TMA Accounting Blog

Tips to Boost Hiring Success

Written by TMA Accounting | November 10, 2023

It's the goal of every boss: Hire the right person to fit the right job.

To achieve this goal, put more time and energy into a job analysis, which allows you to match an applicant's skills and qualifications to those of the job.

Let's imagine you're hiring telephone service representatives (TSRs) who take orders on incoming 800 lines. Here's how a job analysis helps in your hiring decision:

Identify job tasks

These are the actual duties that make up the job. Don't just list them. Identify how much time employees give to each task and performance standards for each task.

Examples: "TSRs spend over 90% of their shifts taking phone orders. Normally, our representatives fill an average of 24 orders per hour."

Isolate success factors

These are the skills, knowledge, abilities and behaviors essential to successful performance. The best way to single out these factors? Ask star employees and their supervisors to list them.

Examples: TSRs handle stress well. They like interacting with others. They have good sales skills. They're good communicators and make customers feel at ease. They're courteous.

Rate the importance of success factors

Ask employees to list in order of importance each of the factors they identified as essential to the job.

Examples: Courteous manners, good communication skills, likes interacting with others, able to handle stress, and good sales skills.

Draft interview questions

Directly tie these questions to each of the important success factors and job tasks.

Examples: "How have your communication skills helped you explain a difficult or unpopular concept to someone else?"

"Tell me about a stressful job you've had and how you dealt with these pressures." "TSRs sit at the same station for up to eight hours a day. How do you feel about this job requirement?"

Always ask open-ended -- not closed -- questions. Closed questions are answered "yes" or "no." Example: "Did you like this article?" Open-ended questions anticipate a thorough response.

Example: "How does this article help you make better hiring decisions?"

Have more questions for the TMA Accounting team? Reach out and start a conversation.

 

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