RECRUITING EMPLOYEES FOR SUCCESS

Ones method of recruiting employees can mean the difference between success and failure in business. When the time comes to start recruiting employees it pays to go about it systematically and carefully.

Here I will discuss some hiring strategies, many learnt from experience over the years, others from study. All however will help you avoid the many pitfalls of bad hiring practice.

There has always been the attraction in small business of considering everyone as being part of a family, boss and employees alike.

This in many cases is right; a compatible boss/employee relationship means good business and is to be encouraged. You cannot leave this to luck alone however, when recruiting employees, if you want to live a peaceful life.

Consider this.

Employees who consider that they have not been employed, for unfair reasons, can sue and those you do hire can also sue if they think you were illegal in your hiring practices. When it comes to firing you can also be sued if you hired incorrectly.

Bad hiring or firing procedures lead to some of the most costly lawsuits in business today and become so expensive that many small businesses are forced into liquidation.

That’s the bad news, now for the good. None of the above need happen with good management. Avoid the potential for labor disputes by hiring and firing properly.

Hiring

Your business is growing and you need help, so you just hire someone? Not a good idea.

Recruiting employees should be a senior manager responsibility, that’s you, and takes time. 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 when your rushed choice sues you for wrongful dismissal. Here are a few points to note about hiring:-

1. When it comes to hiring, you need to hire the best people you can afford to hire, no second raters.
2. If the people 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
3. Spend time on hiring the right people; this can be the best use of your time ever!
4. Do you really need to hire at all? Once you start employing people your whole business administration changes. You now need rules and regulations, payrolls, sick and leave 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.
5. For small business, the first employee hired takes the most work, so get that right and it gets easier the more often you hire. Policies and procedures only need to be developed once. Here is where an Employee Manual comes in handy.

How to 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 job first, so here is what to do:-

Job analysis

1. What tasks does the job involve? List everything that is required to get it done, both mental and physical.
2. What is needed in the way of equipment, tools or special methods to get the job done?
3. What is the reason for the job? How does the job relate to the business as a whole? Where does it fit in and how?
4. What qualifications are needed in order to be able to do the job?

All information you will need before you start recruiting employees.

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

A description of the job.

Following on your analysis of the job you can begin your 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 duties of the job position, both the major and minor ones?
• Where does the job fit into the company’s structure? Who will report to this position and which other jobs are of similar responsibility?

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 now 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 job receive?

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

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 re 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 site or this UK 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 you possible job candidates, now you need to start pinning them down by spreading the word. When recruiting employees, a good ad is a must.

The Ad.

Your possible candidates will all need to see something in writing so that they can see if they qualify as well as help them decide if they are interested.

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

• No, No.

  Discrimination of any sort.

  1. You can’t require more education than the job needs.
  2. You can’t advertise for people with limited experience, for example “school leaver”. This discriminates against older workers.
  3. You can’t show any prejudice towards people on the grounds of sex, race, religion, nationality, age, disability or sexual orientation.
  4. When recruiting employees don’t advertise for people using words such as ‘energetic,’ ‘healthy’, ‘fit’. This could lead to age discrimination suits.
  5. Don’t mention anything to do with a clean arrest record.
  6. Stay far away from questions about family or marital status.
  7. 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.
  8. 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, many more descriptions that you should be careful of, so don’t place any ads until you have had them checked out by a lawyer. Better safe than sorry.

• Yes, Yes.
  1. Advertise that your business is ‘an equal opportunity employer.’ This shows willing and may help.
  2. Clearly describe the job skills that are needed to perform the job, and no more.
  3. What are the responsibilities of the job? List them.
  4. If you need experience, advertise for the skill needed. Say ‘capable of supervising 50 people,’ ‘careful driver’ or ‘excellent at letter writing’.
  5. List only educational or experience needs needed, to perform the job, no more, no less.

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

The task of recruiting employees has begun 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.

Using a resume

Once all your possible candidates have had sight of your requirements from your advertisement, you can ask them to respond by sending in their resumes. You can ask for samples of their work, or ask them to prepare a sample; you can tune your requirements to the type of job that you required filled.

Using their resumes, you can begin to screen by comparison, check for professionalism and attention to detail.

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

The application form

You don’t have to ask for a resume although it helps with your pre-screening. Whether or not you ask for a resume, you must get all applications 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.

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 and 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 normal interview locality is 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; get them at east, small talk is okay, but only on neutral subjects.
• Now explain the company, its business and history, its mission, its future plans and why it is recruiting employees.
• Now ask your prepared questions on job history, what can they bring to the job? Sound out their work habits, decision making skills, have they ambitions?
• Let the candidate ask questions and listen carefully. There is a big difference for you in the question “I hear that there is a new competitor opening down the street, how are you dealing with it?” and “how much time do we 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/her know and schedule a second interview.

If they are 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

Not easy to get this information, apart from dates of employment and salaries. Former employers are too afraid of lawsuits for divulging any information on former employees.

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

Here is what you want to know about the applicant-

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

And here is how you can try and obtain information when recruiting employees:-

1. Contacting previous employers will probably confirm only dates of employment, job title and salary.
2. Skip the human resources or personnel department and go directly to the person’s former supervisor. If you are lucky, you can hope for some useful information from this source.
3. Education checks can be done at universities or colleges to verify dates and qualifications.
4. Check with motor vehicle departments to confirm driving licenses.
5. You can check via courthouses on criminal records.
6. 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 are not 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
• Other useful information

Look them up in the yellow pages. They are worth the money and can save you untold damage.

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.

Made up your mind? Contact the winning candidate and offer the job, confirm it in writing together with all terms and conditions.

When recruiting employees, take your time, do it right and you will have a good addition to your business family.

Return from Recruiting Employees for Success to Business Management Basics Home Page

Subscribe to Business Buzz, the monthly newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on new, site business content, business news, tips and other items of interest.

Be assured that your email address will be safe and that is why you will be asked to confirm your subscription by double opt-in. This will keep you safe from spammers and other malicious persons.

Hope you enjoy Business Buzz.

Subscribe here.