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The Hiring Process: A Comprehensive Guide

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and developing your business is no different. If you’re a new venture, you’re likely managing all business operations yourself like a corporate swiss army knife. That probably means your whole team is running on fumes. You’ll need some fresh blood in the form of newly hired employees to hold down the fort. To do that and recruit the right candidates, you’ll need to tighten up and refine your hiring process!

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Hiring Process Guide

By the end of this article, you’ll know how to perfect hiring cycles and save precious time and resources. Let’s get right into it!

This Guide Covers:

What Is the Hiring Process?

The hiring process is a vital HR function involving screening and assessing applicants in search of the ideal candidate for a vacant role. The process concludes after sending out your offer letters and officially onboarding new hires.

Hiring vs. Recruiting

Did you recruit or hire your last employee? Often, those terms appear as synonyms. In reality, however, they’re similar but not quite the same.

Both processes share the same goal — finding the best person for a job — but go about achieving that endgame in different ways. Recruiting is about attracting talent, while hiring is about reviewing those applicants. Hiring is the final stage in the recruitment cycle.

You’re recruiting when you take strategic actions like launching job ad campaigns and strengthening your brand to entice candidates. Hiring begins when the applications pour in due to recruiting efforts. From there, you use pre-hire assessment tools to evaluate candidate shortlists to find the ideal person.

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Key Considerations

Before we dive into the steps used in hiring, it’s important to keep three questions in mind:

  • Are you being ethical?
  • Are you communicating frequently?
  • Are you prioritizing your company culture?

Ensuring the answer to the above questions is “yes” at every step optimizes hiring cycles and provides positive candidate experiences.

Compliance

It’s vital to dot your i’s and cross your t’s when hiring employees. Doing things by the books is essential. That’s where compliance comes into play.

First, you’ll need an employer ID number (EIN), a unique nine-digit identification number forever associated with your business. You can obtain one for free by registering with the IRS. An EIN maintains legality regarding:

  • Lawfully hiring new employees.
  • Paying your workforce.
  • Opening a business bank account.
  • Filing employment tax returns.

Compliance also requires staying within internal, national and international anti-discriminatory regulations. Auditing your recruiting policies and interview questions is an excellent way to remove unconscious biases from the process.

Regardless of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion and belief, every candidate deserves fair treatment. In the end, hiring should depend only on a person’s capabilities and competencies.

Consider reading the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines to learn more about federal law concerning equitable hiring.

Communication

Disclosing vital details about the job, company and application process with potential hires eliminates the possibility of misunderstandings. The terms of employment should clearly state job requirements, salary, benefits and policies.

Outline the hiring process to future employees so they feel involved and acknowledged during the hiring cycle. By frequently updating candidates and scheduling dates beforehand, you’ll save both your applicants’ and your own time.

Candidate relationship management tools make it easier to respond promptly and foster connections. Clear communication is also about conveying negative news, so remember to do your due diligence and notify the candidates who didn’t make the cut.

Culture

Every company has a unique personality that keeps employees engaged and happy. Some companies have a nine-to-five culture, while others focus on staying as long as it takes to finish the job.

When hiring, consider how new hires would fit your company’s culture. Know what your company and workforce values, and use those elements to evaluate your potential employees. By marketing your corporate culture, you’ll be able to attract and retain candidates who are likely to integrate into your team seamlessly.

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The Steps

Every company follows different protocols when it comes to hiring someone. But at its most elemental level, the hiring process includes the following key steps:

1. Conduct an Internal Analysis

Assemble a team of HR folks and key decision-makers to identify hiring requirements and where they stem. If it’s a newly formed position, determine the skills, experiences and qualifications required for the job.

When an employee resigns or retires, check succession plans and career pipelines to nominate candidates internally. Determine how you want to bridge skill gaps and train internal hires to take the mantle.

Whether the role is newly created or newly vacated, consider all forms of talent mobility to optimize hiring.

2. Create Job Requisitions and Descriptions

Think of a job requisition as a green light to start the process. Write down the job title, duties, responsibilities and qualifications. Letting your company values and brand voice show in the tone of the job description will help make it eye-catching to job seekers.

Zoho Recruit provides features to attach related documents and add forecasting details to job descriptions. Source

Your goal at this stage should be to highlight two essential details: the capabilities you expect from an ideal candidate and the unique benefits candidates can expect from your company.

3. Source Talent

To hire a new employee, you must spread the word about the job opportunity and the application process. Make a list of candidate sourcing channels, then choose and leverage the channels that yield more applications. Consider the following techniques to find applicants:

  • Job ad campaigns: Create and launch job ads across different job boards to reach active job seekers.
  • Branded career sites: Update your company’s career page to encourage people interested in your brand.
  • Employee referral programs: Encourage your existing workforce to tap into their social and professional circles to refer candidates for a reward or bonus.
  • Social channels: Leverage your company’s professional network and social media to target passive candidates who aren’t actively searching for a job.

4. Screen Applications

The heavy lifting begins once the applications pour in. This step involves responding to applications and qualifying suitable candidates. Just like security checks at an airport, scanning applications is the preliminary round to find candidates with the relevant qualifications.

