Hiring Employees – Keeping the Fish on the Hook

Business is good, it’s time to hire new employees to handle the growth. Of course, we all know by now that the labor market is tight, and that it’s going to take extra expense and effort to find quality employees, but there is a factor that needs to be considered AFTER you find the right candidate, you’ve got to make sure you close the deal and get them on board.

Let’s look at some ways we can be sure we don’t lose that “fish on the hook” and be more effective at hiring the talent you worked so hard to find.

Ghosts are Real

One of the biggest challenges small businesses have, is attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent. Employees are ghosting employers, not showing up to interviews, not showing up the first day, and even accepting offers from other employers soon after their start date.

You may be the greatest company on the planet, with the best benefit or pay package. You may have had no trouble in the past hiring and retaining talent. Problem is those positives don’t seem to have the same effect today. You actually need to SELL your company to potential candidates. The employee’s own the market today.

Be Decisive

The most effective way to combat these trends, is to be decisive. Assuming your position description, pay rate and hiring process is proper and effective, once you have the right talent, you need to act quickly. Your competition is working as hard as you or harder to find talent. Considering there are very few qualified employees actively looking for work, you have a limited resource with high demand.

Here are some tips to inject into your process:

1. Be sure you have multiple ways to contact your candidates – use texting if necessary
2. Use video conferencing if scheduling the first interview is a challenge
3. Reduce or combine interviews if multiple parties in your business are part of the hiring process
4. Be extremely transparent about the position, the company, the pay, and the expected first day
5. Don’t start hiring unless you’re ready to start someone within 2 weeks
6. Ask the employee if they are actively looking at other positions elsewhere
7. Make quick decisions on candidates that closely match your objectives
8. Don’t be picky, if the candidate is qualified, focus on their ability to learn and grow quickly
9. Establish a solid onboarding process that ramps the employee up quickly and according to a set process

These are just some ideas that can help, you’ll need to adjust your process as necessary. One thing that is for sure, we’re in a different world today, you’ll need to get creative in your hiring process and accept the fact that you’re just going to have to work harder to attract, hire and retain the best people for your business.

The staffing division at Infinium Group is an expert in the hiring process and we still have challenges. But if you need assistance, please let us know, we can review your process and help you close any gaps and improve your chances of finding and landing the best talent for your business.