Part 3 of 3: Questions to Ask to Hire the Right People

In the previous entries, we explored three more questions to ask when trying to hire the right people. This being the last of the three entries, we will talk more about how to implement these employees and retain them assuming you asked the previous questions, and they are the type of employees that you want working at your company. Again, asking these questions will get your candidates hired and allow you to maintain great relationships with your bosses or client companies, whoever you may be working for.

7. How will we get new employees performing to their full potential as quickly as possible?

     There is no doubt that new employees need some time to learn the ropes. However, there are ways that they can learn them quickly. The goal is to have them perform to their full potential as quickly as possible. Putting the necessary administrative processes into action is very important. You want to have a person who is very good at implementing new employees into their systems (whether it be getting them a computer log on or a badge that has access to the building). You also want to make sure you decide where the person is going to be sitting for a significant period of time when they come in. Moving them around from temporary desks is a waste of time and will make them feel uncomfortable. At last, you want to do your best to promote camaraderie with existing employees and new employees. A comfortable welcome will allow the new employee to spend less time at their desk wondering if the employees like them and more time getting to know them and being productive.

8. How will we keep employees for a long period of time?

     It is extremely expensive to hire new employees. Costs of labor for all the people involved are high once the employee is finally hired, implemented and trained. Recruiter fees are also expensive, which is why you want to hire a recruiter that takes pride in finding the right people, and has a record of having client companies retain these employees. First, you want to make sure there isn't a feeling of inequality of pay around employees doing the same job. If there are extreme margins in pay, the employee will not be happy. Obviously, it is best to not have employees discussing their salary, but the truth is that these things do happen. Also, management should always make it their goal to have the company growing. Employees are more likely to stay at a company where they have growth opportunity in significance and salary. You will never retain all employees, but taking these actions can definitely help keep you recruiting costs down.

9. How can we measure our success, keep track of costs and improve over time?

     There is no doubt that you want to keep track of your success in retaining and hiring employees efficiently. Keeping track of this is usually over looked by companies, and not in their top priority list to implement. This being true, you need to keep track of the following metrics to you can measure your own performance: 

PRE-HIRE METRICS

• NumberofHires
• ApplicantVolume
• ApplicantSource
• Time-to-Hire
• Time-to-Fill
• CostperHire
• ApplicantQuality
• Applicant-to-HireRatio
• Offer-to-AcceptanceRatio
• ApplicantDemographicsandEEOStatistics • ApplicantReactions

POST-HIRE METRICS

• ProductivePerformance
• CounterproductivePerformance
• Tenure
• TimeandAttendance
• HiringManagerAttitudes
• EmployeeAttitudes
• TrainingPerformance/Time-to-Competence • TurnoverCosts
• EmployeeDemographicsandEEOStatistics • InternalPromotionsandTransfers
• TurnoverReasons