Recruiting Employees

So; Your business is growing and you need help,

Do you just hire someone, on another employees recommendation or your brother-in-laws cousin. Not a good idea.

Recruiting employees is a senior management responsibility, and in a small business that's you.

Proper recruitment takes time and thought.

Why you might ask? Well time invested here, in the selection of the best candidate for the job, saves huge amounts of time down the line. Especially when your rushed choice can't do the job and sues you for wrongful dismissal.

Here are a just few points to note about hiring staff ...

• When it comes to hiring, you need to hire the best people you can afford to hire, no second raters.
• If the staff you hire are better than you at the job you need them for, so much the better. They can only make the business more productive and your life easier.
• Consider if you really need to hire at all?
  Once you start employing people your whole business administration changes. You now need rules and regulations, payrolls, sickness and vacation policies and a hundred other managerial duties that you never had before. Sometimes it can be better to use contract labor, such as a virtual assistant, or even part time employees.
• For the small business, the first employee hired takes the most effort, so get that right and it gets easier the more often you need to hire staff.
• Recruitment Policies and procedures should only need to be developed once. This is where an Employee Manual comes in handy.

Only select the best when recruiting employees ...

It might be obvious, but do you really understand what is required of the job you want done by the new employee? To do this you need to analyze the requirements of the job first ...

Job analysis -

All information you will need before recruiting employees.

• What tasks does the job involve? List everything that is required to get it done, both mental and physical.
• What is needed by way of equipment, tools or special methods to get the job done?
• What is the real reason for the job? How does the job relate to the business as a whole? Where does it fit in and how? What function will the job fulfill?
• What qualifications does an employee really need in order to do the job?

Once you have analyzed the job and understand thoroughly what needs to be done, you can move onto writing up

The Job Description.

• What are the responsibilities and goals of the job?
• What is the job title and who does the person report to?
• What are the employees duties, both the major and minor ones?
• Where does the job fit into the company structure?
• Who will the employee report to and which other jobs are similar?

Finally you now have a pretty good idea of the jobs tasks, needs and how it all fits together. Now let?s move onto ...

The Job Specification -

Here is where you decide on the sort of person that is needed to meet the requirements of the job.

• What job educational requirements are needed to be able to perform the job?
• Is prior experience desired?
• Are any specialized skills needed?
• What salary will the job command?
• What benefits will the employee receive?

Whoa! You might say, is all this really necessary just for recruiting employees, possibly just to hire someone to sweep the factory floor?

And the answer is ... Yes it is.

Remember the disgruntled employees and the lawsuits. Well this is all part of getting it right so you don?t have to worry about lawsuits.

Now you are ready to start looking for the best candidate to fill the job.

How to find the best people ...

Before you place that ad or spread the word that you are looking for someone, let?s look at all the possible sources for recruiting employees.

• Word of mouth. Spread the word that you are looking for such and such a person.
• Where are the sorts of people you want employed right now? Often it will be in a competitors business, so go recruit there.
• Use your own workforce, if you have one, to recruit for you. They can be one of your best sources, provided they are happy in their own employment. Unhappy employees will bring in poor quality people.
• Check out Internet job listings. For example this US Job Site or this UK Job Site.
• Place ads in local newspapers. Writing up the ad however needs to be done very carefully. (See below.)
• Schools can provide possible candidates for certain positions.
• Employment agencies are another source and can often provide pre-screened possibles.

Using any of the above forms of advertising will yield job applications, which you need to filter by checking for relevant factors, very time consuming.

When recruiting employees, putting together a good recruitment ad, that attracts the right applicants, is a must.

Recruiting Employees ... Your Recruitment Ad

Your potential recruitment candidates will all need to see something in writing, to check whether they qualify and to help them decide if they are interested.

Using your job specification and description, you now sit down and write a recruitmen ad that will attract the right people and discourage the misfits. Here is where you have to be careful.

No discrimination of any sort ...

• You can?t require more education than the job needs.
• You can?t advertise for people with limited experience, for example ?school leaver?. This discriminates against older workers.
• You can?t show any prejudice towards people on the grounds of sex, race, religion, nationality, age, disability or sexual orientation.
• When recruiting employees don?t advertise for people using words such as ?energetic,? ?healthy?, ?fit?. This could lead to age discrimination suits.
• Don?t mention anything to do with a clean arrest record.
• Stay far away from questions about family or marital status.
• Don?t ask for information on credit, debts or anything to do with the candidate?s financial position. The one exception is when they are job related. If you are looking for an accountant, a heavily in debt candidate could be excluded.
• Don?t use sex in your adverts. ?Girl Friday,? ?Saleswoman,? or ?salesman? and ?waitress? could all lead to discrimination suits. Stay neutral.

There are many more descriptions that you should be careful of, so try not to place any recruitment ads until you have them checked out by a lawyer. Better safe than sorry.

Acceptable inclusions ...

