4 Tips For Getting The Right Talent For Your Design Team

Design plays an important role in business. It can be expected to increase revenue, improve net operating profits, and even boost exports. The smartphone, for example, is a revolutionary piece of technology, offering remarkable functionality. But without designers compensating for the smartphone’s weaknesses, like the ugly camera bump and its fragility, it would not be possible to create a case that hides the bump and protects the phone from scratches and falls. If these weaknesses were not adequately addressed through careful design changes, fewer people would be interested in buying it.

Since a designer or a team of designers plays such a critical role in a company’s business success, a company needs to be very careful when hiring its designers, whether it is just starting out or whether it is looking to fill in some job vacancies. A business can’t simply hire anyone with a degree in design or people with design experience; it has to attract enough good candidates to have a decent chance to pick out the best ones available. It needs people with high talent to create a profitable product, one that appeals to its customer base.

So with that in mind, how do you hire the right talent for your design team?

4 Keys to Hiring the Right Talent

1. Write good job descriptions.

The more clearly you can write your job descriptions, hitting all the salient points in a succinct way, the more attention your published job postings will receive.

2. Use top recruitment software to create your applicant shortlist.

In order to find candidates for a designer job position, it’s not enough to simply publish a job posting on your website, in social media, in the local newspapers, and/or on the most popular job boards. Chances are that you will soon be inundated with hundreds of resumes each day that the ads are running. Unfortunately, most of the candidates will not possess the education, certification, or experience that you are seeking.

Unless you get recommendations from one of the top applicant tracking systems (ATS), things will not go well. Your overwhelmed recruiters will have to review resumes too quickly and superficially, potentially resulting in the failure to notice the most promising applicants. While exhausted human beings only have a short attention span, an ATS software can accurately sift through the relevant data to find the most promising people.

3. Conduct in-depth interviews.

While humans may not be as good at the tasks that software can automate, they are excellent when it comes to interviewing candidates. A good interviewer will have a mix of the following skills:

• The ability to listen without judging, stay interested in the other person, and remain completely objective.
• The verbal fluency necessary to ask clear questions.
• The right blend of intuition, analytical thinking, and common sense.
• A knack for building rapport through voice tone, articulation, pacing, and pitch.
• An eye for detail while retaining a big picture perspective.
• Emotional intelligence to express empathy and warmth.

So besides using the top ATS software to sift through the applicant’s paperwork, you also need highly skilled interviewers.

4. Follow up with job candidates.

If you’ve written a good job description, used top recruiting software to automate your resume analysis, and deployed the services of an excellent interviewer, then you will come across candidates who appear to be a good fit for your culture. Their glowing resume will complement their affable personality, and they will appear eager to work at your company. However, it’s not enough to find the right candidates. You also have to follow up on job candidates. The most promising candidates will also be sought after by other companies. So be proactive in getting back to candidates as soon as you have made your final decision.

Develop A Good Onboarding System

In closing, it’s good to remember that after you have found the right candidate or candidates, you need to have a good onboarding process to create a positive first impression and improve retention. A documented plan for introductory training and assimilation into your corporate culture will serve you well.