Guest post courtesy of Leslye Schumacher

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All new businesses, at some point, will be faced with the challenge of needing to hire additional employees. But, if you don’t have an H.R. department, how can you set up a process that will be streamlined and cost effective? I’ve outlined below the process I use to recruit, interview, and hire new employees.

RECRUITMENT

The first step is to write a job posting and place that on your website under a Jobs or Careers tab. If you are not sure how to write a good job ad, click here for tips on how to do it.

Rather than spending hundreds of dollars to place an ad in the newspaper or on one of the huge online job websites, you can advertise your opening through social media and targeted job websites for little or no money, and get great results.

LinkedIn –

“Apply With Linked In Button.” Once you have the job ad posted on your website, place an “Apply With LinkedIn Button” at the bottom of the page. This enables viewers of your ad to click on the button and send you their profile to apply. You can find step-by-step instructions on how to do this at https://developer.linkedin.com/apply-how-it-works

Create Your LinkedIn Company Page. If you don’t have a LinkedIn Company Page or possibly worse, an incomplete or not up-to-date one, this is your first place to start. A LinkedIn Company Page is usually one of the first places a candidate will go to get information about your company. To create one, go to http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/710

Post A Job Opening Status Update. You can post a Status Update on your profile page about the job opening. Be sure to include the link to the job posting on your website.

Post The Job To Your LinkedIn Groups. What groups do you belong to on LinkedIn? If you are not in ANY industry specific groups you should do a search in the top right search box (change to “groups” from “people” with the drop down arrow) and find some to join. Once you have joined Groups you can then post job information by clicking on the Jobs tab on a Group’s home page. You will see that there is an option to “Post a Job Discussion in this group.” Again, be sure to include the link to the job posting on your website.

Facebook –

Do a post about the job opening. People who are your company followers are fans of your company and likely to be interested. It’s possible that your next great hire could be one of those fans. Or, someone who knows them is, and forwards the info to them.

Post a video. Get creative. Maybe you make a quick video about the job opening and post the video to your Facebook page, your website and YouTube. Send the link out as an email blast to your contacts and ask them to forward it to anyone they know who might be interested.

No Cost/Low Cost Online Job Boards –

There are MANY job boards out there that will allow you to post an opening for free. Some of my favorite sites are:

FindAJobAlready.com

Gigajob.com

Lots Of Jobs.net

JobSpider.com

Jobvertise.com

ResumeBucket.com

ClassifiedAds.com

AllStarJobs.com

TweetMyJobs.com

Facebook Marketplace by Oodles

ZipRecruiter.com

Craig’s List

INTERVIEWING

Do preliminary phone interviews FIRST with those candidates whose resumes match up with the skills/talents you need for this position. The phone interview should be 20-30 minutes and you should use a prepared list of behavioral based interview questions.

Behavioral based interview questions are developed around specific skills (what someone has learned) or behaviors (what comes naturally to someone) that the employer is looking for in filling a particular position. The questions will be open ended and typically involve asking for examples that illustrate the specific skills or behaviors the employer is seeking.

Traditional interview questions are ones where the candidate can give a rehearsed or prepared answer and that don’t necessarily relate to specific skills or behaviors needed for the job. For example:

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” – The answer MAY give you some insight into the career path the person desires but it doesn’t give you any meaningful information about whether or not the person CAN do the job.

Behavioral interview questions can be crafted around any behavior or skill that is critical for success in the position. A good answer should give an example of a specific instance or situation that illustrates when this behavior or skill was demonstrated.

For example, if an employer is looking for someone who can solve customer issues effectively a behavioral based question would be: “Tell me about a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a customer’s problem.”

Good answer: “My client XYZ company didn’t get a shipment ordered on time so I coordinated it with our production department and was able to get them the product before their big sale began…”

Vague answer: “Oh, I do that all the time in my work. I’m always helping clients with problems and they know they can count on me to fix it…”

Every person you phone screen should be asked the same questions so that you can fairly assess the answers and stay in EEOC compliance. Proceed to face-to-face interviews with those candidates who have “passed” your screening interview. These in-person interviews should also be comprised of a set list of behavioral based questions that are the same for each candidate. The candidates should interview with a minimum of two people in the company. Each interviewer should take specific notes on the candidates’ answers. Then ask all interviewers to give you their evaluation of the candidate.

You may also want to use a validated, PREDICTIVE, behavioral assessment for final candidates. Assessments can be a key component in evaluating whether or not the person has the right talents and skills to be successful in that position. Only 14% of people who are hired based only on interview information, are successful hires. A good predictive assessment should boost that number to about 80%.

As you evaluate your candidates be sure to consider all the information you have on the person including background and reference checks before making a final decision. Having a set hiring process will help you hire faster and hire smarter.