3 Tips You Should Follow Before Hiring Someone
Hiring someone new is always an exciting opportunity to grow your team. Having another individual to help carry the workload and help better serve your clients can be a big relief. However, there are certain steps you should take to ensure that you hire the right person and that you have the right structure in place to provide them with the support they need to succeed.
Otherwise, you could find yourself with a high employee turnover rate. And surprisingly, the hiring process can actually cost you quite a bit of time and money. To avoid the headache and improve employee retention, we recommend following these three tips:
Refine Your Search Process
One of the biggest mistakes companies make while hiring is poor planning when it comes to finding applicants. It might seem simple—just put up a job listing, gather a candidate pool, and host interviews—but there are actually several key steps you can take to make this process more efficient and improve the candidate pool that you have to work with.
- Create a detailed job listing. The more specific your job listing is, the more streamlined your candidate pool should be because it will help weed out potential applicants who don’t meet the requirements or wouldn’t fit the job description. When creating your job listing, you should include a list of required skills and experience, as well as a well-defined description of the job duties and culture of your company. While you might still get some unqualified applications coming through, it will likely be much fewer than you would have had otherwise.
- Do phone interviews first. Phone interviews are a valuable tool when it comes to saving time. During a phone interview you can screen an applicant in just a few minutes by asking questions that could automatically disqualify them from the running based on their answers. Plus, it allows you to get a feel for their personality to see if they would be a good match. If they pass the phone interview, you can then ask them to come to an in-office interview where you can learn more about them.
- Ask the right questions. Interviews are the most important part of the hiring process because this is where you gather the information you need to narrow down your candidate pool and determine who is the best fit for your team. Since this is such crucial face time with candidates, you want to make sure you’re prepared to use this time as effectively as possible. Instead of asking vague questions, ask things that will help you gauge their suitability and key characteristics.
- Perform background checks. Hiring someone is a risk, someone could be dangerous or dishonest, and it would be hard to tell just from an interview. Running a free criminal background check will allow you to verify that they are who they say they are and if they have a criminal history you should be aware of. This is especially important if they’re working with at-risk groups or sensitive information.
Analyze Your Need for a New Employee
Before you even consider hiring, you should first ensure that it is necessary. While it might seem that hiring someone can only benefit your company, it is a big financial investment that should be thought through carefully. Sometimes, businesses find themselves eager to hire and build up their team in the anticipation that they may be growing their client base or workload, only to find that they have more employees on hand than they actually need. This probably seems like a good problem to have, but it’s actually a huge waste of resources and puts your costs and revenue out of balance.
Before you consider expanding your team, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is there a direct need that can be met by bringing on another team member?
- Can the company afford to hire someone? What is the salary range we can afford with your benefits offering?
- Is this the right time to bring someone on? Are there major changes that need to be implemented first?
Implement Onboarding Procedures
If you are going to start hiring, make sure that you have a formal onboarding process in place. An onboarding program outlines how you will integrate an employee onto your staff and should include:
- Introduction to policies and the work environment
- Training on your systems or specifics of their position
- Information about resources and instructions for who they should go to with certain questions
Having an onboarding process in place will help them get adjusted faster, give them the support they need to succeed in their new position, and make it less likely that they will quit.
Hiring is a complex process with a lot of pros and cons, but with the right approach and planning, you can find great employees who add value to your team and are happy to be there.
We hope you enjoyed this promoted piece as much as we did!
