Help! My company is growing, and I need more people to help us grow. But finding the right workers can be a challenge. Since much of a small company’s success depends on the quality of the people they hire, this is a critically important task.
Of course, you first must make the commitment to hire. If you’re growing rapidly and money is flowing in fast, that decision is easy. More typically, you must determine whether you’ll make more money with additional help than it will cost. Sometimes, of course, you cannot afford to do without extra help — your current employees are stretched so thin you’ll begin to lose them.
You can try to meet your needs with part-time workers or outsourced contractors rather than adding a full-time employee. But whether you’re looking for a full-time employee, a part-time worker, or an outside consultant, you still must find, recruit, and interview prospects to land the right person for the job.
Over the years I’ve developed ways to increase the chance of success when hiring:
Draw up a clear job description. It’s impossible to recruit the right person if you don’t know what job you want them to do. Before you begin your prospect-hunting process, write down all the tasks you need done. Think about the attributes, skills and experience needed. Be realistic. It’s not likely that you’ll find a terrific salesperson, techie, and bookkeeper in one person.
Give yourself time. When possible, start the candidate-hunting process as early as possible. The more time you have, the less you’ll feel pressured to hire an unqualified candidate just to fill a position. It’s better to leave a job open than to hire the wrong person.
Make your “help wanted” ad appealing. Include language that shows how the job is particularly interesting or different. Your job may seem mundane but even labeling it “Assistant to Marketing VP” makes it distinct from the 30 other administrative assistant listings. I recently saw a help wanted ad for a company listing with the job responsibility “to make us old guys look cooler.” That will get responses.
Cast a wide net. List your job in many locations, including newspaper classifieds and a number of online job boards. But also be sure to send your job description to your personal and professional network of acquaintances. Many of the best prospects come from people you know.
During interviews, don’t do all the talking. It’s appropriate to explain the job, and in many cases, to try and ‘sell’ the job to the candidate, but most of the time the candidate should be talking. Have a few questions prepared in advance; it’s not fair to just say, “Tell me about yourself.” Ask what about the job appealed to them, what skills they’re particularly good at, what about their last job they didn’t like.
Ask questions that give you a sense of the applicant as a person, but be careful not to ask questions that are illegal. You can’t, for instance, ask whether a candidate is planning on having a child. But it’s perfectly legal to ask about hobbies, interests, where they grew up, what their long-term goals are. Diverse interests usually mean a candidate brings more life experiences to a job.
Don’t discriminate. It’s not only illegal; you’ll eliminate some terrific employees.
Check references. Even if you have no reason to doubt the honesty of an applicant, you can learn a lot by checking references. Use the reference check as a way to learn how to work more effectively with your new employee. Some of the questions I’ve asked include, “What kind of training would you suggest to make the applicant an even better employee?” “What job duties required you giving more direction than others?” “What duties did the candidate particularly enjoy or do well?”
Most importantly, hire for attitude, not just for skills. It’s tempting to choose a candidate who’s done the same work before, even if they’re not the brightest or most eager applicant. Resist that temptation. Choose the person who can grow, learn, and contribute to your company’s health and growth.
Rhonda Abrams is the author of “Six-Week Start-Up” and “What Business Should I Start?”
