The hiring process, also called the recruitment process, includes deciding to hire a new employee, figuring out what skills and experience the new employee will need, looking for candidates for the job, choosing a candidate, bringing the new employee on board, and training the new employee.
1. Making the decision to hire a new employee
At this point in the hiring process, the goal is to figure out if it makes financial sense to fill the job. There are times when it’s pretty clear that you need to hire someone. For example, when a very important employee leaves a job. Before you hire someone, you might want to do a cost-benefit analysis to see if the employee will bring in enough money to cover the costs of hiring and training them. If not, you might be better off using a freelancer.
2. Develop a job description
In a fairly dry internal job description, you’ll need to list the duties, responsibilities, skills, and level of experience that your ideal candidate will have. You can use one of our job description templates, which are already written and cover most of the most common jobs.
3. Hiring candidates
First, you should get the word out through job boards, your company’s career page, an employee referral programme, etc. so that you have a pool of good candidates to choose from. It’s important to write a great job posting and a well-written referral email if you want to hire from within. If the usual ways of hiring people don’t work, you should look for other ways to find workers and change your overall approach to hiring.
4. Initial evaluation of candidates
Try responding to every application with an email that asks about five questions about the job. The questions must take about 20 minutes to answer and require the level of knowledge you’d expect for the job. Great candidates will respond, but average ones won’t, so it’s an easy and effective way to find the best ones.
5. Conducting candidate interviews
Start by talking on the phone for 15 minutes. This will help you figure out quickly if they really meet your requirements and if your goals and expectations are the same. We have a full guide with sample questions for phone interviews. For some jobs, you may need to ask more specific questions during the interview.
6. Presenting your job offer
During the hiring process, make sure to ask candidates more than once what they expect to be paid. This can change if they’re also looking at other offers. When it’s time to make your offer, send a great job offer letter template that lists everything you’re giving, such as paid time off, perks, equipment allowances, etc.
Read more: How to Always Choose the Right Candidate
