How to Hire an Employee in 5 Steps

Shed the Dread

How to Hire an EmployeeSo it’s your turn to show everyone how to hire an employee. Whether your company is established and you just haven’t done any hiring before, or you are all new to the scene, hiring your first employee can be intimidating unless you get some structure around how to hire an employee. Follow 5 basic steps and you will be prepared.

Move Ahead

For the most part, people tend to be reactionary; at times that can include the most proactive people. Sadly, that is the pattern with interviewing and hiring. Most managers, for whatever reason, wait until they actually need someone before thinking about how to hire an employee. By then, companies start operating in crisis mode and that is the primary reason for reactionary behavior and that is not how to hire an employee. You can get ahead of the game when it is clear to you what you need to do before seeking out the next (or first) employee.

5 Simple Steps to Your First Successful Hiring

Step 1: Examine Why You Are Looking for Someone

  • Examine the company’s real need for a new or replaced position.
  • If replacing, what worked and what didn’t work before?
  • Be creative in evaluating whether or not the work can still be accomplished without new staff. For example, consider process improvements and outsourcing.
  • What about dividing work differently, redistributing duties to other staff?
  • If you still must hire, then determine just what you are looking for and why.

Step 2: Determine What Are You Looking For in a Candidate

  • Holding a recruitment planning meeting is a great idea. Most people don’t think of that because they believe they are expected to do it alone.
  • Ask your HR leader or HR outsourcing company representative to attend.
  • You may ask a fellow hiring manager, a coworker or even an internal customer to participate.
  • As a group, draw consensus about key requirements the vacancy demands and the qualifications or training needed. Examine what salary range should be expected.
  • Put it in writing. Write up all decisions for your continuing reference.

Step 3: Searching and Recruiting

  • Look inside the company. You may have just the right person and they may be in a job that would be a lot easier to fill and train.
  • When you are ready to expand your search, start locally. The members of the recruitment planning meeting can even help you compose the posting or advertisement for the position and might also help screen résumés.
  • If needed, broaden your search using recruiting firms and websites. For several reasons, it is better to start locally unless you have a specific reason not to.

Step 4: Prepare for the Interview

For a new hiring manager, getting ready is probably the toughest part. Many hiring managers have little idea what to ask and how to conduct the interview. Most interviewers don’t know realize that they could have previously prepared. Organizing beforehand lets the manager control a better oriented interview that achieves the needed results.

Step 5: Conduct the Interview

One popular method for interviewing is called the Performance-Based Interview. There are many published examples of questions and the attributes those questions hope to expose. Usually, questions take the form of: “Tell me about a time when you . . .” or “If you ever had a time when you . . . , how did you handle it?”

The advantage to this style of interviewing gives you a chance to hear candidates talk instead of you doing most of the talking. Here’s what you will get out of it:

  • How quickly the candidate can think on his or her feet.
  • How much thought the candidate put into the interview.
  • How articulate a candidate is at encapsulating experiences and showcasing them.
  • How they view their last experiences.
  • What kind of judgment the candidate exercises in difficult situations.
  • Uncovers personality traits that either moves the candidate up or down list of choices.

One additional thought: using the résumé as an interviewing crutch will tell you all about where the candidate has been. However, what you really want to know is what the candidate has learned and how they have used that experience. There are many ways to interview but the chief feature of the best methods gets the candidate talking and the hiring manager listening.

One More Method That’s Even Easier

There is one additional, simple way to learn how to hire an employee and have the interview go the way it should: let CBR do it for you. CBR has a staff of human resource professionals with years of experience managing human resources and conducting interviews. CBR would be happy to step in for you and handle the interviewing process. CBR can also assist you in the searching and recruiting aspects and take that off your shoulders, as well. CBR does so much more than just payroll and benefits. Give us a call. Our toll-free number, (888) 700-8512 and let CBR show you how to save money and reduce headaches.

Also see the article: “How Do I Fire an Employee without Creating a Crisis?”