Hiring? Here's How to Start!
January is almost over, which means we only have one more blog left in our series (next week’s) and with January coming to an end you still have time to take advantage of one of the best months to hire! If you’re looking to hire but don’t really know where or how to start, we’re here to help!
Steps to Hiring
What Do You Need?- Before you begin actually hiring someone for a job, you first need to recognize “what do you need?” What positions need to be filled? Which departments need help? Have we recently had someone resign who needs replacing? The list of questions to find your answer is extensive - but it should be. You never want to hire someone or fill positions that aren’t needed. If one team is short-staffed and struggling to complete weekly tasks, you may want to start there. Don’t over-staff one team and leave another struggling - you don’t want lop-sided departments. So, to start, figure out what positions you need to create or fill.
Who’s Going to Hire for You?- Next, it’s time to decide who’s going to do the hiring process for you. Are you going to leave it all to the Hiring Manager, an ATS, or do you want to hire a recruiter? Most of this depends all on budget - how much can you spend? What makes the most sense for your company? Once you determine who is going to source and recruit for you, then you can properly move forward with details.
Who Are You Looking For?- Once you decide what positions need to be filled or where you want to hire, you then have to decide who exactly you’re looking for. What is the job description? Who is your ideal candidate? What are your non-negotiables? If you’re looking for someone with 5 years of sales experience, list it. If you require a bachelor’s degree, list it! You must be specific and detail oriented to find that awesome fit.
Post It- This may be obvious, but when you figure out what you want and who you’re looking for, it’s time to post it like crazy. Advertising your open positions is the key to having any applicants at all and it opens your candidate pool to so many more people and potential candidates than just posting it once or leaving it up to word-of-mouth. Here’s what Smart Recruiters says about advertising the open positions:
“Identifying highly-qualified potential candidates begins internally. Start, therefore, by notifying current employees of the opening. Advertising the job may stop there, if you are determined to fill the position internally. If, however, you are interested in external candidates, you should include this information when you notify internally. External publicity will likely consist of utilizing a combination of the company’s website and social media platforms, job posting sites like LinkedIn, job fairs, industry publications and events, local newspaper advertisements, and word-of-mouth recruitment. Publicity will likely consist of utilizing a combination of the company’s website and social media platforms and job posting sites like LinkedIn, industry publications, and local newspaper advertisements.”
Weed Through the Good and Bad Candidates-The difference between a good and a bad candidate is life changing. Once you know exactly what you want, you can then decide who is an ideal candidate, who is an “okay” candidate, and who is under-qualified. Take your time when you begin to look through applicants because you never know who has potential. Remember when we said it’s important to hire for potential over perfection? Review their entire resume and find out what they could bring to the table, if they’re teachable, and a potential great culture-fit.
Start Phone Interviews- If you’ve done all of the above steps, you’re probably ready to start screening some of the “good candidates.” The best way to do such is by phone interviews. This allows you to get a general feel for the candidate’s personality and how they carry themselves at least over the phone. This is the time to ask those initial questions. “Tell me about your work history”, “define your ideal work environment”, “what are your biggest strengths? Weaknesses?” etc. This allows you to further sort though candidates and narrow in on a handful that you’d like to actually meet in person and interview.
Begin Any Sort of Assessments/Tests- Depending on the company, many times candidates are required to partake in some sort of assessment or test. For example, if you’re hiring for a “Staff Writer” role, it might be a good idea to have your candidates complete some sort of mock-writing test or example.This way you can see how they perform, if their writing style is where you want it, or if they’re just totally missing the mark. This also further narrows down the candidate pool and who you want to actually meet in person!
Start In-Person Interviews- Once you start the in-person interviews - it’s crunch time. You have the opportunity to get everything out on the table, ask those hard-hitting questions, and really spend time with potential hires. Seeing a person live, as they are, instead of hearing them over the phone is huge. It allows their true personality, quirks, emotions, and temperament to shine through unlike a quick, 30-minute phone call. After an in-person interview you should know whether or not you want to hire someone - it shouldn’t take 3-4 interviews to figure it out. The hiring process is tough - it’s detail-oriented, you should be too!
Conduct a Background Check- Now that you’ve hopefully uncovered a few great candidates, it’s time to perform a background check. Depending on your views of criminal history, it’s important to know what someone’s past is and what trouble they could potentially bring to your company, should you hire them.
Hire The Right Fit- If they’re background check is clean, they’re assessments were awesome, and they seem like a great fit- it’s time to hire! Before they agree to work for you, they have to accept a formal offer letter of some sort from your team with their job details, their direct report, salary, etc. Then, once they accept and there’s a start date, etc - you have yourself a brand new employee! Make sure you also send all of the proper paperwork to complete once hired including W-4s I-9s, employee handbooks, direct deposit information, etc.
Onboarding/Training- The hiring process doesn’t end when someone is hired. It continues for a trial period or “onboarding”. Smart Recruiter has this to say about the subject:
“Onboarding your new worker in a welcoming and professional way will help integrate them in a manner that lays the groundwork for a long-term productive relationship between them and your company. A welcome letter is strongly advised. From there, relevant management should reach out to the employee before their start date to welcome them to the organization. Their work space should be prepared, cleaned, and equipped with the necessary credentials and equipment before their first day. If an orientation is part of the onboarding process, make sure your employee has a clear understanding of the expectations and scheduling of those events. Lastly, consider assigning your new employee a mentor, which will help them settle in to their new position and organization, and set them up for long term growth and success.”
Looking to hire but don’t really know who could help? Consider ApplicantOne! Our proprietary technology is partnered with a real, live, recruiter so you can be certain only the best candidates will come your way! To learn more about us, Request a Demo with a member of our sales team!