It’s getting harder to find talent, especially in tech. You shouldn’t lower your standards. You should think of new ways to win the war for great talent. That means it might be time to re-evaluate how you hire. The biggest mistake many companies make is choosing a candidate who hasn’t really been vetted for skills or experience but maybe shares the same alma mater as one of your hiring managers (this happens a lot, unfortunately). In this labor market you have to avoid these mistakes.

Blind Interviews are Visionary

Many tech companies are performing blind interviews to help avoid biases that inform hiring decisions and create workforces that lack diversity. This can also help keep you away from hiring someone based on things that have nothing to do with performance like where the person grew up or the person’s name or gender. The more you put the focus on talent and fit the better off you’ll be. One of the simpler shortcuts to winning the war for talent is upping your efforts to shed the hiring biases that we all have, even if we don’t want to admit we have them.

Know the Tasks and the Type Who Will Likely Succeed

A lot of people are good at giving interviews and writing resumes. Are they also going to be good at shuffling paper and respecting your chain of command? Sometimes the less flashy candidate is the better choice for certain positions. Avoid the popularity contest and focus on fit. The skills have to be there and that should all be established in early interviews. Next up get a sense of the person’s values and have a really accurate understanding of the daily tasks of the position and, if possible, what type of people really flourish in it.

Be Quick

The people you are interviewing are likely interviewing elsewhere. You can close the deal by making a smart offer. Most people don’t like the interview process and will stop once most of their needs are met. Be decisive in the process, which can be hard because you have to be collaborative. Make everyone aware of the need to push things through.

As the unemployment rate continues to dip you can feel good that the economy is heating up. It’s not a bad thing to have to work harder to hire the right talent. At least, not the worst thing. You can beat out the competition for great talent by losing biases, knowing the position in and out and being quick and decisive. Now go. There’s no time to waste.

About NextGen

NextGen is the brainchild of longtime telecom professionals with nearly 50 years of experience and millions of dollars in Telecom Recruiting Services. We focus on establishing long term relationships with our clients and candidates so we can recruit the best and the brightest in the telecom industry. This ‘quality over quantity’ approach is at the heart of everything we do and has resulted in successful job placements at Fortune 1000 firms worldwide.