According to Nasdaq, 17 million new businesses will see the light of day in 2022. If you’re one of those entrepreneurs who’s about to embark on a new enterprise or grow your company, hiring new employees is likely a priority for you.
How do you make sure you’re getting the right fit for the job, though? A bad employee can cost you a fortune in lost productivity, absent skills, and even legal fees.
The secret to finding the best employees for your business rests on an effective hiring process. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to get this aspect right if you follow a few basic steps.
Keep reading to find out what they are.
1. Preparing for the Hiring Process
It’s important to consider why you need to hire a new employee. A new hire is a long-term commitment, and it costs a lot of money to find, hire, and maintain an employee.
The following criteria justify getting more hands on deck:
- Increased workload due to business growth
- Changes in your operations
- A resignation
If you’re simply going through a busy patch, it’s cheaper to pay your existing workers some overtime in the short term.
Never rush out and advertise a position until you’ve completed your due diligence. This includes the following steps:
Compile a Detailed Plan
Careful, thorough planning is vital for successful recruitment. Rushing things at this stage is counter-productive and will cause you unending problems down the line.
It’s easy to miss important details when you skimp on planning your way forward. Be sure to include criteria for aligning your new hire with existing teams and employees, as well as your business goals.
You must include all those affected by the new worker in this vital step and keep them in the loop regarding your progress.
Write an Effective Job Description
Don’t copy and paste a job description from the internet, or rely on an HR company to do the work for you. It’s best to enlist the help of supervisors and teammates to find out what’s expected of the new employee.
Advertise via the Correct Channels
Before you reach venture out into the world looking for new employees, consider advertising internally. This is especially pertinent if you’re looking for a senior position within an existing department or want to diversify current positions.
It’s always best to hire someone who already knows your business and company culture, especially if their fellow employees already work well with them.
Often, internal publicity helps bolster your external advertising, too. You can use your website, social media, industry events, company publications, and job pages to advertise your new position.
Use as Many Resources as Possible
Reach out to recruiters, referrals, and headhunters to help you find star employees. These tactics can often reveal candidates who fit your business better.
Use HR technology to streamline the application process. Filling in reams of forms manually can drive away applicants.
Rather, streamline the procedure by making it available online. Let candidates apply using their LinkedIn or Indeed profiles for a quick, seamless procedure.
Maximize Your Brand to Attract the Best Candidates
The careers page on your website is an excellent tool for attracting suitably qualified personnel. Your careers page should provide essential information about your company culture.
Make sure it’s easy to navigate through this information and be sure to include:
- Your vision and culture
- Your brand’s core values
- All available vacancies
- Instructions regarding the application process
- Tag your jobs so they’re easy to find
Let your employees speak for you. Real-life stories and video references about what it’s like to work for you help attract interest from prospective new hires.
Many people look for reviews on websites like Glass Door when searching for jobs, so list your company with these and keep your information updated.
Currently, there’s tough competition for employees, with job openings exceeding the number of new hires by over 4 million.
Make sure your company website and career pages are mobile-friendly.
2. Finding the Right Candidate
Once you’ve got a plan in place and done the preliminary advertising, the real work starts. As applications start streaming in, you’ve got to sort the wheat from the chaff before you start interviewing candidates.
You can review and sort the applications either manually or using an applicant tracking system. When you sift out those who don’t meet your minimum requirements and rank those who do, you’ll narrow down your choices quickly and considerably.
If you still end up with too many qualified candidates, you can narrow down the numbers by conducting telephone or video interviews. There are some things you simply can’t tell from an application form and resume.
3. Effective Interviewing
You can hold group as well as single interviews and multiple rounds of interviews to help you narrow down your options.
Whichever interview method you choose, make sure you judge candidates based on the same criteria. You should regulate the interview process and pose the same questions to each prospective employee to ensure they have an equal chance.
Set procedures also make the scoring process easier and help you make an objective decision.
Tests and Assessments
Asking the interviewees to complete skills tests or other assessments can help you determine if they’re a good fit for the role. For instance, if you’re hiring a bookkeeper for an ad agency, you might prefer someone with more creativity than if you were hiring for a finance firm.
You can use assessments to gather both professional and personal information to help determine their cultural fit, level of expertise, and experience for the job at hand.
Key Characteristics to Look For
What happens when you can’t make your mind up between two equally qualified candidates? Hiring managers recommend looking for five key characteristics that can make the difference between a good and a great employee.
These are:
Preparation
Take note of candidates who have done some homework before arriving for the interview. An informed candidate has already learned the basics about your company and even identified areas where they can add value.
In today’s era of information overload, there’s no excuse for interviewees who haven’t done some research beforehand.
