Finding the right employees shouldn’t be a crapshoot. These tips can help you craft an efficient hiring strategy to save you both time and money.
Sometimes the hiring process can feel like a slow, nerve-wracking slog to the finish line. And once you get there, are you confident that you’ve hired the right person for the job? Because making the wrong hiring decision can cost you – up to twice the annual salary of the employee in question according to the Society for Human Resources Management.
Fortunately, there are steps small business owners and managers can take that will shorten the hiring cycle, increase the chances of securing the best candidates and potentially save you thousands of dollars by avoiding bad hires. Joe Taylor at Small Business Computing lays out steps to help you attract and retain the type of employees that can help your business succeed.
Remember, streamlining your business processes can make you more efficient and productive. Apply that theory – and these tips– to your hiring practices to reap similar results.
- More than 25 percent of workers decide to leave their jobs every year because they don’t see opportunity for career advancement. When hiring, think both near- and long-term. If you can create a job description that includes what future opportunities or professional development might be possible, you’ll be far more likely to attract a stronger candidate.
- Your own employees are a great and often untapped source for job candidates. Consider instituting an employee-referral program; not only can your current employees be your best ambassadors, they’re often the best filters of who will work well within your organization.
- Technology can be a real efficiency boost in the hiring process. Cost-effective, Web-based services like The Resumator, The Applicants, and RecruiterBox can help track applicants and narrow down the field to a manageable core group of qualified applicants.
- Tempted to Google applicants as a way to weed out the less-qualified? Experts advise against it, saying that social media doesn’t always present an accurate assessment. You could end up missing out. Instead, stick to formal background checks for candidates on your short list.
- Job interviews can be so subjective that you can often end up with a highly personable hire who turns out to be less than ideally qualified. To avoid this, conduct a “competency-based” interview. Create a list of the five or six crucial skills a person needs to be successful in the position and focus on those areas during the interview.
Combining these steps can help you filter out weaker candidates and speed up the time it takes to hire the right person who meets your needs.
Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of Small Business Computing. Follow Lauren on Twitter.
Adapted from How to Shorten Your Hiring Cycle by Joe Taylor, Jr. at Small Business Computing. Follow Small Business Computing on Twitter.