7 Steps to a Great Hire for Small Businesses
If you’re a small business owner, then you know the importance of hiring great employees with the least amount of expense. Not only do you want to hire qualified employees who will work for a wage that you can afford, but you don’t want to break the bank in the process of recruiting. Here are 7 steps to hiring the right person for the job.
1. Clear Job Description. The first thing you need to do is to create a clear and concise job description with as much detail as necessary. This is only way to make your expectations clear and to measure an employee’s job performance. Don’t do anything else until you have a job description in hand.
2. Clear Qualifications. Be as detailed as you need to be in order to be clear about the qualifications that you require. This is the place to go into detail about the work environment, as well as the skills required to do the job well. This puts everyone on the same page as far as expectations.
3. Transparency. If you hide information from potential employees, it’s only going to result in heartache. Be clear about everything you expect and put it down on paper. Inform everyone, current employees as well as those in your candidate pool, about how the process is going. You’ll build the trust with current employees and future employees, resulting in higher loyalty and job satisfaction.
4. Look Internally. Now that you’re clear about your expectations, the next step is to begin recruiting. The logical place to begin is with current employees. If you’re not in the position to hire current employees for an open position, go to them for hiring suggestions. What kind of team member are they looking for? What’s missing within the structure that will help them do their jobs better? Do they know people who can get the job done?
5. Ask Questions. Once you have possible candidates, vet them within your existing community of employees. The information you glean in this step is invaluable and can help you avoid awkward situations.
6. Put One Person in Charge. Appoint one person within your company to be the contact person with potential candidates. This streamlines the process, helps avoid communication issues, and protects a candidate’s confidentiality. This person should manage all interactions between potential candidates and your company.
7. Expand your search. If you’ve heeded the above steps and still haven’t found the perfect candidate, then it’s time to expand your search. One option is to take out an ad. If you choose to do this, be prepared to be bombarded with emails, phone calls, and resumes from an overwhelming amount of unqualified people. If you still want to go this route, just make sure you don’t print the name of your company. Competitors don’t need to know what you’re up to.
Another option is to utilize the services of a recruiter. Recruiters can bring amazing candidates to you, candidates that they’ve already screened, thereby saving on the amount of time you waste talking to halfway-interested, unqualified people. But the truth is that it’s hard to find a top-notch recruiter. There are too many opportunities for conflicts of interest and shirking of standards and loyalty.
If you choose to use a recruiter, find out how big their pool of candidates is. They’re not allowed to recruit from companies with whom they already have a relationship, so you run the risk of using a recruiter with a small candidate pool. Get testimonials, at least five, from satisfied customers. Never pay a recruiter’s expenses unless you’re recruiting for a top-level executive position. Finally, put down deadlines and timelines in writing and be clear about what penalties they will incur if they miss those deadlines.
In all you do, remember that, as a small business owner, you should always try to get the most for the least.
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