How to Find and Hire Good People
A guide for entrepreneurs and small business owners on screening, writing job descriptions, background and credit checks, and more.
There comes a time in the life cycle of your business -- if it's a successful venture, anyway -- when you can no longer juggle all the myriad tasks, big and small, that inevitably fall to the owner of a growing operation. This is just as well: Your core competency is your creative vision or your salesmanship or your motivational ability or whatever skill it is that's most crucial to the survival and growth of your company. And chances are it's not your talent for writing checks or sending out bills or balancing the books or hiring hourly help.
But focusing on what you do best first requires tackling some tough questions: How do you find the right senior staff member -- a general manager, say, or a bookkeeper or even a right hand -- whom you can rely on to keep the infrastructure of your business running smoothly while you focus on the big picture? How do you choose a great salesperson, HR manager, or warehouse supervisor?
Luckily, there's no need to reinvent the wheel here: Those who have gone before have fine-tuned the art of making the right hire. What follows is a four-part guide to best practices in recruiting and hiring: a step-by-step strategy for finding the right people, a list of the screening procedures, sample questions for the interviews you conduct, and additional hiring resources. Please read on.
Doing Your Due Diligence
Checking on potential hires is fraught with hazards, legal and otherwise. Get written consent, and make sure policies are consistently applied. A signed and dated application is a must; be clear that lying on the form is grounds for dismissal.
Background Checks
Most employers hire outside vendors to conduct criminal background checks. Federal and state laws limit the kind of information you may retrieve and how you use it. (For example, a criminal record is not by itself legal grounds for refusing employment.) Conviction records reside at courthouses around the country, so be wary of screeners who promise instant checks. But database aggregator ChoicePoint (choicepoint.com ) will instantly search an extensive, though not complete, range of sources for less than $100. Screeners can search anything from credit reports to workers' comp filings as well, but the fees can add up. Limit searches to those that materially relate to the job—driving records if the position requires a lot of time in the car, for example.
Drug tests
You need to be burned only once by an employee with a bad habit to conclude that when it comes to your company, security trumps privacy. In any case, more of your competitors are handing out plastic cups—a recent survey found that 84 percent of companies test new hires for drugs.
Reference checks
Reference checking can be time-consuming and frustrating. Previous employers, wary of being sued, often disclose little. Darrow suggests asking for the names of colleagues and supervisors who no longer work for the employer. You may get a clear answer by asking if the candidate is 'eligible for rehire.' In general, ask leading questions and make inferences from evasiveness and faint praise—if your suspicion is misplaced, the reference will tell you. And document all reference-check efforts, successful or not.
Finding the Right Person
1. The Job Description
The first step is to define the open position -- if nothing else, it will help you clarify the sort of person you want and the kind you don't. Get input from everyone who will be working with the new hire. A proper job description will identify the job's title, the range of tasks involved, and any requirements in terms of education, work experience, professional certifications, and technical skills. (On the other hand, don't overdefine the job: You want some flexibility when you ask the person to take on unforeseen assignments and tasks.) And though many companies are reluctant to include the salary for competitive or internal political reasons, recruiter Tom Darrow of Atlanta-based Talent Connections recommends including at least a range, which will screen out some inappropriate candidates.
Write a job description that jumps off the page. If it doesn't sound like an exciting opportunity to you, it probably won't sound appealing to talented candidates. Be truthful, of course -- but this is a time to put on your sales hat (or ask your best salesperson to pitch in). Elaborate on the positives of your company's culture -- you might, for example, emphasize the collaborative or entrepreneurial environment or opportunities for professional growth. Talk up any benefits you offer. But above all else, make clear your passion for your business.
2. The Labor Pool
The easiest way to recruit new employees is to foster camaraderie among your existing staff, says Becky Strickland, a consultant in Pueblo, Colorado. Your employees can be your best source of referrals. They know the company and can usually tell when someone is a good fit. Some entrepreneurs are reluctant to hire close friends or relatives of their employees, however, because if the new hire doesn't work out, it can poison the existing relationship.
Other good recruiting sources? HR pros find online job postings at sites like careerbuilder.com and monster.com effective. Many trade associations post industry-specific job classifieds on their websites. (Check weddles.com for a directory of more than 1,500 trade associations.) Darrow recommends the message boards at Yahoo Groups ( groups.yahoo.com), which hosts e-mail listservs defined by in¬dustry and region.
Put a 'careers' section on your website. Interested visitors can find contact info, which generates a list of candidates with an affinity for your line of work. Another strategy is to hire a recruiting researcher, a specialist who uses the Web and other resources to develop a list of potential candidates with proper backgrounds. A recruiting researcher might charge $75 an hour but often can generate a list within two to six hours.
