Basic Steps of Hiring

There are clear and definable steps in the hiring process, which, if followed, can truly increase your chances of hiring the best candidate.  Hiring is all about "fit" - how well the new hire fits into your existing corporate culture is the real goal of the process.  Like training your staff, hiring can be an expensive, time-consuming process, and you don't want to repeat it unnecessarily.

Selection Criteria
Establishing the desired selection criteria is the first and most important part of the process.  It involves a candid communication between the top managers and the hiring department - everyone in the hiring department.  In fact, in terms of deciding on the new hire selection criteria, departmental hiring may start to look like a complete departmental review.  Interpersonal chemistry, productivity, work and reporting flow and interaction with other departments are all part of the analysis of selection criteria.  And creating a personality profile is as important a step in the process as any other.  You will want the input to come from all sources in order to increase your chances for success.

Candidate Sources
There are any number of resources when it comes to sourcing top candidates.  The top source remains referrals by employees, advisors and other business associates.  These are the people who know your business better than any other outsider, so it stands to reason they can make good recommendations.  Local and regional newspapers are also a good source for candidates.  Finally, the consolidation of the online job sourcing market has concentrated the business in a handful of service providers.  Besides attracting more candidates, these firms have introduced pricing plans specifically targeted at small businesses.  Rather than annual subscriptions in the multiple thousands, employers can access most of the search databases, including regional and local ones, for a few hundreds per month.  They are also a great free search resource to identify recruiting firms in your search area.

Filtering Candidates
Using the key selection criteria as a baseline, create groups of candidates into potential hires, maybe hires and not hires.  If you have an HR staff making the first cut, schedule an immediate review of their potential and maybe hires by the hiring department manager(s).  This will keep the internal lines of communication open and will allow each party to refer back to the agreed selection criteria.  Make notes about the candidate credentials which seem to fit the selection criteria.  Your first impressions - even if they are on the "paper background" only - are usually good ones.  If you want to filter the candidates even further, consider doing telephone interviews to confirm essential requirements such as availability, proximity to place of work and willingness to relocate.  You may also get a sense of the candidate's "phone personality" during the calls.

Interview Process
Bringing the candidates to your place of business should be a carefully orchestrated process.  This is the first time the candidate has been to your office and you will want to put your best foot forward.  Make you respect and make the most of your manager's time AND that of the candidate.

The paper resume review will have given you a sense of the person's credentials - all of which can be confirmed quickly and easily during the interview process.  During the interview, then, you will primarily be looking for "fit" and level of expertise by trying to determine the candidate's familiarity with the responsibilities of the position, as well as industry knowledge.

Interviewers should include an HR manager (if you have one) or another employee whose job is to introduce, coordinate and facilitate the candidate visit as much as it is to analyze the candidate's credentials.  It is important that representatives from each level of the hiring department - those who the candidate will report to and those who will report to the candidate - are involved in the interviewing process.  A good rule of thumb for managerial level interviews is that the candidate is talking 70% or more of the time.  With same-level or subordinates, however, it can be more of an equal conversation in terms of time.

In the post-interview debriefing, get written notes from those who have met with the candidate and then speak with each person.  By all means, encourage a frank and open discussion of the candidate's strengths and weaknesses as seen by each member of your company.  During the debriefing process, try to get each person's sense of how they feel the candidate views both the position and your company.

Making the Offer
Making an offer to the top candidate is as much of a selling role as you will make in selling your product or service.  It is also a two-way conversation, as you will want to hear the candidate's feedback.  If you do not have a recruiting professional working with you, this part of the process can be tricky, so it should be handled by a senior manager or owner who is comfortable with the aspects of negotiation.  This is hopefully the beginning of a long-term relationship and you will want to have both clear expectations and a positive beginning.


Like every aspect of your company's business, hiring is a complex process with steps defined by years of experience or outside expertise.  Bringing in the right employee is worth the time to do the process right.