Let’s be honest, hiring is a tiring job. It takes a lot out of you trying to find the ideal candidate for your company. But if you want your business to improve, grow, and succeed, the hiring process is 100% necessary. To find out what steps to take to find the perfect candidate for your company, keep reading.
9 Steps of hiring
Hiring can be a time-consuming process. After all, you want to find the perfect candidate for your business which can, well, take time. To ensure you have a smooth process, follow the nine steps of hiring below.
1. Identify the positions that need to be filled
Before you can even start going through the hiring process, you need to come up with a game plan. And, said game plan starts with identifying the position(s) you want to fill.
If you’re starting the hiring process, you probably already have a good idea of what role you want to hire for. Or, maybe you’re in the position where you know you want to hire additional workers for roles your company doesn’t have even yet.
Whatever the case may be, your hiring process journey begins with determining which roles you need to hire for in your business. This could be anything from a vacated position to a new position. Narrow down what positions you’d like to hire for before you…
2. Write a job description
Your job description can make or break whether or not somewhere is interested in the position you post. With an appealing and clear job description, you can attract top talent. But with a poor description, potential candidates will bounce right off your job posting page.
When coming up with a job description, be sure to include:
- An overview of the position
- Necessary qualifications
- Responsibilities
As a nice bonus (and to encourage candidates to apply), you may also want to include benefits, such as paid time off (PTO) or a 401(k) with a company match.
When writing your description, don’t be afraid to let your company’s personality shine a bit. If your business is more laid back and conversational, reflect that in your posting.
3. Advertise the open position
Next up, you need to advertise the open position(s). Otherwise, nobody will know to apply.
To get your open position out there for the world to see, post the job description on as many platforms as possible. Job boards, social media, and your business website are good places to start. You can also use email marketing to send alerts to job seekers about your company’s open position(s). Heck, you can even have employees spread the news via word of mouth.
If needed, you can use tried-and-true methods, like taking out a newspaper ad or including your description in an industry publication.
4. Recruit candidates
Another part of the hiring process is recruiting candidates. Sure, you want to take out some ads to promote your newly-available position. But if you really want to find the picture-perfect candidate, you have to flex your recruiting muscles.
You or members of your team (e.g., human resources) should reach out directly to desirable candidates. You could recruit on platforms like LinkedIn. Or, recruitment could even be in-person, like at job fairs. Recruiting can help you find great candidates that aren’t necessarily looking for a new job but may be the perfect fit for yours.
Whatever your company decides to do, make sure your recruitment efforts don’t fall flat. The last thing you want is a missed opportunity to meet an ideal candidate.
5. Review applications
After spending some time recruiting, advertising, and gathering applications, now comes the fun part: reviewing all of them!
Narrow down your candidate pool by weeding through the applications. Take out anyone who doesn’t have the necessary qualifications. And, look out for resume red flags, like employment gaps, spelling and grammatical errors, and overqualification.
6. Interview candidates
Have a good idea of which candidates you want to move forward with? Great! Now you can begin the interview process—yippee!
To initially screen candidates, start off with a classic phone interview. This will help you get to know the candidate a little better and get answers to some interview questions you have. Not to mention, you can get an idea of if the candidate possesses the qualifications and qualities you’re looking for. And, phone conversations give you an opportunity to see if the applicant potentially aligns with your business’s culture and values.
Once you screen your candidates over the phone, move on to in-person interviews. Or if you’re remote, virtual interviews (e.g., via videoconferencing). During the next round of interviews, ask some hard-hitting questions like:
- Behavioral: Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
- Skills-based: What specific skills do you possess that make you a good fit for this position?
- Situational: What would you do if you made a mistake that no one else noticed?
Asking these types of questions helps you understand how the candidate works and what they would do in certain situations. These questions can also show you how well a candidate will fit in with your team and environment.
If needed, you can conduct a third interview to narrow down candidates even further.
7. Assess and narrow down your top picks
Phew, that was a lot of work. But, you’re not out of the hiring woods just yet. You still need to narrow down your top picks and assess each of your final candidates.
Take some time to mull over the applicants you interviewed. You may want to do this by yourself to make the final decision. Or, you may opt to involve other members of your team. List the pros and cons of each candidate and really think about whether or not they’d be a good fit.
To further condense your list, consider assigning applicants a standardized test that measures things like personality, problem-solving capabilities, comprehension, and reasoning.
8. Make a decision and extend an offer
In some cases, making a decision on who to offer the job to will be easy peasy. But other times, not so much. At some point or another, you’re going to have to make a final decision. And once you make said decision, you can do one of the best parts of the process: extending an offer!
After you make your pick, officially extend the job offer to the candidate you select. And in case your first choice falls through and doesn’t accept your offer, you may want to have a backup candidate.
When extending your offer, include the following in your offer letter:
- Position or title
- Job status (e.g., full-time or part-time)
- Pay type (e.g., salary)
- Pay amount
- Proposed start date
- Supervisor’s name
- Terms and conditions of employment
You may decide to make your offer contingent upon the candidate passing background and reference checks. When you provide the letter, let the candidate know about any contingencies.
Provide the offer letter to the candidate and wait for a response. In some cases, the candidate may want to negotiate certain terms with you, like salary.
9. Have employee fill out new hire paperwork
If the candidate accepts your offer (and hopefully they do!), you’ve officially hired an employee. But, the work doesn’t end there—you still have paperwork to worry about. Well, paperwork for the new employee, that is.
When you hire a new employee, have them fill out:
- Form W-4
- Form I-9
- Any state-specific forms (e.g., state W-4 form)
- Direct deposit form, if applicable
You may also require newly-hired employees to fill out company-specific forms, like an employee handbook acknowledgment form.
As an employer, you also need to report new hires to the state. Check with your state to find out its new hire reporting requirements.
And for Pete’s sake, please don’t procrastinate on having new employees fill out new hire forms and reporting new hires to the state. Trust me, you won’t like the consequences.
Hiring your first employee? Follow these steps first…
First-time employers, listen up. If this is your first rodeo and you’ve never hired an employee before, you might be wondering, Where the heck do I even start? What do I need to do before I can hire an employee? Luckily, you’ve come to the right place.
Before you can hire your first employee (and follow the handy step-by-step checklist from above), you need to:
- Register for accounts, if you haven’t already
- Employer Identification Number (EIN)
- State Unemployment Tax Authority (SUTA) account
- EFTPS account
- New hire reporting system account
- Workers’ compensation insurance
- Make payroll decisions
- Decide how to run payroll (e.g., payroll software)
- Determine pay frequency
- Decide payment method (e.g., direct deposit)
- Hang up employment law posters in your business
- Understand your tax responsibilities
- Withholding, paying, remitting, and filing taxes
Quarterly or annual reporting requirements - Forms you need to use
- Withholding, paying, remitting, and filing taxes
Hiring your first employee may seem daunting, especially with all of the steps you need to take. But, bringing employees onboarding is a very rewarding experience that can help your business thrive for many years to come.
