No matter what stage your company is in, hiring new people is often one of the most critical factors in how company culture continues to develop. Once you have decided to hire one or more people for your team, it’s time to take a few key steps to move the process forward.
1. Attract the Right Talent
Take some time to research similar roles at competitors to learn how they are attracting talent. Get a good idea of the salary and benefits offered for these types of roles so your company can offer something similar. Look for ways to set your organization apart. You may offer better compensation, or you might offer specific benefits. One option is to offer a flat benefit amount. This simply means each employee receives a certain benefit allowance that they can then allocate to health care plans, retirement, or other aspects of the benefits package. The most important thing is to ensure the compensation package meets potential employees’ needs. One way to make sure you have the funding you need to offer the right amount of compensation is by getting a small business loan. That way by reviewing your options here online, you can offer competitive compensation that is at or higher than market rates for similar roles.
2. Understand Candidate Motivations
Spend some time thinking about how you see the role growing and changing over the years and consider how your ideal candidate might fit into this change. It’s important to understand candidates’ motivations behind applying. Are they just looking for a paycheck? Or do they see this as part of their career? During the interview, spend some time getting to know each person’s career goals. Get a sense of how you expect your ideal employee to grow in the role and see if this matches with how the individual wishes to grow in their career. Understanding both sides of this issue can help you see if there is a fit between the potential employee and the role.
3. Vet Candidates Carefully
If you are a job seeker finding the right job to suit your skills is a critical piece of the plan. As someone looking to fill an open position the same is true, only in reverse. If you are in need of an employee sooner rather than later, you may be tempted to skip the process of going through the candidate’s background and calling references. This takes valuable time, and you may not feel the candidate’s previous role has much bearing on the position they are applying for. Still, skipping the vetting process now can cause issues later on. It’s a good idea to get a strong sense of every potential employee. Contacting references can help verify their past experience, but even more importantly, it helps you learn who they are and what their work style is like. If you defined the role early on, you will have a good understanding of what type of person you are looking for, and checking out their background can help you determine if this candidate is the right fit.
4. But Don’t Get Locked into the Past
While it’s important to carefully vet a candidate’s past work history, you don’t need to dive too much into every last detail. When you bring a candidate in to interview, you should have already read through their resume and any application materials, so you shouldn’t need them to walk you through every last position they ever held. Instead of rehashing information you already have, use your interview time to talk about how they might solve problems that could come up as part of the role. Ask open-ended questions that require the potential employee to walk you through the problem-solving process. It’s also a good idea to hire people for their potential instead of what they have accomplished in the past.
5. Look into Other Evaluation Strategies
The interview is a great way to get to know the potential candidate, but there are other ways of seeing if someone is a good fit. Just because someone interviews well does not mean they have other skills. On the other hand, someone who is nervous during the interview may turn out to be an excellent employee. While you shouldn’t completely abandon the interview, you may want to add some additional evaluation tools as well. You could implement questionnaires and personality tests. If possible, you may want to have the potential employee meet with the rest of the team so you can see how well they blend and if there is a fit with the company culture.
6. Work with the Potential Employee
If you add a hands-on process to the interview, you can get a sense of how the candidate works and how they may fit with the team. You can bring the individual in for a small project or other aspects of the role they would potentially be filling. Try to stimulate the environment they will be working in as closely as you can. You might pick a certain issue the business is facing that is relevant to this role. By working with them on this issue, you can get a better sense of their work ethic, style, and the overall process. This method also helps you determine if they will work well with the rest of the team.
7. Be Clear with Expectations
It’s always important to be clear about expectations for the role, but if you are a startup, it’s even more important to be clear about what they could expect. Their role may require work in multiple areas, and they may need to consistently put in much more effort to get the business up and running. The screening process should be used to determine if the candidate is up for the challenge. It is never easy to work at a newer company, so all employees will be working harder than if they were at a larger organization. By being clear about expectations, you can also allow candidates to weed themselves out of the process. If this isn’t something they will be motivated to do, they will likely drop out of the screening process on their own. Others who might be more up for the challenge will likely stick it out and become top producing employees.