SmartRecruiters summarizes candidate information into at-a-glance lists. Source

With limited time and resources, sifting through various resumes, cover letters and candidate profiles is an uphill battle. Instead of manually sorting applications, you can use applicant tracking solutions to automatically scan thousands of resumes and approve suitable candidate profiles for the next step.

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5. Evaluate Candidates

Once those applications come in, it’s time to determine if the candidates’ expertise matches what’s on paper. Use standardized testing tools to evaluate different candidates and produce comparable scores objectively.

Remember, different roles prioritize different skill sets. It’s vital to analyze your potential employee based on every aspect, like:

  • Technical skills
  • Cognitive abilities
  • Language skills
  • Personality traits

Consider using pre-hire assessment tools like online tests, skill assessments and questionnaires to eliminate errors and biases from the talent selection process.

6. Interview Applicants

Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows an abundance of open roles and insufficient folks to fill them. Your goal is to be sharp when spotting potential. The interview stage allows you and your candidates to determine if values and attitudes align.

Breezy HR allows hiring managers to develop structured interview guides with key sections. Source

It’s vital to pose questions that elicit thoughtful responses to get to know your candidates. To add structure to the interview process, rely on an interview guide, ask standardized queries and use a rubric to evaluate applicants during interviews.

Taking notes of every individual and the additional questions you ask them during the process is also good practice.

7. Conduct Background Searches

Next, you must confirm your candidates are who they claim to be. Verifying the authenticity of resumes, references, educational qualifications and past employment records helps you avoid hiring individuals who may be detrimental to your workforce and company reputation.

Use background check software to conduct automatic searches and develop detailed reports highlighting the authenticity of documents associated with potential hires.

8. Send Offer Letters

After assessing the skills, potential and accolades of different applicants, you’re confident that you found the right person for the job. It’s time to hand out the golden ticket to your organization — a formal offer letter.

Usually, most hiring teams contact the selected applicant and inform them about the decision to hire. After a verbal call to offer the position, sending a written document digitally or by mail is the next step.

A good offer letter details the description of the job and the terms of employment like:

  • Job title and responsibilities
  • Date of appointment
  • Compensation and benefits
  • Leaves and paid time off

Ensure you clearly state privacy policies and conditions to terminate employment, along with contractual terms with a specified date to respond. Instead of creating offer letters from scratch every time, develop and store offer letter templates for different roles, departments and employment types for quick and easy access.

ICIMS lets hiring managers develop and store offer letter templates for quick use. Source

And of course, always seek legal advice from qualified professionals to make sure your bases are covered.

9. Onboard New Hires

Hiring doesn’t end with a signed offer letter. Once your new hire accepts the terms of employment, you need to introduce them to the company. Onboarding is the process of integrating new hires into your organization during their first few weeks on the job.

Developing employee orientation programs and onboarding checklists allow newly hired employees to socialize with their respective teams and get to know their new position.

The technical aspect of the onboarding period sees the completion of necessary paperwork and documents. The most common forms of onboarding forms are:

  • Form W-4: Ensures that you withhold the correct amount of federal income tax.
  • Form I-9: Verifies an employee’s identity and eligibility to work in the U.S.
  • Employee handbook: Highlights code of conduct and organizational structure.

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Improve the Hiring Process

Once you know the process’s basic steps, personalization is necessary to create an effective hiring strategy. Consider the following tips to optimize your company’s hiring process:

Focus On Employer Branding

It’s essential to let potential hires know what makes your company unique. The way your candidates perceive your brand is a vital piece of that branding. Conveying your company’s vision and mission at every touch point allows candidates to determine if their aspirations align with your values. Building strong employer branding can be challenging but pays off in the long run.

Implement the Right Tech

The good news is that you can rely on technology to screen resumes, schedule interviews, assess competencies and more. Hiring technologies come in all shapes and sizes, and evaluating your options can be confusing.

Instead of simply installing the best software in the market, select the best system for your company. Start conversations with your hiring team to uncover the challenges they face. Evaluate your existing hiring policies and workflows to find weak links and key areas for improvement.

Our recruitment software features checklist will help you learn about a comprehensive system’s key functions. Next, align your unique requirements with alternatives and compare vendors for a guided software selection process.

Enhance the Candidate Experience

A recent study by Jobvite showed that 56% of candidates with a positive experience applying for a job share that experience with their professional and social networks. With social media thrown into the mix, news travels fast. How well you treat your employees and potential hires during the hiring process directly affects your company’s reputation.

Instead of being wary of opinionated candidates, focus on providing a well-rounded application process to earn more positive reviews.

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Conclusion

Gone are the days when all it took to hire someone was placing an ad in the newspaper and waiting for potential hires to walk through the office door. Today, hiring is more strategic than ever, and accurately handling the complexities of talent selection is a top priority. A step-by-step framework ensures reviewing candidates, vetting references and integrating new employees into the team goes as smoothly as possible.

Do you think any other steps could be added to the hiring process? Let us know in the comments!

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