Know when to hire. Think hard about the position you think you need. Will the position allow for growth, what will the reporting structure be like, what skills are needed, etc.? Another key is to understand whether you need an employee or a contractor. Many companies immediately think they need an employee to fill a certain role, however, they fail to think about the what the job will be long-term and will the need still be there 6-12 months out. If not, consider a contractor. Most companies hire employees and when the job is complete, or the employee has reached their level of incompetence, the company does not fire the employee, rather keeps them on with the company, wasting much needed resources.
Know what you are looking for and be specific, but not too specific. Explain the job well, but leave some “wiggle” room, narrowing your job post too much will turn away, what could be good fits. So find the right balance, you can start by looking at posts of other companies. However, make your post its own.
Always be hiring! Be open minded when reviewing applicants, if they are not a good fit, but exhibit enthusiasm for your product or service, perhaps they could be used in another role, assuming you have one open. Do not create an opening or role for someone just because they or know a lot about your company. Although you might not have an immediate role open, if you come across someone with strong domain knowledge in your industry or could make a good Operations Manager, keep their card or info, and when the time is right reach back out to them.
Seek help. When possible, get a HR professional to come in to assist, assuming you do not have one in-house. This person can also double as a recruiter. Hiring recruiters might be useful for larger companies, but for smaller companies the CEO and a key HR person can handle this process. The key is to have someone within your company who knows what to look for and understands your local job market.
How to find talent. Besides the typical avenues, job posting sites, social networking sites and social media sites, there are a few methods that many companies overlook. Local universities are a good place to start and can be done without hiring a recruiter. Your HR person can coordinate with the university or if you company is smaller, the CEO can interact with professors to find top talent. Competitors that have recently merged or been acquired are another great place, as there will likely be layoffs. Also, competitors that have openly announced layoffs for other reasons are a great place to start. If you company has taken outside investment, chances are these people are well connected and can introduce you to talent.
Cast a wide net. First, you must have a job openings page on your website. People may come to your site for a number of reasons, and likely not to look for job openings, but by having a jobs page people can see when and if you are hiring. These people can in turn recommend your posting to their friends or family. This can help you cast your net farther. By simply posting to jobs sites you are limited to people who come to those sites, but by getting your posting in front of people visiting your site, or by posting jobs openings to your social media sites, you are casting a larger net that may attract talent that is too busy or sought after to browse job openings on the conventional sites.
Be proactive! Simply posting the job on your site or other jobs sites will not get you the best talent. This piggybacks on casting a wide net and using unconventional methods to find talent. You should be using LinkedIn and other social media and networking sites to find talent that may or may not be looking. The other key is that if your are a small or medium business your company may not be that well known, thus, use connections to help introduce your company and add clout. Do not simply post a job, make your friends, collages, advisers part of the recruitment process as well, having them make intros and recommendations when able. Your main priority is to find the best talent for your company and to retain those employees.
The process. The first key is have a screening process, set a level of base requirements, that if not met the application will not be considered further, this helps reduce time and resources spent. From there narrow your list to the number of candidates that you would like to follow up with a phone or video call with. After that you should narrow the list even further to those that will be given face-to-face interviews.
The candidate vetting process should be a team effort. Your HR person can help identify the best verbiage for your post and key skills and experience that might be useful, but the manager who will oversee the new employee must be involved. How early they get involved depends on your company size and resources. Ideally, the manager works with HR to draft the job posting and vetting of candidates for interviews. Then the manager should actively participate in the interview and have a large say in who is hired. The HR person should coach the manager on best practices for interviewing. If your company is small enough, the CEO should always be involved in the hiring process to some degree.
Have a time frame. This requires planning in advance for you hiring and having a personnel plan in place to help guide your processes and give you plenty of lead-time to find the best candidates. If you set a three-month time frame and within the first month you think you have found the candidate, you will need to act fast. If you do find a top candidate, other companies likely are pursuing them as well. As a result there is a fine line between closing the hiring process early versus leaving it open to accept as many applications as possible. This is where you HR person can really be useful; part of their job is to be in tune with the job market and the supply versus demand for your position. Thus, they will be able to guide you on whether you should close the process and hire what you think is the ‘top’ candidate now versus keeping the posting open for another couple weeks.