7 tips for hiring great talent in 2024

Is your team hiring? 

Finding talent for your team is no easy task, especially if you’re looking for high-quality candidates who are passionate about your company.

Successfully hiring the best possible talent to join your team means optimizing and enhancing your candidate experience. You’ll have to invest in your hiring process, from perfecting your job description to fine-tuning your onboarding and team integration approach.

Cut back on wasted resources and remove the headaches that come with finding quality candidates. Let’s get into our top tips for hiring the best talent in 2023 and beyond.

Hiring a new team member isn’t just about finding someone who meets the basic requirements.

As modern working environments rely more on collaboration and teamwork, it’s essential for hiring managers to consider the right fit. Hiring the wrong person can lead to long-term issues and employee dissatisfaction.

Ideally, a candidate is fully engaged and committed to your company’s mission and objectives while being a collaborative, effective team player. 

If you can find someone that meets these criteria, your team will reap many benefits, including:

Increased productivity 

Teams with fantastic communication and collaboration have higher productivity, and they’re more likely to produce higher-quality products and services. 

Hiring the right people increases team synergy and creates a more enjoyable working environment. And that improves team productivity the longer they work together. 

No team is perfect, but a group of talented people aligned to a common goal and interested in the work makes everything much easier (and faster).

Improved innovation and problem-solving

New hires bring fresh ideas, experiences, and opinions. Quality workers provide a new set of eyes on your existing problems, helping you find innovative solutions. 

Hiring outstanding workers can provide future-proofing advantages to your company, keeping your team agile in the ever-changing market. And that’s exactly what your company needs to stay on top in your industry. 

Elevate company culture and employee engagement

Top talent can encourage a culture of excellence, helping you retain workers and branding your organization as a leader in your niche. 

Looking to hire great talent in 2023? It’s time to assess your hiring process from start to finish. 

Use these tips to attract better talent and nurture a positive candidate experience.

Start with a detailed, accurate job description

The job description is usually the candidates’ first encounter with your company. And it’s an often-forgotten puzzle piece in successful talent hunting.

Your job posting has to be accurate. But you’ll also want to highlight key selling points about the role and your company that will encourage top talent to apply. 

Make sure the job posting is interesting and stands out from others. Don’t make it a long list of blah blah tasks and responsibilities. And don’t write over-friendly, cringey posts unless you want people rolling their eyes.

Your job description should include:

• The correct job title

• A list of required qualifications (only what is truly necessary for the role)

• A list of “nice to haves” for candidate experience and existing knowledge

• Main job responsibilities, but keep it short

• Work schedule expectations, including work-from-home or hybrid working styles

• A market-fair salary range (which many states now require)

• Information about how to contact your team for an interview 

• Any information about the process

• A description of your company, including the working environment, team dynamic, and the brand’s mission and vision. Get the candidate excited about working with you.

Spend time to assess your company culture

You need a strong understanding of how your team operates and collaborates to hire the best candidate.

Hard skills, like training and experience in a niche area, are always important when choosing a new teammate. However, soft skills like personality, collaboration, communication style, and drive are key to successful teams.

It’s not always possible to determine if a new hire will be a perfect culture match. Understanding how your team works together is a great start. 

Examples of ways to learn more about your team before hiring a new member include:

• Speaking to your team members about common pain points

• Analyzing your team’s current collaborative processes—what’s working and what’s not

• Encouraging your team to provide feedback on your interview and hiring protocols

• Asking for team input on possible training opportunities for new hires

• Assessing and understanding the personality types of your coworkers

• Asking your team what soft skills would complement the team dynamic

Plan your interview structure in advance

High-quality candidates come to interviews prepared. They’re ready to ask questions and learn more. Matching their energy is key to getting them excited about the role. 

To win the hearts and minds of these candidates, you need a streamlined, organized interview to challenge and inspire them.

Before any meeting, we recommend running through the following checklist:

• Is the meeting location set, clean, and available?

• Have you blocked off your schedule to prevent distractions during the interview?

• Are your interview questions organized to maximize flow?

• Have you looked at the candidate's resume before you begin?

• Is a diverse panel part of the interview process?

• Have you prepared your interview panel participants?

• Do you know the expected turnaround time for contacting successful applicants?

