Tips for Being Successful at Hiring

The vast majority of companies need people to run their business, so unless you're a solopreneur, odds are you’re going to need to hire at some point, and few things are as impactful to a business than the people on that team. But hiring isn’t just about finding someone to complete tasks. You’re adding a person into the mix who has unique experiences, ideas, and attributes, and each new team member will impact your company’s internal dynamics. If you hire the wrong person, you risk killing morale and reducing productivity - the exact opposite of what you’re hoping to accomplish. That’s why it’s so important to plan ahead. A well thought-out hiring strategy goes a long way towards avoiding the risks and costs of hiring someone that isn’t right for the job or your company.

So let’s design a plan that will help you grow your team with confidence. From telling your company’s story, to writing a great performance-based job description, to interviewing and onboarding — here are six tips to get you started.

1. Create a hiring plan –The need to hire can arise for many reasons: to fill a current vacancy, increase capacity, or create entirely new positions to address current and future needs. Regardless of your reason for hiring, you should have a plan for when to hire, how to hire, what skills, traits, and experience will be required, as well as your budget for each position (keeping in mind the market rate for the role). Ideally, all new hires should contribute toward better outcomes and maintain a healthy team dynamic. Getting input from existing team members will go a long way towards achieving that goal. Chances are that your current employees will have great insights that will help you clarify the job description, and ultimately, make a better hiring plan.

2. Tell your company’s story - Hiring is about building relationships. It’s just as important for job seekers to learn about your company (not just the role) as it is for you to learn about them. This is especially true now that most people are seeking work at companies with a clear mission and a healthy culture. Share your company values with candidates and what they stand for. Highlight what makes your company a great place to work. Communicate the benefits you offer, your company’s workstyle and environment (on site? remote? hybrid? how do you define remote or hybrid?), and what’s unique about your company. These details will help inform job seekers and get them excited about the prospect of joining your team.

3. Write a great performance-based job description - All too often, an outdated job description will be dusted off and reposted. This rarely reflects the evolving needs of a company. Rather than take this approach, meet with the team this position would work closely with. Ask for input on the skills, attributes, and abilities needed and clarify the responsibilities this position would hold. Capture the outcomes you want the ideal candidate to achieve and define what success in this position will look like in 6, 12, and 18 months from now. Ask your team about what’s really “required” for success in this role. When it comes to writing a great job description, it’s best to keep things brief. Though it might be counterintuitive, a long job description attracts fewer applicants. Be sure to include important details like pay range, start date, and expectations. Sharing these details up front will help to ensure you get serious applicants only. Let the team that will be working with this new position review and provide feedback on the role description before sharing it.

4. Have a clear applicant screening process - It can be hard to know how to tackle an inbox full of resumes, cover letters, and applications. Gather all candidate information in one place, and before diving into reviewing and sorting applicants, create a scorecard that will help to ensure consistent evaluation. Identify what you’re looking for during this first round of screening, and capture each of the qualities or attributes on your scorecard. For example, ask questions like “does this person’s experience demonstrate adaptability?” and give them a score from 1-5. As you review each applicant, asking the same questions each time, it becomes much easier and far more equitable to make comparisons and determine who to advance forward to an interview. This also helps you identify who is not a great fit. While this might sound like extra work, a little preparation here will make this process much more efficient, and you’ll feel more confident about the results in the end.

5. Conduct structured interviews - Just as with the applicant screening process, it’s important to conduct structured interviews in which candidates are asked the same questions in the same order. While it’s very tempting to have an organic conversation with applicants, this will quickly get you in trouble and you’ll be left comparing “apples to oranges” when you review your notes. An even riskier strategy is to determine who to hire based on your ‘gut instinct’. This is a deeply biased approach that can result in homogenous teams - people who act, look, and think similarly, or have similar backgrounds. By contrast, taking a structured approach standardizes the process. This is especially useful if you are relying on your team to help you conduct interviews. After each interview, you’ll be able to compare answers to the same questions from one candidate to the next. This will not only make your life easier, but it will also be a more equitable and fair process.

