How To Hire For Your Open Positions

How To Hire For Your Open Positions

Hiring can be a time-consuming process. Ideally, you hire the perfect candidate for each position and that person sticks around for decades. But occasionally, someone resigns or retires, kicking off the hiring process again.

As tempting as it can be to rush through the hiring process, the more thorough you are during the recruiting and interviewing process, the better. You'll get the right candidate the first time, rather than making a mistake that sends you back to the drawing board. This guide will help ease you through the process of getting the perfect person for each open position.

Know What You Want

Chances are, any major task your business takes on requires some strategizing. You wouldn't host a big meeting or year-long project without thinking things through first. The same should go for your hiring processes.

Take some time to outline the duties of the position. If it's a new position, you're probably doing this already, but even for existing positions, it's important to take a step back and look at things. Were you happy with the duties assigned to the role? Is there something you can change to improve the position?

Also take this time to outline the type of person who will be the right fit for the role. Who will be the best fit for your team? Consider not only the hard skills you want the team member to have, but also the soft skills. Hard skills are specialized and related specifically to the type of work, while soft are general skills that could apply to any position, like communication, teamwork, and leadership. Once you've outlined what you want, you can start to create a job description that you can refine as you go.

Spread the Word Internally

The perfect candidate might already be under your nose. If you can train an existing worker to do the work, you'll get someone who's already familiar with your work environment. Best of all, you'll send the message to other employees that there's opportunity for advancement if they stick around.

But even if you don't have the right person on staff, your employees can be a valuable resource . Let your team know about the opening and encourage them to invite their friends to apply. A social media post from someone who already works with your company can go much farther than a post from the person doing the hiring.

One way to incentivize referrals is to set up an employee referral program . Offer a cash bonus or some other type of reward for any employee who successfully refers someone to your company. Success will typically mean that the candidate has to be hired and stay with the company for a predetermined period of time. You'll get great candidates and employees will feel as though their connections are valuable.

Choose a Recruiting Strategy

There are several ways you can approach getting the word out about your job openings. You can target a very niche market and only advertise there, or you can spread the word far and wide, then sort through the applications. Or you could choose an approach between those two extremes.

While each method has its benefits, it's important to think through where you want to spend your time. If sorting through enormous stacks of resumes doesn't bother you, you may be better off getting your ad in front of as many people as possible. But if you can place geographical or specialty restrictions on where you post job openings, that approach could save you time.

Narrow the Field

To save yourself time, plan for multiple rounds of candidate vetting. As the applications come in, sort through them and immediately reject any that don't look promising. Once you've narrowed it down, you can start more advanced vetting.

Once you have a smaller pool, consider a phone- or video-screening round where you get a feel for candidates before progressing to the next step. This will help you narrow it down to a much smaller group of candidates before you progress to the more intensive one-on-one interview.

Use a Panel-Based Interview Approach

If possible, loop other people within your organization in on the interview process. A panel-style job interview can help you ensure you're not letting unconscious biases get in the way.

Also, make sure you're using interview questions that get results . Although these will vary based on your environment, your goals should be baked into each question. If you want someone who's a team player, ask questions that encourage the candidate to describe past team-related experience.

Filling a position? You don't have to do it alone. Express Employment Professionals helps businesses find the right candidate to fit their unique work environment. Give us a call today at (615) 441-8898 to find out how we can save you time and money by sending you qualified candidates that are most relevant to your needs.