A: There is no such thing as the “perfect candidate,” but there is a simple way to ensure that you hire the right person for the job. Most hiring managers use traditional job descriptions to measure job competency, but the trend is moving away from this process.  Progressive companies are using performance-based job descriptions that describe the deliverables the person needs to accomplish.  When assessing a candidate, decisions are based on his or her ability and motivation to meet those objectives—not based on experience, skills, education and personality. 

Use the interview to focus on the candidate’s previous accomplishments at his or her former company. Then use the assessment to compare these to the job requirements. Generally, this process begins at the start of a hiring process, but it is not too late to ask the candidates to come back for another interview to ask performance-based interview questions. Your top candidate should emerge after using this methodology.

A: Congratulations on your business success! Hiring the right people is one of the most important business decisions that your company will make. Hiring must become a defined business process, just as you have an accounting and sales process. The right hire can propel your company to greater profitability and increased market share. The wrong hire can, in some instances, cause a company to sustain large financial losses or close altogether. 
Hiring top talent is so important, but most company executives and HR leaders don’t do much to ensure that it’s done correctly. Your company needs to implement an end-to-end integrated hiring process to hire top performers, including:

• How jobs are defined by defining performance expectations;
• The creation and implementation of candidate marketing-based sourcing programs;
• The use of a performance-based interview process; and
• A clearly defined decision making process.
  

Document the process and train everyone who is involved in the hiring process. Many small business owners think that they can simply place an ad on a job board, conduct superficial interviews, and hire the candidate that they “like” the best. Without a hiring process, your company is exposed to making a costly hiring mistake.