One of the major considerations in running a small business is having the best people beside you to help you realize the business’ dreams. Of course, you’d want employees which would act as catalyzing agents and not hindrances to success. For this to be possible, the hiring process has to be well thought-out and executed. One of the most critical steps in the hiring process is the interview. The following gives you the basics of it – what ought to be done and what ought not.
Preparation. Hiring does not only mean seeking out for the best employees. It’s more than that. It also means how to get the best employees.
This is where marketing comes in. (You don’t only market for your products and services; you also market for your job vacancies and employment opportunities.) First off, before you proceed with the actual marketing process, it’s important that you know what you want in your employees. List the major qualifications that you want your prospects to have. And then list the secondary qualifications.
Now that preferences have been fully defined, you can now proceed with the marketing materials. Yes, this is an important aspect of the process because it is through this that people looking for job become aware that you are in need of them. And don’t expect that you can fish out the good ones with a poorly designed marketing strategies and materials. For low cost materials, you can settle with flyers, brochures and posters. Just make sure that you get them printed right. A tip: online printing companies like PrintPlace and other similar companies the ones very capable of delivering desired outputs.
Once you’ve posted and distributed them, expect resumes and application letters to get into your office or address. Do your homework, carefully review the credentials of the applicants and pick out the good prospects only. Otherwise, you’ll be stressing yourself later in reevaluation and interview process. The interview questions should also be prepared.
Actual Interview. You don’t just babble anything on the actual interview, getting the right prospects would less likely happen that way. Following are four types of questions from Inc.com from which you can generate your questions:
1. Fact-based or general questions: These tackle the facts about the applicant, usually written on his/her resume.
2. Situational or hypothetical questions: These would reveal how the applicant would typically respond to whatever situation that could happen in a workplace.
3. Stress questions: These put the applicant in pressure. These would reveal how the person would react to stressful confrontations and similar situations.
4. Behavioral questions: These would see through the past experiences of the applicant, how he/she did with certain past projects, etc. It would be though these that you’d be able to find how he/she would perform in the future.
For more tips on interviews questions, check out this link. Please also take time to check on the following video from Bloomberg Businessweek to get a peak on the interview questions from a big company – Google. I’m not necessarily encouraging you to do the same but I just want to show how the giant search engine approach interview questions.
It is also important that the atmosphere during the interview is calm and friendly in order to make the best qualities rise to the surface. And anyway, you don’t want your applicants to feel as if the workplace is filled with an air of terror. You should also encourage them to ask their own questions.
