Hiring new staff should be a bright spot in any business. Needing extra manpower is a sign that your business is growing, and you get the opportunity to build connections with someone new who has the skills to grow your company.
However, for many businesses, the staffing process is more of a hassle than a joy. The hiring process takes up time and resources. If after the entire process, a business finds out that their new staff member is not the right fit, they have to start the process all over again.
Here are steps you can take to make staffing a hassle-free process.
One of the factors that makes staffing a problem for many companies is that they are unclear about what they want. This means that once a person is hired, they don’t actually solve the problems the company was hoping to solve. Unclear requirements also make it harder to find the right person because the job description or requirements may have you casting a net in the wrong pool.
Before you begin the staffing process, sit down with your team and sketch out what the role will be like. Decide what problems your new hire should solve, what they will assist with, and where they will fit in with your existing team. That way, the onboarding process will be easier.
Once you have a clearer idea of the role you are actually hiring for, you can put together a job description and requirements that match what you are looking for. HR professionals or writers can help you craft a posting that stands out.
Instead of managing the entire staffing process on your own, you can outsource it to a professional recruiting or staffing agency. That way, you won’t bog down your entire business in the hiring process.
Besides saving you resources, working with a reliable recruiting agency often yields better results. Agencies specializing in Adelaide labor hire vet their candidates thoroughly. Most companies that do this work pride themselves on only having CVs from the best laborers on file.
Working with a vetted hire from a reliable labor hire company improves the chances that you and your new staff member will be a good fit.
Before hiring anyone, think about more flexible staffing solutions that may help your business. If you only need short-term assistance with a big project or don’t have the budget for another full-time employee, hiring someone may not be the right option.
There are other solutions to staffing problems besides the traditional hiring process. Weigh the pros and cons of hiring contract workers, working with freelancers, or outsourcing to remote workers before signing an employment contract with someone.
If you want to hire the best candidates, remember that they are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them. Competitive candidates will be interviewing at many different businesses and you have to present yourself in the best light to retain them.
You want to make sure that your business is well-known in your field so candidates know about your work before you begin interviewing them. Optimizing your directory entries or a cutting-edge digital marketing campaign can help you improve your reach ahead of a major hiring campaign.
If you’re hiring for an executive position or one that holds a lot of responsibility, such as an engineering role, you don’t want to trust this position to people you don’t know. Instead of the traditional hiring process, think about working with a recruiter.
A recruiter takes a proactive approach to the hiring process by reaching out to potential candidates instead of waiting for them to respond to a posting. Even if you don’t work with a paid recruiter, you can take a similar approach yourself by identifying potential top candidates and reaching out to them through professional networking apps.
Once you have a list of likely candidates, the next step is the interview. The traditional interview process doesn’t always serve candidates or the businesses hiring them. A formal sit-down interview with scripted on-the-spot questions may not actually give you an idea about how well the candidate will fit in at your company.
Think about alternatives to a typical interview process, such as adding a writing sample, emphasizing a technical interview more than a traditional interview, or inviting the candidate to shadow your office for a day. Look at how other companies have redesigned the interview process to serve them.
Staffing doesn’t end after you sign a labor contract with someone. You still have to incorporate the new hire into your team.
Make sure that you have an onboarding process that will allow the new staff member to gradually adapt to their position and your team. Companies that don’t bother with onboarding have higher turnover rates, so this can help you avoid another staffing process right after you finish this one.
Once you get through your current hiring process, you can reduce the hassle for future staffing issues by making long-term plans. Evaluate your current recruitment process, make a note of what worked and what didn’t, and share that with the team that will be hiring in the future.
If you anticipate staffing needs ahead of time, you can prepare better and reduce your stress. If you know your business gets busier during a certain season, or you’re planning on growth soon, know you’ll have to staff people.
A lot of the stress out of the staffing process is removed if you plan ahead. Taking time to outline the role that you need and put together a good job description, as well as planning ahead for future staffing needs, can help you navigate this process.
Working with a labour recruiter to hire and vet candidates can free up your time and make the staffing process minimally disruptive.