• Have you sent a pre-interview invitation email to the candidate with all relevant information, including where to park and what to expect when they arrive? 

Ask behavioral-based interview questions

During the interview, the goal is to learn as much as possible about your potential new hire’s working experience and what motivates them. One of the best ways to do this is to ask behavioral-based questions.

These questions encourage the candidate to share stories of their previous work experiences. This will help you better understand whether this person will be a good cultural fit for your team.

Examples of behavioral-based questions to ask your candidates include:

• Tell me when you inspired your team to accomplish a challenging goal or project.

• Give me an example of going above and beyond to show initiative in your last role.

• What motivates you to show up every day with enthusiasm and dedication?

• Can you share a story about how your leadership resulted in a positive team outcome?

• Have you turned around a poor-performing team? What was the issue and your role?

• What kind of workplace culture inspires you to achieve great things?

• Tell me about a time you helped two coworkers get along despite communication challenges. What did you do, and what was the outcome?

Consider hiring from employee referrals

Every day, an unfilled position drains money, productivity, and morale. Luckily, there’s a speedy solution.

Employee referrals are a fantastic way to hire high-quality talent and reward long-term employees for their input and loyalty. After all, who knows your company better?

An employee referral program can help your company find high-quality colleagues. It’s also an awesome way to encourage employee engagement and shorten the talent search. 

Examples of employee referral program perks you can offer include:

• Financial bonuses for successful referrals

• Additional time off or half days

• Company-branded swag

Focus on soft skills, not just on hard skills

For many hiring managers, it’s tempting to hyper-focus on the skills and experience listed on a candidate’s resume. While a candidate may look amazing on paper, skills alone don’t always mean they’re the best fit.

Go beyond the hard skills and ask questions to discover who the candidate is and how they’ll approach the role, team, and company.

A great way to do this is to ask supplementary questions throughout your interview as the candidate shares their experiences.

This is where a meeting outline can be incredibly helpful. You can ask additional questions and easily return to the flow once you’ve learned more.

Follow up with their references to learn more

Finally, to get the best understanding of a potential candidate’s fit for your company, speak to their professional and personal references. 

While it’s possible to email references, we recommend calling them whenever possible to get more authentic answers to your questions.

Examples of questions you can ask a candidate's work references include:

• How long did you work with the candidate?

• What was their role and responsibilities?

• Did the candidate integrate well into their work environment?

• How well did the candidate get along with their coworkers and upper management?

• Was the candidate a high performer? Can you give me an example of a time they went above and beyond at work?

Examples of questions you can ask a candidate's personal references include:

• How long have you known this candidate?

• What are three personality traits that you would use to describe the candidate?

• What can you tell me about this candidate’s work ethic?

• If you were in my position, would you hire this candidate?

Beyond these tips, you can implement a few big-picture practices into your hiring process. These approaches can further attract and retain high-quality talent:

Invest in your candidate experience

Your candidate experience directly impacts your ability to land the right people. If the hiring process is sluggish or messy, it can put off potential hires. Mastering your candidate experience should be at the top of your to-do list.

Unsure where to start? Using candidate experience surveys can unveil areas for improvement. Being open and willing to make process adjustments is essential to impressing great talent.

Make the interview process welcoming and inviting

No one likes a stuffy, awkward interview. Whenever possible, do your best to create an inviting environment. Making small talk to get things started or offering tea or coffee can go a long way.

Incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion practices

Integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations into your interview process is imperative. Make sure your interview and selection processes represent your diverse workforce. 

Consider speaking with a DEI professional for additional suggestions on making your overall candidate experience more inclusive. 

Offer your team a chance to meet the candidates

Finally, if you’re down to a few contenders for a new role, you can assess their match for company culture and teamwork with a final “meet the team” interview. 

Taking a more casual and conversational approach, this type of interview allows the candidate to learn more about day-to-day company life. It also allows your team to meet the new talent and see if they are a good culture fit.

Great talent is everywhere—you just need to know how to attract it. The best way to make a stellar first impression is by investing in the candidate experience. 

While it may be tempting to jump into the interview process with every candidate, save valuable time and money by being intentional with how you hire people.

Following our tips can help you hire the right candidate and take your company to new heights.