As your business grows, so do your needs, and number of employees. In order to maintain success as you expand your scale, it's crucial to fill new positions with the right people.
Determine Your Needs
The first step is to figure out what roles your company needs. Is the HR department equipped to handle an influx of new employees? This a great place to start, because as new employees join, they will need to be onboarded and trained. Ask yourself what other unmet needs have been coming up for your business. For example, maybe you need a dedicated IT person to help with computer issues and cybersecurity, more graphic designers to help with client demands, or someone with a background in accounting for tax season.
After you identify the gaps you need to fill, it is time to figure out how many new positions you can afford to hire for, and what their job duties will be. If your budget is tight, consider the option of hiring some part-time positions, or hire contractors for certain projects.
Start Recruiting
Before you start interviewing, you need to create a job description, complete with applicant qualifications, job duties and hours, salary range, and benefits. Make sure that you communicate why your company is a great place to work!
Once you have the job description, it’s time to advertise the open positions and recruit your new employees! There are many ways to go about doing this. First off, ensure that your online presence is strong. Are the job opportunities easy to find on your website? There are many employment websites that offer online portals for employers to post open positions (often for a small fee). Another great online option is to advertise on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
You could also consider reaching out to local universities and vocational programs and see if they have any upcoming job fairs that you can participate in. Finally, use your existing personal and professional networks to get the word out that your company is hiring. You never know who has a friend looking for work. If you want to incentivize your current employees to help recruit quality people you can consider offering a referral bonus.
Conduct Interviews
Next up is the application and interview process. You want to ensure that the application collects all the necessary information, and that only people who are seriously interested and qualified for the position apply. For example, if someone needs a certain certification for a position, make that a mandatory part of the application form. It is wise to require both a resume and cover letter, and a form that will make it easy for the person reviewing applications to identify qualified applicants. For the interview, create a standardized list of questions that are specific to the position. It can be helpful to ask interviewees for examples of certain behaviors or scenarios. Make sure that the candidate is speaking at least 70% of the time!
Check References
Once you’ve identified your finalists, you will want to check their references and conduct an identity check online. It is important to be patient in this part of the process to make sure that you are bringing the right person on to the team! Although it may be frustrating to come across barriers when you thought you found a good fit, it is much better to be aware of risks or red flags before you hire someone instead of after they’ve been on the job for a few months. Plus, an identity check only takes a few minutes to run.
Hiring new employees can be daunting but being intentional about the process in order to find a good fit is worth it in the long run.