Fit
If your new hire doesn’t fit in with your company culture, they’re bound to be unhappy in their new position. They could also clash with other employees and management.
You can use an objective assessment to establish whether they’re a good fit, but often it boils down to your gut feel.
Passion
You can teach someone skills, but you can’t make them want to succeed in your industry.
Passion for your industry, products, or brand is essential in new hires. Someone enthusiastic and excited about working with you will always go the extra mile.
Willingness to Learn
Nobody comes out of college or high school with experience. Look for signs that your candidate can grasp new concepts easily.
Consider whether they’ve made an effort to learn new things or take extra courses during their studies. A keen and curious mind is a huge asset to any organization and helps new employees to hit the ground running.
Resourcefulness
We all learned the value of resourcefulness during the pandemic. Employees had to switch roles quickly and adjust to an ever-changing environment.
Background Checks
Background checks help uncover credit issues, verify work references, check criminal records, and look up employment histories.
Up to 70% of employers use social media as a screening tool for applicants. While this is a good way to get an overall feel for the candidate’s personality, it represents a legal minefield for employers.
You can’t base your hiring decision based on the following information you may find on their social media profiles:
- gender, race, and ethnicity
- disabilities
- pregnancy status
- sexual orientation
- political views
- religious affiliation
It’s illegal to avoid hiring someone based on any of these criteria if they’re a good fit for the job otherwise.
Making Up Your Mind
By this stage of proceedings, you should have compiled a short list of candidates best suited to your vacancy. If you have involved any hiring staff or team members in the process, they will also have their preferences.
Compare notes and cut down the list to your top three choices. Remember, every candidate has the right to refuse your offer, and in that case, you need a Plan B and C.
Don’t drag your feet on this process, the best hires may receive multiple offers.
Making the Offer
You must include all the relevant information your new hire needs in your job offer. This includes all the information they need to decide if they want the job.
These items should include:
- salary
- benefits
- paid time off
- severance pay
- bonuses
- overtime
- remote working policy
Even after you’ve provided this information, your candidate may have questions or want to negotiate some terms.
4. Finalizing the Hiring Process
If everything goes according to plan, the hiring process begins in earnest. Once your new hire has agreed to the terms, you’ll need to provide them with all the official paperwork necessary to get started.
This should include:
- Form W-4
- Form I-9 and E-Verify
- State Withholding and Registrations
- A checklist of paperwork required for new employees
- Your company’s employee handbook
You can complete this process online or in person. Click here to find out more about virtual onboarding and how it can streamline this process.
5. Following Up After Hiring
Most employers assume that once they’ve completed the above steps, they’ve done their job. That’s not true.
There are still a few things you need to do if you want to ensure a long, happy relationship with your new employee. There’s more to onboarding an employee than filling in forms, either in-person or virtually.
You must integrate your new hire into the work environment in a professional, welcoming way. This lays the groundwork for all your future interactions with them.
Welcoming Your Employee
A welcome letter is a good starting point. This should outline important policies, and outline your company culture and employee management procedures to them.
It helps if this information also covers basic aspects like lunch breaks, leave expectations, overtime pay, and other things they might wonder about. Some companies use a corporate video to outline these first introductory steps in a friendly, informative way.
After that, relevant management should reach out to the employee to welcome them on board. Preferably, this should take place before their first day.
In-House Preparations
Prepare their workspace with everything they need to get started as soon as they arrive. You can ask their new teammates or supervisor to assist you with this aspect.
Identify a mentor to help settle them in, introduce them to fellow employees, and guide them through their first days. If you’re replacing an existing staff member with a new hire, it’s best if the outgoing employee can explain their daily routine and responsibilities to them.
Following up with these simple steps helps the new person feel welcome and valued, and can ensure a long, happy, and productive association with them.
One Final Step
Never ghost your candidates after an interview. Get in touch with them and let them know where they fell short.
You never know when you may need someone with their skills, so make sure you let them down courteously and kindly.
Providing feedback after an interview has two important benefits:
- Help build relationships with close-match candidates
- Increases your available talent pool
- Feedback enhances your brand as an employer
- Shortens the interview process if you approach them again
Jilted jobseekers can turn to social media to vent their frustrations, and in doing this, they’ll damage your brand.
Grow Your Business Better
You can refer to these basic steps in the hiring process regardless of your industry or the job you want to fill. No hiring process is without its flaws.
You can improve your process by understanding it. Try applying for one of your jobs. This helps you identify areas for improvement.
In today’s competitive world, we need all the help we can get when you’re starting in business. It all starts with gleaning as much knowledge as you can.
Browse our blog for more information on general business topics and inspiration to help you grow your enterprise.
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