Hiring & Recruiting The Right New Staff

As your business grows, you recognise the need for additional help. However, determining the type of support that will work best and finding the right person can be challenging.

Considerations to avoid mistakes

Recruiting new staff takes time away from your daily business activities, so it's vital to spend time planning and preparing an effective recruitment process.

This blog outlines basic steps to ensure you're well-prepared to find and select the best candidate for the role. When you do it well, the right candidate will be keen to join your business and likely to stay with you.

'When hiring is done well, the right candidate will be keen to join, and likely to stay.'

Assess your business needs

Firstly, evaluate what support or additional resources will make your life easier.

Leaders often seek extra help for administrative or easier tasks. This is great if you can find someone who wants to work in just this area, but retaining employees means thinking further ahead. Consider additional tasks they might be able to help with in 3-6 months when may outgrow basic duties. Is there a natural progression to more complex tasks, or will you need to find new ways to keep them engaged?

You might categorise work into job functions and consider outsourcing some tasks instead of hiring directly. This can be cost-effective, especially if tasks you identify are not required daily or don't justify a full-time position.

Explore options: employees vs outsourcing

Many businesses employ Virtual Assistants (VAs) to handle routine, time-consuming tasks. This is a great option if it suits your needs. However, consider whether hiring a junior or part-time employee could be advantageous. They could grow into the role and take on more responsibilities and more complex work.

Understanding your business growth plan will guide you in making sound resourcing decisions. Another consideration is the time and cost involved in managing outsourced workers like a VA compared to a permanent employee handling multiple tasks.

Create a clear and effective job description

Crafting a clear job description will help identify the tasks to be done and the skills required to do the work effectively. Once you've outlined the tasks, think about the skills needed, keep them broad to attract a wide range of candidates. This approach ensures you'll be selecting from the best talent with the right skills for the job.

Advertise to attract the right candidates

Now you’ve established the type of support you need, it's time to advertise in the right places. Most industries have preferred publications where candidates look for jobs. As well as industry publications, use local and professional online networks. If you are unsure, search for similar roles online to see where they're advertised.

Don’t forget to ask your team for referrals, and consider offering a referral bonus. Many companies find this system very successful.

Conduct interviews and evaluate options

The interview is a key component of recruitment. It's important you are well prepared and have an appropriate setting to help candidates feel relaxed. Many people feel anxious prior to an interview, so to get the best from them you want them to feel at ease. An interview is not a test, it's a conversation so you can learn more about them.

Take good notes during each interview so you can review them later. If you are interviewing a number of people your notes will assist in your decision making. I suggest you avoid typing notes as your laptop screen can put a physical barrier between you and the candidate, and this may impact your ability to build rapport and read body language.

If you're having trouble getting the responses you need, try rephrasing the questions. Try to ask the same questions in each interview so you can evaluate the candidates fairly.

Make the right decision

Review your notes, and apply a rating scale for each question, then use a matrix to make an informed selection. Sometimes you might have a gut feel about a candidate, but use your notes to validate it with evidence. You need to know the person you hire has the right skills and experience to avoid a costly mistake, and unfortunately your intuition won't always deliver the best candidate.

Cultural fit is also important. While difficult to “rate” in numbers, placing the wrong person in your team can have a devastating effect, regardless of their skills. Consider offering someone with great skills, but a poor cultural fit a fixed-term contract until you find the right person.

Always conduct a reference check before finalising an employment offer. Referees typically provide positive feedback, but you can find more information that will help you in management.

If you are unsure, consider enlisting an HR Consultant to do this for you. They are experienced in recruitment and should provide you with a comprehensive reference check summary about the candidate.

Prepare your employment offer

Now with the groundwork complete, it's time to make an employment offer. For guidance on Employment Offers, Contracts & Onboarding, read this blog.

While you can do this yourself, unless regularly engaged in hiring, outsourcing to an HR Consultant can save you a significant amount of time, money and stress. If that's not an option, take advantage of other HR products available to help you.

Need help with recruitment?

For HR support when you need it, please contact me.

Over to you

What's one piece of advice you wish you'd had before you tried to hire new staff?