As executive recruiters in Sacramento, CA, Pacific ExecSearch believes companies should treat the executive hiring process as a mission critical function. After all, the right hire can help take your company to new heights, while a poor hiring decision can result in lower productivity and profitability. With that in mind, what can you do to improve the hiring process in your organization – and increase your odds of finding a great leader? Here are 4 ways:

#1: Know exactly what you’re looking for in a candidate.

For instance, what are the four or five key hard skills a candidate must have to be effective leaders? What personality traits must they have to perform well on the job and complement the company culture? These important skills, behaviors, traits and abilities must be clearly defined before you can begin the candidate search process. Identifying this information takes a lot of hard work on the front end of the hiring process. But having a detailed roadmap in place will greatly improve your odds of finding and hiring the right people.

#2: Ask good questions.

There’s no perfect interview question that will help you hone in on the exact right candidate. And forget the outlandish questions like, “If you were a car, what kind of car would you be?” Focus, instead, on asking the tried-and-true questions that will help you get to know the candidate’s experience, skill set, abilities, knowledge base, and behaviors. When you ask good questions, the best candidate will reveal themselves to you.

#3: Test out candidates.

Don’t just take their word for it. Someone could look great on paper and ace the interview, only to fail once on the job. That’s why you need to test out each candidate you’re considering hiring to ensure they have the skills and behaviors required to excel in the job. Whether it’s through simulations, or making a pitch or presentation to the rest of the executive team, testing will give you much greater insight into each candidate’s abilities and whether or not they will succeed on the job.

#4: Get others involved.

Don’t hire in a vacuum. To hire the best people, you need to get others at the company involved in the process. That way, you’ll get multiple perspectives into issues or areas you might not have seen. Those additional perspectives and insights can greatly increase your odds of hiring top talent.

In the end, you have to identify the key traits and abilities someone needs to succeed on the job, as well as use the interviewing process as a tool to find out whether each candidate has what it takes to deliver.

Do you need help hiring executive level candidates for your organization? Call Pacific ExecSearch. As executive recruiters in Sacramento, CA, our team of experts has extensive experience in sourcing, evaluating and helping companies hire leaders for top positions. Call us today to learn more.