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7 Steps to Building a Great Hiring Process

As top executives in a company, we understand that it takes top people to make things happen. The right person can make a project exceptional. To get exceptional people, it is imperative to have an exceptional recruitment process. There are several ways to ensure that a hiring process brings in top talent. Continue reading to find out how to improve the recruitment process for employees.

 

First, What is a Hiring Process?

A hiring process is a step-by-step process for hiring new employees to your organization. The hiring process can be summarized as identifying your company’s needs, how/where you are going to find talent, and hiring the applicant.

How to Improve your Hiring Process

Step 1: Understand Your Company’s Needs

It is important to identify what your company needs to ease the hiring process. Determine the level of experience the applicant needs to have, age, and education level. For example, if the job is technology-heavy, consider recruiting an applicant who is naturally tech-savvy or qualified for the technical aspect of the position. Whatever the role you are hiring for, always take the time to brainstorm on what key factors you are looking for in order to make the best hiring decision.

Step 2: Craft a Detailed Job Description

The next step in the hiring process is to write a detailed and engaging job description. The right candidate will be motivated by engaging work and strong direction. I always want my employees to be excited to come to work every day. There is no better motivator than simply loving your job. Also, be sure to know and understand the role for which you are hiring, or consult someone who does. You want to put as much detail as possible in the job posting and title to get the right individuals to apply.

Recruiters will use details in the description as ammunition to collect resumes from the right individuals. Also, it never hurts to come across as friendly and human in the job description. This will help draw in the candidate that truly enjoys working. Finally, be sure the job description is clear. Clarity is a key to success.

Step 3: Define Success for the Position

When filling the role, define what success will mean for that particular job description. No candidate will be perfect, but I always make sure to clearly define my major expectations for the position. Perhaps success means driving a particular amount of sales. Other measures of success might include a specific number of deliverables to be completed within a particular period of time. Whatever success means for that particular position, I always ensure this is properly communicated to my recruiter, hiring manager, human resources, and the individual candidate.

Step 4: Creating an Effective Talent Pipeline

An effective talent pool comes from building a talent pipeline. This might mean reaching out to a local college to hire graduating students. Or, it might mean teaming up with a training website such as cybrary.it to find talented professionals studying in their spare time. A company career page or job board might be a good start as a recruitment strategy, but it is even better to promote word of mouth through employee referral programs. I like to make sure the company career page reads like an advertisement. It is a great opportunity to convince the right talent that they want to work for my company. Some fun things to include might be photos or videos and fun employee facts. Also, make sure that your career page is mobile optimized and that it is easy to apply so prospective talent is not frustrated by the hiring process. Job boards such as indeed are an important part of recruiting technology and are a good way to drive traffic to the site and increase visibility to prospective candidates. I don’t always assume more is better. Picking the right site will reduce the extra noise and provide quality job seekers rather than quantity.

Step 5: Determine Your Interview Crew

To improve the interview process, choose the right crew to help you interview job applicants. If the applications are many, you can use a phone interview to sieve through the applicants before setting a physical meeting. You can enlist the help of a hiring manager to determine the applicants that meet the specified criteria and do not have glaring issues.

Use an associate who is technically adept at gauging the technical skills of the applicants. Adding additional personnel to your hiring team widens the interview scope enabling you to measure the interviewee from many angles.

Step 6: Streamline the Interview Process

Onsite interviews should be heavily structured to make them as efficient as possible. I always establish what I am looking for in a candidate before the interviews begin and review this criteria with all staff involved with hiring. I want to be sure to reduce any unconscious bias on the part of the interviewer. Don’t just address the technical skillset. Make sure to identify if a candidate will fit in with the culture, is able to communicate effectively, and is proactive in addition to meeting any technical skill sets. Be sure to standardize questions among applicants to enforce objective comparison. Be cautious, however, to make sure the conversation still flows naturally. When deciding on personnel, only one person should be responsible for the final say on a candidate however, get feedback from all involved. Be sure to gather thorough reference checks on all candidates.

An applicant tracking system is an important part of the human resources process that may also help to create a repeatable process that is scalable among large applicant pools. It can send interview dates and times direct to the interviewer’s calendar and provide guidance on what they should look for in the candidate. Questions can also be provided directly to the interviewer from the application.

Step 7: Move Quickly on Job Offers

Be sure to move fast on offers to applicants so that other companies cannot jump in with a competing offer. A fast-paced offer makes it clear that you are excited to have them join the company. Deliver the offer slowly and gauge the reaction of the applicant on each portion. It is sometimes helpful to use questions to uncover any reservations the applicant might have at the time of the offer.

A paramount part of the hiring process is the speed of hire. It is important to monitor the overall time to hire. This includes the time an applicant is first engaged until the final offer. To increase the hiring speed, you can use recruitment technology.

Also, be sure to take the time to improve your overall human resources process by taking advantage of both recruiting technologies as well as process improvements such as the ones listed in this article. These steps will make all the difference in hiring the right applicant and will ultimately lead to success in business.


Sprockets offers a predictive hiring solution designed to help human resource professionals and small businesses make their best hires. Learn more about how Sprockets can aid in matching the best hires to your company’s needs and cultures.

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