Whether your company is new or established, the hiring process is fundamental to the success of your organization. Knowing how the hiring process works and the steps you need to take to recruit top talent to your team is vital if you want your company to grow. Having a solid employment process means your company can strive to achieve its goals because you'll have people working for you who share your ideals. Here's more about how to develop your hiring process so you find the most suitable candidates who'll remain with you.
Consider hiring needs
One of the first steps in this process is to consider your company's hiring needs. This doesn't just mean filling an immediate open role but involves planning for your company's future. Think about the positions you need to fill today as well as those that you may need to add soon. Looking toward the future will increase the chances for successful growth. Where you only need one employee now, you may need three or four people doing the same job next year. With this in mind, you should consider hiring someone who is ready to train and manage a team.
Create a job description
You should consider creating a solid job description for every role in your company, not just for the open position you want to fill. Having detailed job descriptions can help ensure the job hiring process goes smoothly. You won't have to create a new job description every time someone leaves your company because you'll know exactly what the expectations are for your new hires. As the roles at your company change and develop, you can alter the job descriptions, which you should also outline in your employee handbook. Make sure everyone gets a copy of this employee guide.
Advertise open roles
With your job description, you can quickly advertise an open position at your company. Use job search sites, such as CareerBuilder, to advertise your employee needs and make it easy for qualified candidates to discover open jobs at your company. Experiment with where you advertise your open roles to learn where you get the best talent. Different roles may require you to advertise through alternate channels. For example, a college job board is a good place to find interns, while other sites let you search resumes for recent graduates as well as experienced employees.
Take applications
Once you start advertising your open position, you can take applications from qualified candidates. Depending on the role and where you advertise, you could receive hundreds of applications. Placing a time limit on how long you will accept applications might be the best way to limit how many resumes you have to review. You can also cap the number of applications you'll accept to prevent the HR team from getting overwhelmed. If you don't receive enough applications from qualified people, you can extend the timeline and reconsider your employee advertising campaign.
Review applicants
Typically, you should wait until you close the application period or you've received the number of applications you set as the limit before you review candidates. Consider using applicant tracking systems to eliminate resumes that don't meet your criteria, but in some cases, ATS may disqualify someone who could be a good fit even if they don't match your exact requirements. Decide on the best candidates based on the skills, work history, and education level they provide in their application and resume. After you select your ideal applicants, you can progress the hiring process.
"Knowing how the hiring process works and the steps you need to take to recruit top talent to your team is vital if you want your company to grow."
Conduct prescreening interviews
A pre-screening interview can be as simple as making a phone call or sending an email. You should conduct a prescreening interview for several reasons, but mainly to discover whether the applicant is still interested in working for your company. Occasionally, hiring processes can be slow, and a candidate may have accepted another position before you're ready to hire them. Talking to candidates before an in-person interview can help you determine whether they'd be a good fit for your company, as you can get a sense of their personality.
When you contact an applicant before scheduling an interview, you can find out their expectations for the job and also let them know what yours are. This ensures everyone is in broad agreement before you go any further in the hiring process.
Hold in-person interviews
Holding an in-person interview is a major step in the hiring process because many people feel positive about getting a job if they make it to an interview. Therefore, you should only interview the top applicants. An interview is usually your first face-to-face interaction with a candidate, and you need to be ready with questions and discussion topics that help you decide whether they're right for the role. You want the interview to be specific to the job you're hiring for, which means you'll need to adjust interviews to match the role.
If you're hiring an accountant, for example, you might include a math element in the interview. For a sales position, you can have the candidate pitch a product to you. Tailoring your interview to the job will help you find the ideal person to fill that role.
Choose the best candidate
One of the most challenging aspects of the hiring process is probably choosing the best candidate. You may know exactly who you want to hire after an interview. However, there may be more than one suitable candidate. Consider holding a second interview if you have more than one top choice. A bad hire can cost your company a lot of money, so it's important to find people who aren't only qualified but who are also a good fit for the company's culture.
Provide a job offer
When you know who you want to hire, it is time to make a job offer. You can make the offer over the phone, by email, or in person. Regardless of how you make a job offer, you'll want to provide the following information about the position to the candidate:
- Salary or pay scale
- Benefits package
- Expected hours
- Type of work — remote, hybrid, or in-person
- Duties
- Start date
- Location if you have more than one office or storefront
- Name of the manager or direct supervisor
They may need time to consider whether they want to take the job. Give them a deadline to decide so you can make an offer to the next candidate if they decline.
Onboard new hires
The steps of the hiring process don't end with the job offer. Onboarding new hires is just as important. Having a high-quality system in place for onboarding new employees is fundamental to getting people to stay with your company long-term. When employees have the proper training, they feel more confident in performing their duties, which can give them greater job satisfaction. Ensuring people know what's expected of them and where they can go for help makes them feel like your company cares about their success.
Hiring processes will vary among employers, but using these steps for hiring can help you attract top talent to your team. When you have the best people working for you, it reduces employee turnover and also drives growth. Starting with a solid hiring process will ensure your company is ready to expand.
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