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Every Tool You Need For Hiring

Is it time to hire additional staff? This guide brings together all the tools you need to manage the process from new position planning to employee orientation.

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Have you been considering hiring some new employees? Has it been awhile since you added staff? If so, then let us offer you a refresher course on how to manage the process. The following guide brings together tools you can use to manage the process including deciding what positions to hire, structuring job interviews, and effectively onboarding new employees.

Tools You Need For Hiring: Job Posting and Pre-Screening

Your time is extremely valuable, so when deciding to hire additional staff you want the process to be as quick, efficient, and effective as possible.  Start by determining what positions you need to fill. The Position Request Form will walk you through the parameters you should take into account when hiring a new employee. Its purpose is to help you define the need for a new employee and what alternatives might exist for your company.  You may not need to make a new hire, for example, but to reorganize responsibilities among your current staff.  This document helps you to avoid wasting time and money on a hire you may not need.

If you have determined that you do need to increase your staff, it's time to write the job description.  You can use this generic Job Description Template that can be customized to your needs or use one of the many job descriptions available on Inc.com.

Once the job has been posted on your website and on job sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and SimplyHired you will get resumes from interested candidates.  Be sure to immediately sort resumes as you get them in piles that include interested, not interested, and save for future position folders.

One way to save time on your search is to send a Pre-Interview Questionnaire to the candidates whose resumes immediately grab your attention.  Based on a resume and the answers to the questionnaire, you can determine whether an applicant should be contacted for an in-person interview. 

As a courtesy to those that submitted a resume and answered the questionnaire but didn't quite meet your expectations for the position, you can send them a Pre-Interview Rejection Letter.  This might seem like an unnecessary step but it is polite, and has the added benefit of saving you from having to respond to follow-up e-mails and phone calls.

Dig Deeper: How to Write a Job Description

Tools You Need For Hiring: The Interview

Now that you have selected the job candidates you are interested in meeting, it's a good idea to set up the interviews. Most companies handle interviews in a casual way, but some take a more formal approach. If you would like to add structure to your interview process, either because you are hiring so many new employees that it is hard to keep track of them, you should incorporate an Interview Letter for Employment into your process. This form simply should give the details of the interview location and time, who the candidate will be meeting with as well as outlines the job description. It can be paired with an Employment Application and Job Applicant Reference Request. The interview letter  Having the candidates bring a completed employment application and reference request to the interview will save you time on processing. It will also give you some insight into how meticulous a candidate is when it comes to completing a task.

It's now time for the interview and there are questions you should ask and questions you should avoid asking because they put you at risk for violating Equal Employment Opportunity Commission laws.  Be sure to ask questions relevant to the position, and also to look for a good cultural fit.  The person not only has to be able to do the job but they have to work well with others on the staff.  Another way to safeguard against hiring someone who isn't a good fit with the staff is to include several colleagues in the interview process.  Allow a few people that will work with the new hire to interview and complete a Co-Employee Applicant Appraisal Form.  It also let's your employees know that their opinion matters and that each person is a highly valued part of your company.

As a courtesy to the job candidates that came in for an interview, but you know you are not interested in them for the position, send them a Post Interview Rejection Letter.  Like the pre-interview rejection letter, this correspondence politely lets candidates know that although they are no longer being considered for the position, but that you will keep their resume on file for future positions.

Dig Deeper: How to Improve Your Employment Application


Tools You Need For Hiring:  The Job Offer

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Tiffany Black

As a senior producer Tiffany Black works to increase our audience through social media. She covers technology for Inc. Technology, coordinates Inc. Live chats and finds document templates for business owners. Tiffany also teaches Writing and Editing for the Web, Introduction to Blogging, Introduction to Social Media and Advanced Social Media at Mediabistro. She lives in Manhattan.