We all know that finding the right employee for your business is crucial, especially if your business happens to rely on fewer than a dozen people. Each member of the team has a critical function to perform, and if they don’t do it properly, your company can soon find itself in big trouble.

Worse still, you’ll be judged by your colleagues on the people you decide to hire. If they think you’ve made a bad decision, you might wind up losing even more team members.

Find People With A Commitment To Their Careers

Lots of people in the job market hop from one job to the next in search of higher salaries. And while this tends to work quite well for them, it doesn’t work so well for your company. A person who doesn’t stick around for the long haul, especially in a startup business, is more of a liability than an asset, especially if you plan on training them.

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Instead, look for candidates who have proven track records over many years at former employers. No, their CVs might not be as impressive as job-hopping high-flyers, but their loyalty will pay dividends in the long run.

Test For Learning And Analytical Skills

Employers often make the mistake of thinking that they need people with specific skills. But the evidence suggests that these might not always be the best people to take on. Sure, they’ll be able to hop into a role almost as soon as they arrive with your firm, but they could be very limited in what they’re able to do over a longer period of time.

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Companies have started to realize that the most valuable members of their team aren’t those with any particular skills, but those who have the ability to learn and master new topics.

Don’t test candidates on a specific subject matter: instead, have a look at their capacity to learn and their ability to deploy their own educational toolsets. A person who is able to adapt to new tasks and improve their work is far more valuable than a person who can’t.

Focus On Improving Your Hiring Process

Often companies can be let down by their hiring process, either because they aren’t using adequate applicant tracking systems, otherwise known as ATS, or because they aren’t asking the right questions at interview. Don’t focus on routine, generic bullet-point questions. Instead, try to get to know each individual candidate and find out about their confidence, and their overall potential. Often, you’ll find that some people are a lot deeper and more skilled than their level of confidence suggests.

Get Social

According to data from Forbes, over 90 percent of companies actually prefer to hire people through social media platforms, including Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. On top of that, more than 45 percent of Fortune 500 firms use some sort of social media platform to advertise jobs. The reason for this is that getting social with people at interview is awkward. People don’t want to answer questions about their personal lives in a formal situation. Social media can be a great strategy for breaking the ice and getting to know a candidate better.