Tag Archives: staffing company

Recruiting 101: Know What You’re Looking For

 

Recruiting 101: Know What You’re Looking For

Recruiting

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.

 

 

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My Story: Alejandra Deluna

Alejandra Deluna came to Hire Priority with the intention of diving back into a leasing job after taking a break from the industry for a few years. At the time her job required her to travel a lot and leasing offered the promise of more stability. With her love of leasing Alejandra was determined to get back into the apartment industry in Austin. After hearing about Hire Priority from a coworker, Alejandra came in for an interview, began working at a property, and four weeks later was hired on permanently.

Alejandra’s passion for leasing has propelled her career forward, and she now works at a property that she loves, remarking that she finds so much satisfaction in meeting new people and finding clients the right place to live. As soon as Alejandra began working with Hire Priority she says that she began to learn a lot, and plans to continue to hone her leasing skills with an upcoming 20 classes of training. With her skill for leasing, drive to learn, and love of the apartment industry, Alejandra is truly a forerunner in the field of Austin leasing.

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7 Most Common Hiring Mistakes

 

staffing company

In a competitive job market, like that of the apartment industry in Houston and Austin, hiring managers often go into the hiring process expecting it to be a breeze—only to run into challenge after challenge. All too frequently they are making some of these common mistakes that, once fixed, could them save bundles of time, money, and energy in the hiring process.

 

1.)            Deciding Too Quickly

Finding the right person for your property is worth taking time for. If you rush the decision making process you are more likely to try and make the wrong candidate fit with an apartment job, exaggerating their qualifications or overlooking their flaws.

 

2.)            Overlooking Past Work Patterns

Has a candidate hopped around to different properties? Has their career path shown upward growth? Past behavior is a good indicator of future performance; and as such you should not overlook work patterns on a candidate’s resume.

 

3.)            Not Hiring with the Property’s Culture

A candidate you choose to hire should not only have the right skills set, but should blend well with your property’s culture. Competition among properties is too steep to choose a candidate who doesn’t gel with your property’s current employees and tenants.

 

4.)            Hiring Yourself

Your property should be composed of an efficient team, which means having employees that balance one another out. If you repeatedly hire candidates who remind you of yourself or have the same qualifications as you then you will not have the diversity needed to grow your property successfully.

 

5.)            Not Looking Beyond the Resume

A candidate may look ideal for an apartment job on paper, but if they don’t have the right personality when you meet in-person then they probably aren’t right for the job. Beyond a convincing resume, the person you choose to hire must also have the right communication and people-skills to excel at your multifamily property.

 

6.)            Talking too Much in the Interview

The point of holding an interview is to see if a candidate is the best fit for a position—not just to tell them about the job. This means that the candidate should talk enough to get to know them beyond simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers.

 

7.)            Not Following through with Training

One of the most serious mistakes a hiring manager can make is to leave a new hire to fend for themselves once on the job without clear communication of expectations or training. Very few people can thrive at a new job with no training, instruction, or support.

 

The cost of making a bad hire is high. Choosing the wrong person now could set you up for starting over looking for a new candidate in a few months when it doesn’t work out with your new hire. Avoid the cost and stress of making these common mistakes in your hiring process and instead start on the path to finding a new team member who will benefit your property.

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