In principle, you should have a good idea about the job you’re hiring for. That being said, a day may come where you are asked to hire for a position you don’t know much about. As an HR professional, you will sometimes find yourself pushed out of your comfort zone, particularly if you run across a job opening that you don’t fully understand.
Maybe you need to fill a job in mathematics, engineering, or something you’ve never even heard of before. Hiring can be an intimidating and risky task when you lack the expertise to properly evaluate a candidate.
Here are some pointers on what to do if you find yourself in that situation.
Ask for Help
The most logical thing to do if you don’t understand the job is find someone who does. By talking to a colleague in your professional network, who may be in a similar role or responsible for similar searches, you can find out what you should be looking for and what traits are important.
People love demonstrating their expertise. Get as many opinions as you can and take notes. Encourage them to reach out to you for assistance in the future.
In the end, you may find that by the end of it you have a much better understanding of the role.
Hire a Candidate Who is a Professional
This isn’t the time to take risks on a gritty amateur. Your chosen candidate should have a proven track record and demonstrable results. By making sure you have a good selection of diverse candidates, you may find some supercharged professionals. People with a proven track record in an unexpected field have often had to fight harder to get there and will really value the role.
Remember What You Already Know – Never Assume
Since you can’t evaluate your candidate through your knowledge of the field, it’s vital that all their references are checked and that their portfolio is examined closely.
Working well with others is essential. Your ability to work as part of a team depends on excellent people skills – and you already have plenty of experience in assessing those. If a candidate can produce excellent sample work, and talk compellingly about what they do and can do for you, you will soon get a measure of their worth.
Give the Job a Test Run Yourself!
If possible, try the job yourself! You might be lucky and know someone who has a similar position. Ask if you can tag along for a day or so to get a feel for it.
If this isn’t possible, then surf the net and try to find blogs and forums that will give you a view behind the scenes. Look at what other HR professional expect from their candidates.
Guest Interviewers
In this circumstance, it might be better to swallow your pride and ask a more knowledgeable colleague to sit in as your guest interviewer. They may be able to ask specific questions that you wouldn’t have thought of.
Once you’ve seen them in action with a few candidates, you may be able to fly solo.
Analyze the Interview
While you may not be comfortable with your level of expertise, remember that you’re still a good interviewer. Don’t forget to trust your gut and give some extra emphasis to ‘red flag’ issues.
Hire HR Help
One of the benefits of a good HR agency is that there will be a team of staff made up of people from diverse backgrounds. This is a vast resource that hiring companies can draw on. If you don’t have a particular skill set, a professional HR firm will have people who do and they’ll be glad to help.
For more information about working with an HR firm to hire in a tricky area, or to find out what else we can do for you, get in touch with us today at (800) 828-0240 or email us at info@hragent.com.