Hiring Good Employees
Hiring good employees is critical to the success of a small company. A small business has a slim margin for error when it comes to hiring – one bad hire can result in significant turnover costs as well as lost hours in training and recruiting.
The hiring process can be an exhaustive and daunting task. To get started, you need to take inventory of your business operation and decide if you really do need to hire. Drafting a good job description can help you analyze your needs. A job description will force you to answer basic questions such as: what are the key responsibilities of the position? How much can I afford to pay? What skill requirements and qualifications are necessary to do the job?
If you determine it’s time to hire, the next step is to decide how you will go about filling the position. There are three basic options available. Enlist the aid of a recruiting or staffing firm, contract the position with a temporary employment agency or fill the position on your own.
A reputable staffing agency can help you find good candidates but it will come at a premium price. The typical staffing firm charges about 20-25% of the annual salary slated for the position. A temp agency has a “try before you buy” philosophy that can work well for administrative and lower level positions. The candidates presented by the temp agency are employees of the temp agency and you pay the temp agency directly usually on a weekly basis. If you don’t feel the candidate is right for the position after a period of time on the job, the temp agency will replace the candidate. In this way, you can bring in a person on a “temp to perm” arrangement with the option to hire the person during the contract term. You will pay the temp agency an hourly rate that is considerably higher because, in effect, you are paying for the temp agency’s profit margin and overhead costs of carrying its employee.
The third option is to fill the position on your own. This involves a major time commitment on your part if it is your desire to hire the best available job candidate. It also involves a thorough and well focused recruitment plan. How long does it take to hire an employee? The amount of time it takes will vary considerably depending on the position. There should be a reasonable goal set in which an offer and acceptance and starting dates are established. The hiring process should not be rushed and cutting corners will only increase your chances of making a bad hire.
Finding good candidates. Use various methods for finding qualified candidates. Start by tapping into your social and business networks. Get the word out that you are looking to hire. The next step is to advertise your job opening. You can advertise on the Internet on job boards such as Hot Jobs, CareerBuilder or Monster or in the newspaper. Print advertising can be very expensive especially if you want to run it on a Sunday or if you plan on running a fairly lengthy ad. If you run an ad, try to make every word count. That means taking the time to write concise, interesting copy that will capture the attention of a good job candidate. If you decide to run an ad, you need to be prepared for the response. Unfortunately, it can be feast or famine. You may get hundreds of responses (phone calls, faxes, e-mails) or no responses at all. And, remember, there’s no guarantee when you place a job ad. If you don’t get a good response, you will have to pay again to run another ad.
In order to find and hire the best candidates you need to draw from a wide selection of candidates. If you chose only to place a small ad in your local newspaper for one day to save money, this most likely will limit the potential candidate pool and reduce the likelihood of getting the best talent available.
Screening Candidates. This involves screening resumes based on the job description and skill requirements. It also means talking to a lot of candidates and methodically eliminating the pool down to a small number. It is important that you develop an organized process of screening candidates. One of the ways to save time is to conduct a telephone screen with potential candidates. These applicants should be screened quickly to determine if they are a possible fit. Make a quick decision by having a list of knock-out questions. Remember, you are looking for candidates that meet the job requirements, will work well and be comfortable with your culture and are serious and motivated.
The candidates that pass the phone screen interview should then be brought in for live interviews. During the live interview stage, resist the urge to offer the position to the first person that you like. Reduce your pool of live interview candidates down to two or three good candidates. Then, bring those candidates back for a second interview and rate them. Often times, the candidate that you initially wanted may very well be your second of even third choice. Remember, there are legal aspects to hiring an employee. There are certain interview questions that you cannot ask relative to equal opportunity employment laws.
Once you have settled on a candidate and have extended an offer, you should make any offer of employment contingent upon a reasonable background check. Pre-employment screening has become a popular risk management tool for employers and can include drug screening, credit history checks and criminal records checks.
Hiring a good employee is a long and tedious undertaking. Perfect Office Placement can help guide you through your next office staff hiring. We offer a unique and affordable hiring service for general office staff including administrative assistants, secretaries, receptionists, accounting clerks and bookkeepers. Our service saves you time, finds the best available candidates and provides a triple guarantee of a successful hire. Call a Perfect Office Placement hiring consultant today.
Perfect Office Placement
705 North Mountain Road
Newington, CT 06111
(860) 953-8547 (local)
(800) 290-2168 (toll free)
(860) 953-8567 (fax)