6. Don’t ignore the onboarding process - A weak or nonexistent onboarding process can have disastrous impacts. It will cause new hires to be less engaged and less confident among other employees, to perform poorly due to lack of clarity, and fail to establish strong connections and trust in their colleagues and the organization. Without strong onboarding, a rocky and confusing start in a new organization can cause even to leave the company shortly after starting. This isn’t just about being kind to your newest team members - it’s good business because all of these negative outcomes can prove to be very costly! So, create a plan for onboarding new employees that includes an introduction to your company. Create a reference list of all the equipment, resources and access they will need to do their job. Make time for training, and show them around your company (this is important regardless of whether you’re co-located or working remotely). Encourage new hires to ask questions and give them time to familiarize themselves with norms and expectations. Lastly, but perhaps most important of all, make time and design opportunities to build relationships with their new coworkers. You can even schedule 1:1 meetings with key people on your team, or send a welcome email to your current employees encouraging them to welcome their newest colleague.

Things to remember about the fraught experience of looking for a job…

If it’s been a while since you’ve had to look for and apply to a new job, it’s easy to forget the stress, headache, and frequent frustration or disappointment people experience. It’s not uncommon for people to apply to hundreds of jobs, often without hearing anything in response. It can be a very disheartening and depressing experience. Keep in mind that people feel pressure to apply as quickly as possible when they discover a new position that interests them. They know their odds of getting an interview are higher the sooner they get in the queue. Also, it’s highly likely that they’re applying to multiple positions, often while continuing to work their current job. While details are always important and professionalism and polish matter, we encourage you to forgive the occasional typo or brief answer if a candidate otherwise seems deserving of an interview. While you can’t ask applicants to do work, you can ask for a sample of their work or how they would handle a specific situation. If you do request work samples, communicate proactively and give the candidate time to prepare. It’s completely reasonable for you and your team to need to get a sense of someone’s workstyle and abilities. We encourage you to keep these things in mind as you review individuals’ resumes, cover letters, and responses to application questions.

Don’t fall into the trap of looking only at applicants who meet 100% of the qualifications. By restricting the candidate pool to those who meet every single qualification, you significantly reduce the number of potential applicants. This can cause you to overlook talented individuals who may possess the essential skills and can quickly learn the rest. Also, candidates who meet all qualifications might be overqualified and could become bored or unchallenged, leading to lower job satisfaction and higher turnover rates. If you only look at applicants who meet every requirement, you may unconsciously be hampering your diversity and inclusion efforts: studies have shown that underrepresented groups, such as women and minorities, are less likely to apply for positions unless they meet all the listed qualifications. Alternatively, hiring someone with room for growth who meets most of the qualifications (~75%) but is eager to learn and grow can bring fresh perspectives and energy to the team. In today’s world where technology is changing at an unprecedented rate, means that the tools we use and the job requirements can evolve over time. A candidate who shows the ability to adapt, learn, and grow might be more valuable in the long term than someone who fits the current requirements perfectly but lacks flexibility. Last, remember that qualifications on paper do not always capture a candidate's interpersonal skills or how they fit and add to company culture. These factors are often crucial for long-term success and team cohesion.

Creating a great experience

Not every company has the time or resources to create a great hiring experience, but it’s still imperative to do your best when you’re growing your team. Remember, people talk and sometimes post about their hiring experiences online (usually the bad ones!). Having a poor hiring process can negatively impact your brand and ability to recruit great candidates in the future. So, while it will take some of your valuable time, it’s worthwhile to make sure all job applicants feel acknowledged. Nobody likes getting “ghosted”. Even if you do not plan to interview them, send your applicants a message (this can be a mass email to all applicants who are not moving forward - and sometimes these features are built into hiring software like with Handprint.io!). This is not only kind and respectful, but also a critical step for maintaining your company’s reputation.

If you’re worried about the process, or if you’re just too busy, remember there’s help out there. Handprint has partnered with a wonderful recruiting team and we’ll work with you to design a solution that fits your company’s unique needs and budget so you can get back to the work you’re responsible for and focus on what you do best.