Improve Your Company’s Hiring Process With 14 Informative Hiring Tips

Hiring is on fire! 10.7 million jobs are open to new employees in the United States.

But many of these jobs won’t be filled. Many HR people fail to understand what the hiring process should be like, so they don’t get applicants for their positions. Before you open the door to applicants, you need to know about hiring tips.

How should you promote your open positions? How can you determine if applicants are right for your needs? What resources can you use to make hiring decisions?

Answer these questions and you can hire America’s best workers in no time. Here are 14 essential hiring tips.

1. Start With Internal Hiring

You don’t have to hire new employees for your position. You can turn inward and promote valuable employees. Providing promotions allows employees to see that you care about them and want to advance their careers.

Ask department heads for employees they think would make a good fit for your position. You can also ask employees directly if they are interested in your job.

2. Write Precise Job Descriptions

A job description may be the first time an applicant learns about your organization. The description should give them clear details about the responsibilities, perks, and qualifications of your position.

It should also let them know more about your company. You should talk about your company’s values and what your mission is.

Write the first draft of your description, then read it to someone else. The person should understand everything they need to know about the potential position. If they seem confused, you need to rewrite the description so it’s more straightforward.

3. Advertise for Your Position Aggressively

Your company should have a careers page dedicated to providing information about job opportunities. You must post about the position on that page and include links so applicants can upload their resumes and cover letters.

But don’t just post on there. You should post on LinkedIn, Indeed, and other job websites. Your postings can be identical to each other, though you may need to make tweaks based on the format of the website.

Keep your postings up until you have a large group of applicants. As soon as you are done accepting resumes, take your postings down.

4. Read Cover Letters Carefully

You should require cover letters for all applications. Though reading a lot of cover letters can be boring, the letters let you know more about the applicants and their qualifications.

You can use software to skim through cover letters, but this can cause you to miss important details. Try to read as many of the letters as you can by yourself and take notes on what you like and don’t like.

Don’t continue someone in the hiring process just because they have a lot of experience. Their experience should be relevant to your position, and they should have significant accomplishments. Look for numbers, like how many jobs they’ve created or how much money they’ve saved.

5. Examine Resumes

Once you’ve read the letters you like, you can read the resumes attached to them. The language in the resumes should be just as clear as the language in the letters. You should know when and how your applicants have achieved their accomplishments and if there are any gaps in their experience.

Compare an applicant’s resume to their cover letter. If the documents contradict each other, you should not continue the applicant in the business hiring process.

6. Conduct Phone Screenings

Phone screening interviews are brief interviews that let you learn a little more about your candidates. They don’t have to be longer than 30 minutes. You can ask the same questions in each interview, though you can ad-lib questions based on your applicant’s responses.

In general, you want to ask a few questions that let you get to know the applicant. You can then ask specific questions about their experience, skills, and interest in your company. Take notes while the applicant is speaking and write exact quotes that stand out to you.

7. Answer Questions From Applicants

Your interviews should always end with you asking your applicants about any questions they have. This lets you see if your applicant has done research on your company and seems invested in the position.

But this also lets your applicant determine if your company and position are a good fit for them. Be willing to answer difficult questions and talk about your own experience with the company.

8. Run Short Assessments

After your phone screenings, you can ask the applicants to prepare a few assessments. For a writing or marketing job, you can ask them to submit writing or editing samples. If you’re hiring for a sales job, you can ask them to pitch you a product that your company sells.

It’s very important that you run assessments for remote employees. It’s hard to track the performance of remote employees, and assessments will let you gauge what their skills are like.

9. Follow Up With the Leading Candidates

After the assessments, you can do a final round of interviews with the employees on your shortlist. Try to conduct in-person interviews if you can. If they’re not available or if they are sick, you can try interviews over video conferencing software.

These interviews should be in-depth. You should ask tough questions about their qualifications and get precise answers about their experience. Feel free to ask questions alongside other employees.

10. Check References

During your final interviews, you should ask your applicants for reference lists. You should ask for a minimum of three references, though you can get five or more for senior-level positions.

You can call or email the references. You may not get through to them, or they may not be willing to talk to you because they are busy. Do not turn down an applicant because of this.

As with your applicant interviews, you should ask a series of questions and take notes on what the references say. Assess the applicant’s strengths and weaknesses.

11. Run Background Checks

Background checks let you learn about an applicant’s criminal history, education, and places of residence. You must run background checks for anyone who will work with children, elderly people, or people with disabilities.

Do not reject someone just because they have a criminal record. Understand what their charges were and whether they have reformed themselves over time.

12. Wait to Make Hiring Decisions

You may click with an applicant during an interview, or you may admire something they have written. Do not hire the applicant until you have done a full hiring process. You may not have all the information you need to make a great hiring decision.

Be holistic as you are preparing to make a decision. Think about whether they are a fit for your company culture. Evaluate what they are capable of doing over the next 10 years and whether they would be good for a leadership position.

Once you’ve made a decision, contact your applicant. Your applicant may reject the offer, so have a few back-ups in mind. You should also make phone calls to the other applicants on your shortlist to let them know about your decision.

13. Start Onboarding as Soon as Possible

The person you hire may need a little time to relocate or prepare for their new job. Give them the time they need, but start on the onboarding process behind closed doors. Prepare documents for the hired person, including a company ID and tax forms.

When your new hire is ready, bring them to the office and start their training. Talk to them at the end of each day and answer their questions so they don’t feel rushed.

14. Get Feedback on the Hiring Process

Your hiring process should change over time. You should talk to the people you hire and ask them questions about what you can do to change your process. You may need to ask more open-ended questions, or you may need to read cover letters quickly.

You can buy new technology to help you with the process. Visit websites like https://WorkBright.com/ to see what your options for technology are.

Make the Most of Hiring Tips

Hiring tips can help you improve your company in no time. If you can’t promote employees to your open positions, you should write job descriptions and make postings online.

Be diligent with your process. Read letters, then look at resumes, then conduct phone interviews. Run assessments so you understand your applicant’s skills.

Conduct reference and background checks to see if your applicant is lying about themselves. After you’ve looked at all pieces of evidence, you can make a hiring decision.

Don’t let your hiring process grow stagnant. Read the internet’s best hiring guides by following our coverage.