In the last few months, Wordle has taken the world by storm. It seems like you can’t scroll through any social media site without seeing someone bragging about their little yellow and green squares. Creating something like Wordle takes a team of creative and knowledgeable people, so when it comes to hiring, why not take a page from their book and make your word LEVEL?
L – Learn what you need and what you want when hiring
You know that you have a vacancy, so you know what functional needs your business has. But do you know what interpersonal needs your business has? What soft skills would help drive your company forward? How creative and innovative you need your new hire to be? Before starting your search, make sure that you have a good understanding of your company’s culture, and identify the gaps you’re looking to fill beyond just the functions of the role.
E – Explain clearly what you want
There’s nothing worse than a confusing job spec. When candidates are job seeking, they’re looking at tens of hundreds of job specs. Job specs that are confusing at best will lead to frustrations between your company and the candidate, and at worst, will prevent candidates from applying in the first place. Make sure that you use a title that’s easy to understand (“Senior IT Technician” as opposed to “Computer Wizard”) and detail clearly what the role entails and the qualifications and qualities you’re looking for. The clearer you are, the less likely it is that you’ll get irrelevant applications.
V – VET, VET, VET!
It’s a crazy world out there. Stories like The Tinder Swindler remind us that we can’t always take people at face value. Unfortunately, this is as true with hiring as anywhere else. No matter how earnest, kind, and forthright the candidate seems in your interactions with them, you should ALWAYS run a background check on them. Make sure that your candidate is who they say they are, not just for the safety of your company, but also for the safety of your other employees. It will save you the money and stress that would come from having to deal with a security or fraud incident later.
E – Examine every option when hiring
Make sure that you consider each application carefully and give everyone a fair chance. As humans, we all have inherent biases and prejudices. Audit your decisions and assess if they’re fair. By overlooking amazing talent for superficial reasons, you’re creating opportunities for your competitors to hire that talent to boost their business. If you find that you might be overlooking good talent, using something like an AI hiring tool could help you shortlist in an objective way.
L – Land the hire
So often companies miss out on amazing talent because they take too long to decide on their hire. While you may have time to make your decision, your candidate might not have the same luxury. There’s a reason they’re on the job market, and in delaying the decision, you could risk them jumping at another opportunity. There’s wisdom in not rushing a hire but taking too long could also cost your company.
While there are many more aspects to hiring the right person every time, these should be a helpful jumping off point. And while you’re at it, why not actually try LEVEL as your first word on Wordle? It has to be the word sometime, right?
