With the challenges present in today’s employment market, it’s a great time for companies to find quality employees. But even with a considerable talent pool to choose from, how do you figure out who among them is the absolute best fit for your business?

Having a simple, repeatable system in place for your hiring practices means that you will have a consistent process in place for finding quality people – even if the person doing the hiring changes over the years.

But how do you put together an effective hiring process?

Here are some good places to start:

Be real. Even in a “seller’s market” employers can easily fall into the habit of asking too much and offering too little. Keep in mind that the candidate with the impeccable credentials, multiple degrees, and 20years of experience isn’t going to want to work for 30 percent below the going rate for his field – even in tough times. Keep your expectations in line, and offer a competitive wage. By doing so, you will attract candidates that may appear less than perfect upon initial review, but end up being a perfect fit by the end of the process.

Look within. Regardless of the size of your company, always look at your existing employees to determine if any of them would be a good fit over the long term. Even if it requires a longer learning curve, your existing employees are generally more invested in your company, and will be more willing to go the extra mile to give you what you need.

Move fast. Make sure that you develop timelines for the recruitment process. Once you make initial contact with a candidate, you have 14 days before your odds of losing that candidate begin to increase exponentially. Don’t lose that perfect fit because you let your process drag on for more than a month.

Move faster. Once you’ve completed the face to face interview process, make a decision within 48 hours. This instills confidence in your new hire that she is coming to work for a strong company capable of making firm, quick decisions.

Seek constant improvement. Regularly engage your HR department about the hiring process. Get your HR staff members feedback on the strengths and weakness of the process as it currently exists. These folks understand the details better than anyone, and are the best resource you have for continually making your hiring process better.

By using these steps, you ensure that you are finding the best people for your open positions, each and every time.

If you need help finding great and reliable employees each and every time for your Tampa Bay-area company, contact StaffEx. We can help you source skilled professionals for temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you.