3 Keys to Selecting the Best Candidate Every Time
For many bloggers and online entrepreneurs, one of the hardest parts of hiring is how overwhelming the process is.
There’s so much information coming at you from various candidates that it’s difficult to filter through it all and come out on the other side confident that you’ve made the best decision.
Once you’ve actually posted the job and applications start rolling in, it’s challenging to sift and sort through all of them.
Who’s trustworthy? Who’s making their resume look more glamorous than their experience really is? Who would actually make the best fit for your position and business?
One time a few years ago, I interviewed 12 candidates! It was for a writing/editing position and the applications were all sooooo good. And, I was really curious about what interviewing 12 candidates would be like.
In a word… Terrible!
It was far more draining and depleting than I had ever imagined. And about three minutes into more than half of the interviews, I knew that they weren’t going to be a good fit, but it was really hard to cut off the interview. So I sat through hours of painful interviewing.
I promised myself I would never do that again and continued on my mission to figure out the best way to find high-performing freelancers.
There was another time (a couple of years later) when I had 68 people apply for a project manager position that a private client was looking for.
If I hadn’t developed ways to efficiently manage such an influx of applicants by that point, there is no way I would have been able to handle sorting through and picking from that many applications.
And the good news? I found the most amazing project manager for that client. They are still working together almost two years later.
Keep reading for my top 3 strategies on how to handle each stage of the hiring process, without the chaos and overwhelm.
1. Reviewing all the applications.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the hiring process, reviewing the applications you receive is probably the worst of it.
Instead of reviewing applications with detail until your eyes are about to fall out, start with a quick, simple gut check.
As you scan over each application, give it a yes, no or maybe. (Key word: SCAN. Not read in-depth.)
If you have more than 15 yeses, I challenge you to cut it down to a top 15.
Reviewing more than 15 applications in detail is just too overwhelming.
My in-depth reviews look like: reading everything they submitted, doing some light research (aka, Googling them) and tracking them down on social media to see what else I can learn about them.
2. Collecting work samples from top candidates.
The traditional approach to hiring (used by massive corporations and many brick-and-mortar businesses) says that you’re supposed to pick candidates to interview based on the applications.
But, what no one tells you about this practice is that most of the people who get interviews know someone who knows someone.
So when you try to use it with freelancers when you literally have people applying across the nation and the world, it doesn’t work.
You can’t rely on a loose connection because the freelancing market is so expansive. You aren’t limited to your local geography.
That’s why I prefer to ask for a work sample from your top candidates. The work sample should cover a simple task or two that allows them to demonstrate whether or not they are capable of the level of work you’re looking for.
Work samples give you a much better indicator of whether the candidate is going to be a good fit for you and help you narrow down candidates as a step between applying and interviewing.
Pro tip: The work sample should be relevant to the position you’re hiring. It wouldn’t make sense to have a social media manager write a blog post, but it would be relevant to have them prep a few sample Instagram posts.
Aim for an activity that would take about 15 minutes to complete. Keep in mind that you aren’t paying them for this work; you can’t use what they produce unless you pay them.
3. Interviewing the best candidates.
Recently, I delivered three fabulous virtual assistants to my client and her question to me was… How do I choose?
I ran into a similar situation a couple years ago when I hired a writer/editor to help me with my content. I liked them equally. I knew they would both do a good job.
My mind was spinning and spinning on this decision. Checking in with my intuition wasn’t working… I liked them both so much but couldn’t hire both.
So how did I choose?
I made a pros/cons list about each, and that’s when I saw it.
What was really attractive about the candidate I didn’t choose was that he was quite a bit cheaper, almost half the cost.
But his qualifications weren’t there…
He had just finished a master’s program in sound engineering and was really interested in editing podcasts, so I knew he wasn’t going to be in his Zone of Genius working for me.
He also had a background in textbook editing. I tried to convince myself that would be ok, but as I wrote it down, I realized how different textbooks are from blog posts and social media captions. The only thing they have in common is that they are both in English.
The more expensive candidate, the one I ultimately chose… She had experience in online writing and a background in journalism.
Plus, it was also clear in her interview that she loved writing and wanted to grow her business as a freelance writer. If she could, she would be freelancing writing for years to come.
Hiring her ended up being the best decision ever. I never regretted it.
So that’s what I recommended to my client (an honest pros/cons list), and it worked beautifully for her. It has been so fulfilling to hear how happy she is with her decision. How much she loves receiving support from the candidate she chose.
If you feel like your head is spinning after the interviews, try writing down everything you loved about each candidate and all the concerns you have.
It seems so simple, but there’s something about writing things down that makes them more tangible and can make tough decisions a bit easier.
Hiring doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
In fact, it should be freeing! While the process does take some time, intention and thought, you’re ultimately selecting someone who will give you back time to focus on the pieces of your business you love and enjoy most.
With these strategies, I have no doubt you’ll make the best selection for your business—and encounter way less stress along the way.
