When you have a growing business, you need to be ready to hire new employees to meet your changing needs. You can reduce the stress throughout the hiring practice by having a clear strategy in place before you need a new employee. Below are some of the best practices when it’s time for your business to start hiring.
If you’re a small business owner who feels like the hiring process may be difficult, you don’t have to go through it alone. A professional employer organization (PEO) may be able to help you throughout the hiring process. To learn more about PEOs and to see how the PEO brokers at NetPEO can help, call (678) 376-1212.
Set Clear Job Expectations
When you recognize that you need to hire a new employee, you probably have a rough idea where you need help. However, any prospective employee is going to want to know what sorts of work they will be doing if they accept a position with your company. You’ll want to make sure that you’re able to write a job posting with clear guidelines for what responsibilities the employee will have and any other expectations you have for the role.
If you’re working with a PEO, you can turn to them to help draft a job posting. The HR professionals at your PEO may be able to offer advice on crafting a list of responsibilities and expectations for a prospective employee. They can also make sure that your job posting won’t suggest any violations of labor laws.
Getting the Word Out Properly
A well-crafted job description won’t do you much good if it doesn’t get in front of quality candidates. You can submit your job opening to local job fairs or look at your state labor website for other local options. You can turn to a job search site like Indeed or Monster or use a professional networking site like LinkedIn for your job opening. For more specialized positions, you may want to turn to industry-specific job sites for other options.
Your PEO partner can help you devise a specific strategy for posting your job opening. They will be able to help you determine which methods are likely to net you the best candidates for your business needs.
Have an Interview Process that Pushes Through Good Candidates
When you begin receiving applications, you’ll have to narrow down which candidates will work out best for your business. Depending on the structure of your company, you may want an interview process with two or more steps. The additional steps allow you to look for the two key components of a quality candidate:
- Skill competency
- Culture fit
A two-step interview process allows you to put emphasis on each of these components in an interview. An initial screening may focus ensuring that the candidate has the right skills for the job, while the second interview may be narrowing down people who will fit in with the culture of your company.
For smaller businesses, it might not seem practical to have a two-step process. However, with a PEO, you can have your partner take responsibility for conducting initial screenings. This can allow you more time to focus on your business and interview candidates that have the right skillset for your open position.
Look Within
If you already have some employees, you can turn to them for help in finding the right candidate for a position. Offer your employees incentives or bonuses for referrals that ultimately get hired and stay with your company for three or more months. You can also look to promoting employees to new roles, assuming your employees have the skills to fill the position properly.
If the position you’re looking to fill doesn’t have a good technical fit for any of your current employees, an employee training program may be help. You can work with a PEO to develop training materials or arrange for certifications for your employees. Employee development can be a key benefit that to help retain employees.
A PEO Can Help Institute Hiring Best Practices
If you think your business would benefit from having the HR professionals at a PEO assisting with improving your hiring practices, call NetPEO at (678) 376-1212. Our PEO brokers will listen to your recruiting needs and help you connect with a PEO that has the experience your company needs.
