Hiring the right people for your organization is the ultimate key to success as it will pay dividends in so many ways. When you develop your hiring process, you will lower your recruitment cost, mitigate employee attrition, strengthen your company culture, create more loyal customers and, most importantly, you can spend more time growing and building your company.
If these things are important to you (and they should be), this article is for you.
When we work with our client companies, we work with them in two very distinct ways:
1. Done for you
We apply our process and execute all the steps necessary to deliver the hiring results you need – essentially, we do the recruiting for you and – in a very different manner than standard recruiters. We spend time with you and your business by getting to know your leadership team, values, big vision, and culture. From there, we do the work necessary to hand pickone, possibly two, highly qualified candidates that will fit in with your culture and can grow into your big vision. Leaving you the time to run your business rather than reviewing resumes and interviewing unqualified people. To take it a step further, we assist in the orientation process and provide follow up coaching calls to the new hire. Basically, we are your in-house HR team finding you that next right new hire.
2. Work with your team
The second option is for us to train someone on your team to develop your hiring process so that they can apply it to all new hiring scenarios.
The “Find and Fill Formula”
We call this process the “Find and Fill Formula”. It consists of seven steps:
Step #1: Get clear on your values and brand
Your company culture hinges on a strong brand and its values. If you are unclear about this, it simply isn’t likely that you will be able to hire the right team. You demonstrate your business core values every day through action. Now it’s time to articulate those core values and start using them in your hiring, internal and external communication, and team culture.
Step #2: Understand the position
We first create a performance plan (think of this as a job description on steroids) so that candidates can fully understand what they need to bring to the table as far as skill set, qualifications, and soft skills. Having a good understanding of the requirements of a position will help you more easily identify those skills in your candidates and know what interview questions to ask.
Step #3: Meet the candidates where they are
Many businesses will just write up a job posting and put it out on Indeed, CareerBuilder or another site in the hope that it will deliver results. However, top talent doesn’t always lurk about on job boards, chances are, they are already employed. You mustmake an effort to reach candidates where they are, wherever that may be.
Step #4: Create meaningful interview questions
During my speaking engagements, I say all the time, the interview is not a conversation and it’s not an interrogation. The interview process is story telling. When you ask the right behavioral based interview questions the applicants will:
- Tell me about a time when
- Give me an example of
- Describe a project
With these type of questions the interviewer will easily and quickly know whether or not the applicant is truly qualified, has the right soft skills, or will fit in the company culture.
Step #5: Research the applicant’s background
Background checks are important for so many reasons. You certainly don’t want any embarrassing situations to rear their head after you have already invested a lot of valuable resources into onboarding. There are hundreds of companies that specialize in employee background checks and many can be completed online.
Step #6: Making the offer
You stand to lose many viable candidates during the offer phase if it is not handled adequately. Salary expectations should be discussed during the interview phase and always finalized in writing.
Step #7: Introduce them to your organization
Onboarding is very important. Even if you have sailed through the first six steps, an inadequate onboarding process can eclipse all your progress. Craft a detailed onboarding process that covers the first 90 days on the job and its attendant milestones. Ensure that your new hire has a peer mentor to connect with over any concerns – ideally, someone who has been with the company for a significant period of time.
In conclusion, the hiring process is essential to building a high-performance team. If you would like to learn more about what we do and how we do it, reach out today. We would love to show you how we can help.