No business owner is successful without a team of hardworking employees. Whether you’re looking to grow your business, create new roles, or fill a gap in a department, it’s essential you hire an employee who shares the same vision as your company and wants to see it flourish.
Unfortunately, hiring isn’t as simple as picking someone up off the street and putting them to work right away. To attract top talent, you need to thoroughly vet each applicant to ensure they’ll fit in with your company culture, transition smoothly into the role, and offer new ideas that will make your business stand out among the rest.
While the hiring process is in your hands, we offer ten commandments of hiring you should follow to recruit the best team. Following these rules will ensure you choose the perfect candidate for your company.
1. Create a Detailed Job Description
Before anything else, you need to create a detailed job description to attract top talent. A vague job description that lists a few qualifications and duties will leave your mailbox flooded with applications, mostly of unqualified candidates who think they have a shot. A detailed job description, on the other hand, will allow applicants to decide for themselves whether they have the qualities you’re looking for, which will save you time and effort when it comes to reviewing applications.
To make your job posting stand out, include these components:
- Job Title: Here, write a job title that is clear and concise, such as “cashier” or “electrical engineer.” Unique and nontraditional titles can prevent highly-qualified individuals from applying because they’re unsure what the role is.
- Summary of Position: In this section, introduce your company and the goods and services you sell, as well as the position you’re hiring for and how it fits in your company’s structure.
- Responsibilities: This section should detail the day-to-day processes and responsibilities of the position and what duties applicants can expect to perform on the job.
- Qualifications and Skills: Outline all the qualifications, such as education level, certifications, and experiences that are needed or preferred to fill this role.
- Additional Details: If you have any extra information, such as who the employee will report to or what department they’ll be in, list it here.
- Benefits: Employees want to know what’s in it for them if they choose to work for you—list the benefits your company offers that will attract high-quality employees.
- Application Link: Provide a website link or mailing address where candidates can submit their application.
2. Conduct Multiple Rounds of Interviews
Once you’ve posted your job description on multiple job listing sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed, you’ll begin receiving applications. As you comb through various applications, create a pile of qualified and unqualified applicants to ensure you hire the best candidate.
Once you have a list of qualified applicants, start off your hiring process with a series of phone interviews. Doing so will allow you to gather basic information from applicants and give them an opportunity to expand on their resume, cover letter, and qualifications. From there, you can narrow your decision by calling in select candidates for in-person interviews to make your final decision.
However, make sure you’re abiding by the law. Potential employees have legal rights even if they’re not yet hired, so make sure you make no decisions based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and so forth. You can find a list of prohibited employment policies and practices on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s website.
3. Perform a Background Check
Sadly, not everyone is who they say they are. With that said, an applicant may look phenomenal on paper but have a troubled history that can potentially hurt your business. That’s why it’s essential you screen your applicants by conducting a background check. A background check will give you important information, including:
- Criminal history
- Education history
- Credit checks
- Current and previous addresses
- Reported prior employment
- Fraud alerts
- Motor vehicle checks
- License record checks
After all, you don’t want to hire a fleet driver to deliver precious cargo to clients who has a reported history of drunk or reckless driving. Nor do you want an accountant with a poor credit score to handle your company’s finances. A background check is an excellent preventative measure that can limit sticky situations like these.
4. Check Candidate References
Along with the application, ask candidates to send two to three letters of recommendation. These can be from previous employers, professors, or any other professional relationships. References will allow you to better gauge each candidate to see how they perform in the workforce and see what supervisors and other authority figures felt about them. You can also contact their references to gather more in-depth information on the candidate, such as their personal qualities and work ethic.
5. Focus on Employee Retention
When you hire, your goal should be to keep your employees for as long as possible. High employee turnover can be expensive, lead to negative morale, and waste time for having to continually train new hires. In fact, a CareerBuilder survey found that the average of hiring one bad employee can cost up to $15,000.
Some effective employee retention strategies for small businesses include:
- Setting clear expectations for employees
- Improving employee appreciation and recognition
- Offering employees the opportunity for advancement
- Tracking employee progress and checking in
- Enhancing compensation and benefits
- Improving company culture
- Offering in-office perks
6. Use Marketing Tactics When Recruiting
Recruiting is a never-ending process, which means you should continually be on the hunt for new talent that will take your business to the next level. With that in mind, use a marketing approach when recruiting. Just like you want to attract loyal customers, you want to attract loyal workers, too. So, deliver a clear message in posts and ads, use social media to your advantage, and post an attractive application the reels candidates in.
7. Set High Standards
Your employees are only as good as the standards you set. To push your employees to be the best workers and teammates they can be, set high expectations that they can strive for. This includes company values, your mission, their duties, and their responsibilities. Holding employees accountable will help them be successful in their respective roles. However, make sure these standards are attainable, and once they are attained, they have continued paths that lead to growth.
8. Get Input From Team Members
As a business owner, you’re most likely not on the front lines with your employees every day. You’re either in the back office crunching numbers, meeting clients on the road, or developing strategic plans while your employees work hard at selling your product or service. Because of this, your team should have a stake in the hiring process.
When you conduct interviews, bring a few employees in to ask questions to get to know the applicant. More likely than not, they’ll be able to tell if they’re a good fit for the team. Instilling trust in your employees to make a hiring decision will also give you more respect from your employees.
9. Be Competitive With Compensation and Benefits
The salary and benefits package you offer will determine the caliber of person required for the role. It’s important to set realistic compensation and benefits packages in order to attract qualified applicants for the position. Offering a salary well below market range will deter high-performing applicants from applying, while offering a costly benefits package can lead to financial hardships for your company if not budgeted correctly. When creating a benefits bundle, do your research to see what competitors are offering—this will allow you to offer a fair salary that brings in qualified candidates.
10. Stay In Touch
All too often, employers take too long to respond to applicants. Sure, running a business is hard work, which can lead you to neglect reviewing applications or hosting interviews. But, if you’re looking to grow your business with a successful team, you need to set aside time to actively stay in contact with potential employees.
Rather than leaving an applicant in limbo, reach out to them after an interview through email or phone and let them know when they can expect to hear back from you. If you wait too long, they might accept a counteroffer or rethink their decision.
Key Takeaways on Hiring New Employees
Hiring new talent can be a long and arduous process. However, hiring the right employee will pay off in the long run. From creating a detailed job description and performing a background check to setting high standards and staying in touch, these ten commandments on hiring will help you build a successful team of hard workers.
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