8 Tips for Weeding Out Bad Candidates During the Hiring Process

Recruiting new hires for your company can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially when you’re looking for experienced, quality candidates. Hiring the wrong candidate not only means you’ll have to go through the hiring process again, but it can also cost your company money. That’s why employers need to learn how to identify and weed out the bad candidates during the hiring process. According to our recruitment experts at Nova Staffing, here are a few tips on how to do this.

 

Use Job Application as a Test

The job application is the first step in the hiring process, and it can tell you a lot about the candidates if you know what to look for. One of the fastest ways you can screen potential hires is to see if they actually filled out the job application in full. Candidates who do the bare minimum, don’t fill out the entire application, or don’t follow the simple instructions are people you can weed out early on.

 

Look at Their Attention to Detail

When looking at a candidate’s CV or resume, don’t just look at things such as past experience or skills. Take the time to look at smaller things to see their attention to detail. Did they fill out the job application correctly? Is their resume filled with grammar mistakes and spelling errors? A few small things are fine, but if an employee doesn’t make an effort to properly follow steps or edit their CV, they’re probably not someone you want working for your company.

 

Is Their Resume Curated?

One good way to weed out candidates interested in any job and those interested in this job is to see who actually took the time to curate their resume. Potential hires that make an effort to tailor their resume to the job they’re hiring for are more likely to be interested and stick around than those that just send over a generic one.

 

Examine Work Experience

Past work experience is one of the best ways to tell whether a candidate is qualified for the open position or not. But don’t just look at their previous companies and titles. Pay attention to what their actual duties were. It’s also a good idea to look at how long they held these previous positions. Candidates that have held multiple jobs in a year without mitigating reasons are a red flag. Either they’re not pleasant to work with, or they aren’t planning on staying at your company long.

 

Look for Accomplishments Instead of Duties

When you’re looking at a candidate’s previous experience, pay attention to what they say. Do they simply list their duties, or do they explain what they learned or accomplished? Being good at a job is about more than ticking boxes. You want candidates that generate results! Toss aside any resumes that read like a list of tasks.

 

Check Their Social Media

Looking at a candidate’s social media profiles during the hiring process might be controversial, but this person will be representing your company, so you should see how they present themselves online. Don’t make the mistake of hiring someone only to find out after that they post things on social media that don’t match with your company’s value. It could be a PR disaster. You should especially check out their LinkedIn to see whether their resume matches up or not.

 

Ask Unexpected Questions

Most people prepare for an interview, but you want to dig beyond the polish. Candidates are usually prepared for the basic interview questions like “what are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”. Try asking questions that are outside of the box that will give you a real insight into who they are and whether they’ll thrive in your company culture. Some good ones are “what is your biggest pet peeve?”, “what makes a good co-worker to you?” and “what drives you to wake up in the morning?”

 

Hire a Professional Agency

Companies can do tons of things to try to weed out poor candidates when hiring, but not all employers have the time or resources to do it. A professional recruitment agency is trained and experienced to find quality candidates. At Nova Staffing, our team has over 200 years of combined industry experience. We know how to find quality hires that will elevate your company.

 

If you’re looking for hiring help, contact us today! Our team of employment experts at Nova Staffing is here to help with all of your staffing needs.