Hiring's always been a gamble. As a business, you're betting on a candidate's potential to deliver, but the stakes are high. Bad hires cost time, money and morale, but a good hire can transform teams, boost productivity and drive innovation. But the odds may be in your favour, if you're willing to focus on verified skills, prioritise diversity and understand what makes that great hire you've been looking for. De-risking your hiring process sounds intimidating, but it's easier than you think.
Why It’s Risky
Why is hiring risky, you ask? Well, risk comes in many forms. From exaggerated CVs to misleading interviews to our own unconscious bias, these are but a few of the ways bad hires can occur. And this cost isn't just annoying or inefficient- a bad hire can cost up to 30% of an employee's salary first year salary. But it's not all doom and gloom. A good hire brings everything a bad hire doesn't. From fresh ideas to improved team dynamics, their results far outweigh any potential costs of finding them. For early career talent, although their risk factor might feel higher, their value potential is paralleled by none. The key to getting it right is a smarter, fairer and more data-driven hiring approach.
Trust What’s Proven
Skills are an area where things can become tricky. People can easily boast about talents they claim to have, but how do you know what's real? Assessing skills is important, as it helps you find those candidates who truly add value. Skills assessments allow candidates to demonstrate what they know in a variety of areas, from Microsoft Office to problem solving, to coding and beyond. In early career hiring, these tools are a game changer, levelling the playing field and allowing talent at the beginning of their career to shine, without needing years and years of experience.
Fairness Drives Better Hires
Bias is the thing that really gets in the way of making a good hire. It can manifest itself in the form of preferring candidates from certain schools, or prioritising certain personality traits over competence, or something worse, but ultimately it leads to bad decisions. And missed opportunities. Transcribed interviews which eliminate the opportunity for accent bias or blind CVs which remove the chance for name bias are but a few ways to mitigate the disaster of bias. For early career talent, removing bias is exceptionally important. They may lack experience or some of the skills of seasoned professionals, but a bias free process will help identify those people who will be key to your business in future years.
RaaS Technology
RaaS (Recruitment as a Service) technology is revolutionising the hiring game, removing risk one step at a time. It allows HR people to focus on what matters most, the people who want to/ already work for a company. It's almost like outsourcing the boring, heavy lifting of recruitment, the sourcing, screening and even first interviews, but to tech. They allow candidates to be matched with roles and companies based on skills, values and attitude, ensuring a match that benefits both sides. It's a tool that can simplify and de-risk your entire process with verified skills, no bias and better hires at the click of a button.
5 Actionable Tips to Make Hiring Less Risky
Here’s how to build a hiring process that lands high-value talent every time:
- Implement Skills-Based Assessments- Utilising platforms that verify technical and soft skills helps prioritise aptitude and ability over experience, allows you to be confident that you have made the right hire.
- Blind Your Hiring Process- Bias sneaks in, specifically in that pre-screening round. Removing information such as names, photos, education and background information helps businesses identify talent based solely on who they are and what they can do.
- Leverage RaaS Platforms- RaaS tech helps streamline the sourcing and screening of talent. It handles that heavy lifting and ensures that you have the time and attention to make the right hire.
- Standardise Evaluation Metrics- Rather than going purely off gut feel, create a standardised way of doing things, and make sure that the whole business adheres to those same standards, to eliminate risk.
- Invest in Early Career Pipelines- Early career talent could be that key to unlock your hiring. By building relationships with bootcamps or universities or using a service with a constant flow of that talent, you're opening doors, whilst de-risking with verified skills and competencies.
The Payoff: Hiring with Confidence
De-risking hiring entirely is impossible. But, companies can put steps in place to make it as risk-less as possible. By verifying skills, removing bias and utilising RaaS tech, you can find those hires you dream of making. A bit of trust, and the willingness to switch things up, will go a long way in making hiring less risky and just, well, better.
