20 Guide to Hiring Quality and Productive Staff in Nigeria
20 guide to hiring quality and productive staff in Nigeria
It doesn’t matter how skillful or talented an entrepreneur is, he cannot handle the rigors of the business alone, he needs to employ people to help him. The success of any business depends majorly on the ability of the employees put together. It would be disastrous to the business if an employer does not carefully select people who are committed to the purpose and objectives of the business.
For any business to do well, it needs qualified, professional and experienced workers, who will produce the best for the business. Competent people help to meet specific requirements for the business. As a business owner, you should know that your employees are investments that must yield positive returns over time. However, it is not always easy to employ quality and productive staff, especially in a country like Nigeria where education doesn’t connote capacity and competence.
Hiring quality and productive staff in Nigeria might be enormous, but following these few guidelines can help you achieve your results.
- Competence
Though you may not be able to figure this out from the interview stage, but you can check their track record. A competent person is one of your best investment as a business owner. You cannot just hire anybody to work for you, you must be sure the person has the skills required to perform the role. Competence is one of the things you have to look out for before hiring any staff for your business.
- Define the job
Job analysis helps you to gather information about the job, responsibilities, skills required, and work environment of the job. This information allows you to develop the job description for the new staff, and helps you to plan your recruiting procedure. If you have the job defined, then you’ll know the right kind of persons that should fill in the role when hiring.
- Test for learning and logical skills
You cannot totally depend on the information on a resume to hire your staff. Most resumes contain lies, and you cannot use this as your yardstick for employing the right staff. You should use different methods to evaluate the ability of the candidate to learn new things fast. You will need someone that can easily adjust to the rigors of the job, so you must test that before hiring.
- Review credentials and resumes carefully
As much as you cannot totally depend on the credentials and resumes provided, it still doesn’t cancel the fact that you have to check them carefully. Going through the credentials is not a waste of time, as you will be spending most of your time with your staff in the business. It is totally worth it for you to spend time going through the resumes and credentials.
20 guide to hiring quality and productive staff in Nigeria
- Prescreen candidates
While the resume and credentials may present a perfect person to you, a prescreening interview will reveal to you if those qualifications are the best for the job. It also helps to save time during the main interview and selection process. A prescreen interview also helps you to determine if the salary expectations of the candidates match with your job.
- Compatibility
The ability of your new employee to work with other people will go a long way in your selection process. The employee will be spending most of the time in a team, so you should check out for this. Find out about his social life and interpersonal skills. Someone who cannot get along well with others serves as a danger to your business if hired.
- Hiring interns
This is one of the best ways to hiring the best and trusted staff. The way a person behaves as an intern is the same way he will behave when hired as a full staff. Working with interns for a period of time helps you to know their strengths, skills, and capacities. While working with interns, you would have studied them well, and know if they can be trusted for the job as a full staff.
- Verify references
Endeavour to verify the information provided by the candidate by running a background check. You need to be sure that all credentials, skills and experienced provided belong to your candidate. Run a background check on your candidates, and this should include criminal history, educational credentials, work experiences from previous employers.
20 guide to hiring quality and productive staff in Nigeria
- Character and culture
Check the characters of your candidate and be sure their values and beliefs are fine by you. Look out for honesty, integrity, and selflessness in your candidates. Also, people whose cultural beliefs will not affect their productivity at work. Culture shapes and affects the way a person sees and reacts to things, it determines how they relate to other people.
- Compensation
Discuss your compensation package at the interview stage and be sure the candidate agrees with it. If an employee does not agree with the salary or compensation, he might underperform, and this is not good for your business. A hardworking staff needs to be appreciated, so you must be sure you have the best compensation package, and that your candidate agrees with it.
Read Also: 4 Ways to Turn Your Personality to a Profitable Venture
- Do research on candidates
Social media never forget what is put up there, it is a way to know who your candidates are, instead of asking them personal questions. If the candidate is active online, it is a plus to you, especially if it’s a tech job you’re hiring for.
- Efficiency
Efficiency is a reduction in waste, and shortages. An efficient labour force helps to reduce operating costs in the firm. You should look out for efficient people to be hired in your business. It ensures productivity for your business.
- Capability
This is an indicator to the candidate’s capacity, and willingness to make room for change and improvement. You do not need a rigid person, who doesn’t give room for growth.
- Ask the right interview questions
The interview stage is a critical stage in hiring an employee. The questions asked are crucial to help you in hiring the right staff. Interview questions help you to separate the best candidates from the average ones. The questions you ask during interview matters a lot.
- Use a checklist
Using a checklist helps you to customize your process for hiring. The checklist helps to keep you on track of your recruiting strategy. It also helps to communicate progress to interested employees and the hiring supervisor.
20 guide to hiring quality and productive staff in Nigeria
- Improve your hiring process
Make your hiring process more professional, and less cumbersome by stating all the job requirements, like the skills and year’s of experience required. This helps to streamline the applicants that show up for interview.
- Plan your recruiting strategy
Once the job description is set, you should set up a recruiting planning meeting that involves other people who are hiring the new staff. The hiring manager and other human resource personnel are crucial to the recruitment stage of your new employees.
- Do not use favoritism
This is very common to every human. You just want to hire someone who looks like you, or who catches your attention during the interview. This shouldn’t be so, you would be missing out on the best staff this way. You should ensure that the candidate truly qualifies for the job, and not hire them just because you like them.
- Attitude
Employees can be taught the skills they needed to perform well in a business, but the attitude they come with is what makes the difference. During interview, you should look out for core personality and values that you desire, then hire them and you can always teach them the skills they need to have.
- Prioritize people who have done their research
Candidates selected to be employed should be able to talk about the business from customer’s perspectives. Anyone who has done his research well enough will know what people are saying about the business, and how you can improve to satisfy customers better. This is the kind of employee you need for your business – one who sees the problem and offers solution to solve it.
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