Recruiting 101: Know What You’re Looking For
What are the top traits you desire in an employee? What skills must they have? If you aren’t asking questions like these before you begin the recruiting process you run the risk of hiring someone who is a poor match for your property. Know exactly what you’re looking for and find the right match in 4 steps:
1. List Specific Skills
Be as specific as you can! If there are certain skills that will be required to fill a position successfully, make these a requirement. You want to make these clear with candidates and on job postings; otherwise you could end up falling in love with a candidate only to find out they are lacking a non-negotiable skill. Being specific upfront will also save you time—weeding out unqualified applicants and targeting those who will benefit your apartment property.
2. Find Someone Who Fits with Your Culture
Recruiting is energy consuming. If you’ve been fishing for candidates for weeks without luck you may be tempted to pick someone who is talented—but doesn’t quite fit with your property. Talent is essential; but so is cultural fit. You could hire the most talented leasing professional in Houston, but if they represent values that clash with your properties’ then they will most likely not flourish on the job.
3. Know Where to Look
The follow up to knowing what you’re looking for is knowing WHERE to look…you can’t find the candidate who matches your criteria if you aren’t looking in the right places. It isn’t hard to find applicants in the pools of job seekers in Houston and Austin; but finding the best of the best is harder. Posting on general job boards (Craigslist, Indeed, etc.) will get an open position out to the public; but you might have more luck finding skilled applicants by asking around your professional network, on social networks, or for referrals from current employees.
4. Don’t Settle
Pursuing ideal candidates, even when it is time consuming, will be worth the effort in the long run. The cost of a bad hire is high, draining time and money to hire someone who isn’t quite right—and then to repeat the process when it doesn’t work out with him or her.
Hiring a dream candidate is possible, but it takes planning. These steps can simplify the process, but you should still be prepared to commit the required energy to finding a new hire. If you don’t have time to see the recruiting process through, consider hiring a staffing company, who can find and send you employees that match what you are looking for.