• Advertise that your business is 'an equal opportunity employer',? this demonstrates your willingness to employ all social groups.
• Clearly describe the job skills that are needed to perform the job. Do not expand on any other function or facility you may include.
• List clearly the responsibilities of the job. List those responsibilities and only them.
• If you require experienced candidates, advertise for the skill needed. State explicitly 'capable of supervising 50 people',' driver', etc
• List only educational or experience required to perform the job. No more, no less.

There is no need to fear employment laws if you remember to relate everything to the position and the qualifications needed to do the job.

The task of recruiting employees and weeding unsuitable applicants begins as soon as your ad is out.

Now that you have a list of possible applicants, there are a few things that you can do to pre-screen the candidates before you interview them.

Recruiting Employees ... Pre-Screening Applicants

If you want to pre-screen applicants, you can require them to respond by sending in their resumes with the application form.

You can also ask for samples of their work, or ask them to prepare a sample if practical skills are required; and tune your requirements to the specific type of job that you required filled.

Using resumes,

You can begin to screen by comparison, check for professionalism and attention to detail.

Make sure the required qualifications are present.

For the better ones you can list questions that you need to ask at the interview.

Application Forms,

You don't have to ask for a resume although it helps with your pre-screening, but whether or not you ask for a resume, you must get all applicants to complete an employment application form.

This is standard procedure when recruiting employees.

Once again you need to be very careful as to the questions you want answered on your application form. Play safe and buy an application form from your office supply store. Use it to help develop your own form or just use it as is for all your applicants.

Play it even safer and contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and make sure that your form confirms to their guidelines.

All countries will have some anti-discrimination legislation, so check it out.

Once the applications are returned, you now have, together with the resume, sufficient information to make your final selection on the applicants that you want to interview.

Recruiting Employees ... The Interview

The interview or interviews are where you make your final choice, so you need to get this right. There are two ways to conduct an interview, by phone or face-to-face.

Usually phoning should only be done if it is not practical to interview all the candidates face to face, in other words, to act as a further screen to help reduce the numbers.

Be carefully what you say on the phone.

The usual interview location will be your place of business.

Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of the interview when recruiting employees ...

• Set a mutual date and time for the interview during normal business hours.
• Have your questions prepared prior to the meeting.
• If you are more than a one person business, conduct a group interview. Who to have there will depend on your business. No more than 3 or 4 others on your interview panels, you don?t want to be too intimidating.
• Greet the candidate; set them at ease, small talk is okay, but only on neutral subjects.
• Explain the company, its business and history, its mission, its future plans and why it is recruiting employees.
• Aask your prepared questions on job history, what can they bring to the job? Sound out their work habits, decision making skills, have they ambition?
• Let the candidate ask questions and listen carefully. There is a big difference between, "I hear that there is a new competitor opening down the street, how are you dealing with it?"? and "How much time do I get for lunch?"
• Finally, talk about compensation.. Any decision must be satisfactory to both of you, so ask the candidate how much they would like to make. After you get this figure, ask them to give you a minimum figure that they would accept. That is probably what you will end up paying.

At the end of each interview, you will know if the candidate has possibilities. Let him or her know the result as soon as possible and schedule a second interview.

However, If the applicant is not what you are looking for, say so and let them go.

Once you are down to your two or three finalists, you now need to check their references.

The reference check ... It's not that easy to get this information, apart from dates of employment and salaries.

Former employers are too afraid of lawsuits to divulge much if any information on former employees.

It's a fact that up to 30% of people applying for jobs lie about their education and previous experience, so it would be wise to try and check out the information on their application forms before recruiting employees.

Here is basically what you want to know about the potential recruit ...

• That the information on their resume regarding education and background is true.
• That they are in the country legally.
• That they have no criminal record that could damage your business. Have they ever been fired for theft or embezzlement?
• Are their college degrees and post employment records genuine?
• What is their debt status?

And here is how you can try and obtain the information when recruiting employees ...

• Contact previous employers to confirm periods of employment, job title and salary, only. Skip the human resources or personnel department and try to go directly to the persons former supervisor. If you are lucky, you can hope for some useful information from this source.
• Education checks can simply be done through universities or colleges to verify dates and qualifications.
• Check with motor vehicle departments to confirm driving licenses.
• You can check via courthouses on criminal records.
• Credit reporting bureaus will supply a credit check if you consider it necessary. This checking can be time consuming and very tedious, but reference checks when recruiting employees are essential if you don't want to be surprised down the line.

Want to know the easy way to do reference checks?

Have a reference checking company to do it all for you. They will comply with the law and let you have background information on ... Criminal records, Education, Credit reports, Social security number and other useful information. Look them up in the yellow pages. They are worth the money and can save you untold problems.

With all the information you now have available on your short list of candidates, your final decision can be made.

If you are still not sure, go for a third and final interview. When you've made up your mind, contact the winning applicant and offer them the job, make sure you confirm it in writing together with all your terms and conditions.