best to think and plan ahead so you can avoid this “crunch” – even if you don’t need someone right now begin looking at various companies who specialize in your industry so if you ever do get in a crunch, all it will take is a simple phone call to smooth things out.

Is Your Hiring Process Hurting Your Business?

December 16th, 2009 by Kira

Typically companies ignore the hiring process until a position opens up. The problem with this is that it leaves you scrambling to find the right person in the shortest amount of time. Companies who place more emphasis on hiring and who are always looking for key talent have an advantage and can quickly fill a position with the best person in the shortest amount of time.

What can you do to change your hiring process and make it a priority?

Steve Chandler and Sam Beckford of 9 Lies That Are Holding Your Business Back state that hiring should be a priority at all times, even when all of your positions are filled. They say this does something incredible to company morale, since you have people waiting for positions to open up; your employees will be more productive and will be happier because they are working at a great place where many people want to come and work. Whatever you do, don’t go around telling your employees how hard it is to find good people.

To keep your potential employee pipeline filled work with a staffing company, recruiter, or other professionals who come across great talent. Whenever they have someone, even if you are not hiring, meet with them anyways. You never know, you just might find someone so incredible that it’s worth opening up a new spot in your company.

Top talent exists out there; you just need to do your part in consistently attracting them into your business