Hiring Wisdom: Open Doors and Interview Rewards

With unemployment at record lows, making your jobs easy to apply for has never been more important. And that’s especially so for hourly workers. Here are some tips for hiring the best.

Open door candidate experience

When jobseekers have their choice of employers, most will take the path of least resistance. If you don’t have all of the “doors” that could gain entrance to your hiring system open, you’re sure to lose applicants to the competition.

If you have a real door they can walk through, what hours is the door open and what will happen when a jobseeker enters?
Can they walk through your website’s door? How easy is it to find that door? Is the online application process simple and quick or complicated and lengthy?
Can they walk through the social media doors?
Can they open a door with a text message?
Can they enter through your phone system?

Whichever door they choose, you’ll want to have a procedure in place to ensure whatever happens next in your hiring process makes applicants feel appreciated and gets each person fully engaged in your hiring process.

Unseemly couture and punctuality

When candidates are late for an interview and/or dressed inappropriately, rather than send them away, explain that punctuality and appropriate dress are extremely important to your organization and you would be happy to reschedule the appointment if they are still interested.

If they don’t reschedule, you just saved yourself a lot of wasted time, but, if they do return on time, appropriately dressed, you’ll know you have yourself a highly promising candidate for employment.

Rewarding punctuality

Here’s a great way to make a stellar first impression on those hard-to-come-by quality, hourly employee recruits:

When a job applicant shows up both on time and neatly dressed, at the start of the interview, give that candidate a $5 or $10 gas or gift card as a thank you for being on time and appropriately dressed. This gesture will set you apart from competing employers as well as reinforce the value your organization places on timeliness and appearance.