Arguably the most challenging job an employer has is filling a vacant position. Whether it’s finding suitable internal candidates to promote or determining if an external candidate is a good choice, it’s always stressful to fill a position. Ultimately you are deciding on someone who will have an enormous impact on your company’s culture and, more importantly, someone you may have to be working closely with for a prolonged period. You want to make sure you’re filling your roles with people who will enhance your company and your time working for your company–conversely, no one wants to work with someone who detracts from their community. Developing a process or system of hiring can be a way to feel more comfortable about who your hiring and why you’re hiring them. Here are a few concepts you may want to implicate into your hiring process as you continue to hone it.
The surest way to secure a positive hiring experience is to develop your recruiting methods. Who you bring into your talent pool will have a tremendous impact on what kind of candidates you get to pick from. There are various means for providing solid recruiting, but your best bet (especially if you’re a smaller company) is to make as much use of referrals as possible. Referrals allow you to have a direct source of information into who you will potentially be working alongside. Often, former bosses can give you the most honest assessment of a former employee. Utilizing niche job posting sites is also a valuable tool for many businesses, as it allows you to find a broader audience of potential candidates still within a targeted field.
Further, this collection of candidates probably already meet the majority of requirements you are looking to have fulfilled as specialty job boards often require you to show what skills you already have related to their site. Finally, make sure the descriptions you have for your job attract the kind of talent you want. People respond to reports that they feel fit them, so it’s often best to match the description’s style to the company’s type. If you are a bold and big company, make a bold and big job description. If you are solid, steady, and dependable, create a job posting that gives the meat and potatoes information. Be aware of who your job audience is and how you can attract them.
Interviewing is a difficult skill to develop and takes time and practice to strengthen. Unfortunately, hiring processes can be infrequent, so finding the time to hammer home the gift can be difficult. There are a few steps you can take in advance to ensure a more secure hiring process regardless of your experience level. Remember that first and foremost, it should be an interview process. You will probably have more than one interview with this person. Don’t neglect the significance of a phone or skype based discussion to start as a screening process before inviting someone to interview in person. Try to keep your first and second interview one on one if possible, to keep your candidate from feeling overwhelmed. As the candidate gets further along in the process, it’s best to have another interview where they interact with more individuals in your company so that you can get multiple perspectives on your potential hires.