Recruiting and hiring a new employee can be a daunting and time consuming task for a small business owner, but also one of the most crucial. A bad hire has a much larger impact on a small business than it does in a larger corporation so it is important to make the right hiring decision upfront. Here are a few tips to ease the pain and help save time and money:
Do a little prep work in the beginning, save a lot of time down the road. Have a written job description so that you, and the new hire, know what the duties and tasks are that the new hire will be responsible for. The job description can be used as the job posting as well to ensure that you are reaching more qualified candidates. Also, create a list of interview questions ahead of time that are designed to solicit the information you need. Use the same questions for each candidate and you will save yourself a lot of time.
Use your current employees as a source of referrals and offer them an incentive. As the saying goes, "birds of a feather flock together". If you aren’t willing to ask a current employee because you don’t think they would have good "associates", then you have bigger problems and they probably shouldn’t be working there either.
Use your network and social media sites. The day of big job board postings are gone. Use your network and other resources to target search the right candidate rather than just any candidate. Don’t confuse quantity with quality in resumes received. It only take one candidate to fill the role, so it isn’t necessary to go through hundreds of resumes just for the sake of it.
Don’t wait until you need to hire someone, to start looking for someone. Moments of desperation breed bad decisions. Always keep your eyes and ears open for people that would be a good fit for your company, whether or not you are hiring at the time. Having an available pool of candidates to interview will help you avoid making last minute hiring decisions and will save you a lot of time.
Start with a plan, use your resources and be prepared!
As always, Employers Advantage LLC is here to guide you through your recruiting needs or we can take care of all of it for you as your Small Business HR Department.
Deanna Arnold, PHR, is the president and owner of Cornelius, N.C.-based Employers Advantage LLC, which provides practical and sound solutions to meet the needs of your business in all aspects of human resources, including but not limited to, recruiting, benefits, employee relations, compliance, performance management, HRIS, workers compensation, safety, facilities/office management, and budgeting. She can be reached by emailing [email protected] or calling 980-422-7953. www.employersadvantagellc.com
