When you have a job vacancy, it can be tempting to rush the recruitment process to fill the spot as soon as possible.
But more often than not, this can lead to making an ill-informed, hasty hiring decision, that results with the wrong hire. Unorganised, inconsistent hiring processes can lead to confusion for both employees and candidates. Hiring processes can also overrun, leaving you with a gap in resources within your business. If the hiring process takes longer than planned, you may even miss out on top talent, as they may quickly get snapped up by your key competitors.
By following these hiring process steps, you can ensure there is a clear understanding of who you’re searching for and transparency of each step that needs to be taken during the recruitment process.
1. Create a hiring committee
You may be responsible for filling the job vacancy, but you don’t have to do it all alone. With a committee, you can receive input from others, helping to ensure you choose a candidate who is the perfect fit for your company.
A hiring committee can consist of various stakeholders from within the business, such as those who have a strong understanding of the role and those who will be working closely with the new hire.
2. Decide on the type of worker
Once you have formed a hiring committee, make sure you’re all clear on the type of worker you are looking for. For example, do you need a contract worker or permanent hire?
3. Create a requirements checklist for your hiring process steps
As a group, take some time to outline what the job will entail, what skills are required and how much experience you would expect an applicant to have.
These could be split into two lists, items that are “must-haves” and items that are just “nice-to-haves”.
4. Set the salary
Next, discuss what the salary for this new job should be. If it depends on experience, then you could provide a salary range, rather than one set figure.
5. Get the budget approved
Before you go any further, make sure the budget for this new hire is fully approved. You don’t want to go through these hiring process steps, only to find out that you can’t hire because you don’t have flexibility with salary negotiation.
6. Write an effective job description
You’re now ready to create a job description. Start by using the points you discussed with your committee previously (stage 2, 3 and 4).
Expand on this by briefly describing your business, explaining what their responsibilities will be and who they will report to.
7. Focus on employer branding
In such a competitive job market, interviews are no longer just an opportunity for businesses to see if a candidate is a good fit. You also need to be selling to candidates why they should work for you.
Make sure you take some time to consider how you can communicate the benefits of working at your company and why you’re different from competitors.
8. Promote the job ad
Use a range of methods to promote your job ad to candidates. You could add the job description to your website and to job boards, share it via social media, work with recruiters and encourage employee referrals.
9. Review resumes and create a shortlist of applicants
Put some time aside to conduct a resume review. Scan them for the key skills and experience you’re looking for and establish which candidates you would like to see during the interview stage.
10. Plan the interviews
One of the key hiring process steps is planning for the upcoming interviews. Decide how many rounds of interviews you will be having, how they will be hosted and who will be included.
For example, you could have an initial interview via phone or web call, followed by a second face-to-face interview. Depending on the seniority of the role you’re hiring for, you may want to consider adding an additional level of interviews too.
Interviews could consist of questions, tasks and tests (e.g. psychometric testing). You should also consider when you will have the interviews too. It can be a good idea to have these all during one day if possible, as this can help you keep each candidate fresh in your mind.
11. Plan your interview questions
Make sure you have some prepared interview questions which are tailored to the particular job. Get input from your hiring committee too, to ensure you’ve considered everything.
To really test candidates, make sure you ask a mix of questions that assess their competency, compatibility and more.
Discover our employer interview techniques to find the right fit for your organisation.
12. Carry out interviews
Make sure you are prepared for each interview, with a copy of your questions and candidate CVs, so you can refer to these while conducting the interview. Remember to take notes, so you can refresh your memory on certain points afterwards.
13. Shortlist your candidates
Sit down with your hiring committee as soon as you can, whilst the interviews are still fresh in your mind, to shortlist your candidates. Assess whether each candidate has the right skills and experiences, but also whether you feel they would fit with the rest of your team.
Were there any candidates who stood out from the others, provided something unique, or were above and beyond what you were expecting?
14. Check references
One of the crucial hiring process steps is to check their references. Simply calling a reference can help you to avoid any costly mistakes by hiring the wrong person.
Make sure you put some thought into the questions you will ask though, to ensure you get as much information from them as possible.
15. Make your decision
It’s now time for you to make a hiring decision on who you’re going to hire. Refer back to all the information you have collected, from CVs, interviews and reference checks. Make sure you remain objective and that all stakeholders from your hiring committee are in agreement with the decision.
16. Inform candidates of your decision
Now comes the nice job of letting the candidate know that you are offering them a job. This can work well via a phone call. Don’t forget to thank all other candidates for their time, but gently explain that they have not been successful this time.
17. Make the offer official
Ensure the job offer is made official by getting the contract drawn up. Send this across to the successful applicant, as soon as you can.
You don’t want to leave them waiting, as you may end up missing out because they’ve decided to accept a job elsewhere.
18. Invite them into your team
Now they’re officially part of your team, ensure you take the time to properly welcome them.
They may also have further questions about their job that you, or another member of your team, could help answer.
19. Carry out onboarding
Don’t just leave your new employee to figure out everything for themselves when they arrive. Make sure you have a well-developed employee onboarding plan in place.
If you need help finding the right fit for your business, contact us today.
