Business is not only about cash flow, profit, and market position but first and foremost about people and their needs, attitudes, relationships and values. It doesn’t matter whether you work as a freelancer, in a small team or huge corporation with management layers, people will be in touch with you. You will be contacting people in a varying degree.
What if you don’t only have to communicate with them, but you’re responsible for the good fit in your company? When you work as a recruiter or in HR, this crucial mission of finding and onboarding perfect candidates is assigned to you. You are a psychologist, as have to shape a mental portrait of the potential employee; you’re an analyst, who has to shift all the details from hundreds of CV and find the best fit for your company; you’re an investigator, who needs to be able to get references and hidden details, maybe even to identify a lie and fraud; and finally a marketer, who has to be able to hunt professionals and promote your company to them. It’s a tremendous responsibility, isn’t it? You’re not alone here.
This case of hiring outstanding and trustful candidates has become easier to handle with a breakthrough in technologies and social networks. Here are 5 ways you can research candidates.
1. First point contact
The long hours of looking through a full stack of CVs and cover letters of potential candidates are tiresome, and when you finally manage to find a good one, the first thing you want to do is call this person and invite them for an interview. You want to grab this bluebird, but we would advise you to do some simple precautionary research before taking a step forward. The one common detail which every candidate provides is a phone number. With a reverse phone number lookup service, you can cut and paste the cell into a search line and get a brief record about this person. You will be provided with social profiles and media records and data spidered from the web. This is an easy step that saves you time and nerves, which is even more important.
2. Google search
When digging into details about a potential employee, the easiest thing you can do is turn to Google search. You may get some vague result and find people with the same name. If you have an email address, your searches can be much more clear, as you can benefit with cross-references from here. When we are asked to sign up at media platforms or blogs, even social networks, we try to speed up this process. And when we are offered an option to use our existing accounts from Google or FB, we do it doubtlessly. Having just an email, you can track the interests of the person and their public profiles.
3. Make the most of LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the dream of every recruiter. People use it so intensively nowadays to search for job positions or even to attract new clients to their businesses. They share their resumes, including employment records and current work status. It has been a significant step forward in the professional community, as members can take part in professional discussions and express their engagement in their industries. LinkedIn may give the clearest picture of what sort of employee a candidate might be.
4. Analyze their social life
Reputation is a valuable record, which can’t be rewinded or regained. Every single detail of the social puzzle can be analyzed to form a snapshot of the person. The info Page on Facebook will help you to understand how a person describes themself. The choice of details is robust: check-ins, attended events, shared public posts and interests, the frequency of posting, style of pictures and its censorship, hobbies, friends, and connections in addition to obviously verified job experience. Scroll for no more than 5 minutes through the timeline of the candidate and frame it out to a general portrait.
5. Get in touch with previous employers
The last (but definitely not the least) important research resource is gathering feedback from previous employers. Be careful about contacting people outside of those references that the candidate has provided. If they are not openly searching for new job opportunities, then contacting someone from their current company may put their employment at jeopardy. References are critical as they can offer you a full picture of the candidate and what kind of employee you can expect them to be. Be sure to ask them relevant questions rather than personal ones – keep it professional.
About the Author
Valerie Malecha is one of the content managers for Spokeo – a people search platform helping users know more about the people in their lives through access to social media profiles, phone numbers, marital status, and more.
