Recruiting Employees

The Do It Yourself Essentials

When your job is recruiting employees, there is no better feeling than bringing on that person who is going to take your company to the next level. It's a thrill! The excitement in an office is tangible and you feel like the hero because you are the one who found this diamond!

Note: For the talent acquisition pros out there who know a great deal about recruiting, some of this might be obvious... To you, just skim over the basic stuff (make sure to check out the recruiting tips) and pull out what you are looking for. For the rest, relax and let's begin...

The Next Diamond

So what do you need to recruit that next diamond? You need a method or process that is tailored to your business. Every business is different. You are the best person to know exactly what qualities your company needs, what resources are available and how fast the position needs to be filled.

The Process

The search for a new employee usually starts with a job description with input from a hiring manager or whomever is involved in the recruiting/hiring process. This is the cruel but important step in recruiting employees. Cruel because it is boring and tedious but necessary to clarify the requirements of the position.

Big Mistake #1 - No Job Analysis

Most companies have already made their first big mistake because they didn't do a proper job analysis. The rationale for not taking this critical step is that you only go to the trouble of creating a thorough job analysis (here's an example job analysis ) if you are having trouble with a job description. The idea is that it will simplify this process and add clarity if the job description is not obvious. Wrong!

The clarity needs to come first therefore, the job analysis is the first step. Why? Let's look at the differences between a job description and a job analysis. The job description is kind of a legal sounding list of elements tied together in a document that will keep you on the safe side of the law if anyone ever looks at your employee records.

A job analysis, when done correctly, also looks at the skills/experience etc but adds one really big difference, the analysis includes a look at performance success factors and expected outcomes. Ultimately, you need to include what a person would need to accomplish to be successful in a position to clearly understand what type of candidate would best fill a position. Stop and pause for a second and think about that for a minute. This is the foundation of a successful recruiting effort.

The Next Step

To take your process to the next level you should, to borrow a term from the technical world, benchmark the position based on current employees who are successful at the job.

Your process should also include a time line for recruiting employees. It should answer questions such as,

• How long to gather candidates?
• How are you going to source/recruit these candidates?
• What sources are you using? What about the untapped foreign worker pool? See our exclusive interview on this topic
• After sorting resumes, what is your interview process?
• How many candidates do you want to see in the interview process?

You can see where we are going here. There are a lot of little steps in the recruitment process that only you can decide.

Here's an example of a process flow for recruiting employees by an in-house recruiter.

TIP: Peer input can be highly valuable at this point. Find a couple of senior employees who have done the job you are trying to fill and run it by them. You will be surprised by the insights you get from people actually doing the job or have been there and done it!

Finding and Screening Candidates

Once you have outlined your recruiting method, the next step is to find your employees. This is where you earn your money because this is where you do all your sourcing and sorting of candidates... the meat of true talent acquisition.

TIP: If you have done your work with a clear concise job description, recruiting employees is much easier. Think of the process as your map and your job description becoming your destination. Having the best map does you no good unless you know where you are going. Make sure you have that job description!

There are a number of places you can find resumes and get candidate profiles. There are abundant online web resources for some tips and ideas. If you plan on running ads, you need to write an effective ad to attract the right candidates.

Reviewing Resumes

At this point you have a pile of resumes to review. Maybe some even have letters of reference or cover letters. Your first job is to separate out the professional looking well written resumes with the right keywords in the skills/knowledge and experience.

Tip: If you need to familiarize yourself with what a good resume looks like, visit my friend Andre Milteer's web site where he shares with candidates some free resume formats and shows them exactly how and what they should say in their resumes.

The next essential step in recruiting employees is to contact these candidates. It can be in the form of phone interview or a simple screening. If they pass muster, then bring them in to fill out an application, interview and have them take any applicable skills or personality tests.

There is more involved in this than it sounds. That first contact is where you make your first impression ... need I say more? It is also where you screen the employee for red flags.

The Interview and Selection

Once you bring that person into your office for an interview it is a good idea to have them fill out a job application including job references. Why? To protect your company. Hate to get legal here but you need to have them to fill out and sign a document with full knowledge that if they are lying it is cause for termination.

I'm going to skip the section about conducting an interview as it is a topic all unto itself.

Once the interview is complete, now comes the employee selection process.

Tip: So as not to be swayed by a candidate in the interview, define the criteria ahead of time and stick to it!

This process should be impartial, quick and documented. You heard me, it should be documented. See the section on the EEOC for more talent acquisition/recruiting related information.

There is a great deal of information on this page.(Sorry) That is because if you want to attract and hire top professionals, recruiting employees takes time, effort and a solid recruiting plan. So review, re-review and return often for more tips and ideas!

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