It is said that hiring new talent for your company may be one of the toughest challenges business owners have to face. Finding the right candidate for the job is not just about whether they have the necessary skills, but do they believe in your company’s mission, do they have the right attitude, and will they fit in with the company’s corporate culture.

Gaining a clearer understanding of how the hiring process works can help you create a more efficient hiring strategy, increase employee quality and retention. Let’s look at these tips that can help you recruit and retain the best candidates for your team.

1.  What exactly is a hiring process?

A hiring process is a carefully orchestrated step-by-step guide that companies follow to find, recruit, and hire new employees. Having a good hiring process will increase your chances of finding someone who meets your needs. These are considered high-quality candidates who match your brand. The hiring process will be different for each company, but there are some basic hiring tips that can be used and that we’ll talk about them below.

2.  Define the position available to reflect your hiring needs!

You may be familiar with the tasks and requirements associated with this role as an HR manager or perhaps the owner of the company. However, it may be beneficial to interview employees in a similar or adjacent position to get a better idea of the additional responsibilities, soft skills, or traits needed for the candidate to succeed in the role.

Once you have all the information you need, it’s important to write a job description that’s clear and concise and should include the following information:

• Clearly indicate what the responsibilities and day-to-day tasks are for said position.
• Explain what is required by the candidate in terms of hard skills and soft skills.
• Provide a summary of the company (what does the company do, what is its mission and vision, etc.)
• Incorporate brand-specific language to give the applicant a better feel for your company’s culture.

By putting time and effort into a well-written job description, you can deter applicants that will not be an appropriate fit for your business.

Advertise for the position and analyse resumes received

You have your job description, the next step is to create a hiring strategy. Once your hiring strategy has been created, you can start advertising the position. We recommend advertising the position on multiple platforms such as your website, social media, job boards, or job fairs to encourage a wider selection of candidates to see and possible engage with your ad.

When you’ve received enough resumes, you will need to start the short-listing process. There are a number of ways you can short-list the resumes of applicants, but once you have your top 10 candidates, you can move on to the pre-screening process.

3.  Pre-screening your potential candidates

A pre-screening interview is typically conducted over the phone and can take about 15 – 30 minutes per candidate. During this pre-screening interview, you can ask the applicant a few basic questions to assess whether they fully understood the advertisement, inquire more about their skills, experience, preferred work environment, expectations, and their particular interest in the position.

Those candidates whose responses meet your requirements can then proceed to the interview process.

4.  Conduct in-person interviews with your chosen candidates

When entering this step of the hiring process, you should have a shorter list of candidates than you did during your pre-screening interviews, for example; you narrowed down your top 10 applicants to your top 5. Now it’s time to conduct in-person interviews with the remaining applicants, these interviews are generally longer and more in-depth.

We suggest having a secondary person partake in the interview process to get a broader picture of the candidate and to get a sense of how well they will fit in with the organization and the required role.

5.  Perform a background and reference check on your candidates

During the interview process, you should place a lot of emphasis on honesty and integrity. With the increase in CV fraud, employers need to be cautious with new applicants. One way an employer can verify an applicant’s information is by running a background check on them.

A comprehensive background check will cover the following information:

• High school certificates
• Tertiary education
• ID and physical address
• Credit and criminal record checks

The cost of running these checks is usually small compared to the potential financial and reputational risks your company may face if you make the wrong hire.

6.  Make your hiring decision

Consider all the facts you’ve gathered about your job applicants throughout the hiring process to make a final decision about who to hire. Be sure to consider qualifications, experience, knowledge, and cultural fit, however do not make a hiring decision based on biases, discrimination, or gut instinct.

We also recommend reviewing the applicants with other team members that have been involved in the hiring process to also gain a broader perspective. Once you’ve made your decision, you can extend the job offer to the applicant of choice and start the onboarding process.

To sum things up

• Write a clear and concise description of the position before you post your advertisement.
• Keep your list of candidate interviews to a minimum.
• Don’t hire the first candidate who walks in the door.
• Call applicant references if available to check the candidate’s background.
• Hire a candidate who has the potential to grow with your business (don’t hire a candidate because you need more manpower and have become desperate as a result).
• Prepare an employee handbook and require your employee to sign it.
• Give the employee an offer letter spelling out their duties and compensation.
• Don’t promise raises and benefits you can’t deliver.

Be on the safe side

As a business owner, you spend a lot of time and money building your business and you deserve to know exactly who you are potentially hiring. Rather be on the safe side and make sure a candidate is who they say they are, rather than hiring someone blindly that is unqualified and incapable.

Credited to:marisit.co.za