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Help wanted: Finding the right people for the job

No matter what type of business you run, if you are putting out ‘Help Wanted’ signs on your storefront and ads across the internet, then you need to know why recruitment is so important, and how doing it right affects your business.

Your employees make up the culture of your business, and represent your business to your customers, so a rock solid recruitment plan is important to the ongoing success of your company.

In this article we will dive down into the purpose of recruitment, the process of recruitment, and one of the best tools that you can use to help speed up the process of filling those help wanted requests.

What is the Purpose of Recruitment?

The purpose of recruitment in your business is to find the best possible candidates to fill your available positions.

It goes way beyond the stage of posting a help wanted sign in the window. You can’t just expect the perfect candidate to come walking by your business, or to pursue you.

You need to have methods and standards in place that are actively reaching out and trying to find the top talent available that is not only qualified, but fits well with your company culture.

Hiring an employee that doesn’t fit well won’t do either of you any good.

The employee that isn’t a good fit won’t be happy in their work, and thus will not be as productive as someone who is the perfect recruit for the job.

Your recruitment process is in place to continually lure that top, well-fitting talent at the best possible attainment cost.

When Should You Recruit Freelancers Instead of Employees?

It may seem easier to go and hire a freelancer or an agency to do some jobs instead of going through the whole recruitment process. The truth is that this may sometimes be a viable option.

Places like fiverr.com and upwork.com make it easy to hire freelancers, and there are agencies available for pretty much any job you need to cover.

And places like this are great, but usually only when you need short-term solutions or one-off jobs completed. If you are in need of a task to be completed regularly, you are better off to hire someone in-house.

Freelancers work on a job-by-job basis, so that is often where their mindset is. They do multiple jobs for multiple companies, often at the same time.

The same holds true for agencies. You have to contend with their other clients for their time, attention, and expertise.

Hiring someone in-house, ingraining them with your company brand and culture, and giving them autonomy to do their job without being micro-managed is a powerful thing. You have someone available 40+ hours per week to further your business in the area of their expertise, whose sole (and soul) focus is to help your business succeed.

You need these experts, and you need a good place to find them. More on that in a minute.

First let’s discuss a little bit more about the finding and hiring process.

Who Should Interview Candidates?

You need to make sure that the people who answer your help wanted are a good fit with the people they will be working with. Therefore it’s a good idea that their first interview should be with their immediate supervisor.

I’ve even been a part of a company that allowed me, as a colleague at the same level or even below the position of the person being interviewed, to sit in on the interview and ask questions. This allowed us to have a say in who would be working with us, and to give our opinions on how that person fit in with the group, and not just base the hire on the candidates experience.

By allowing this concept of an “all-level” group interview, you are ensuring the selection of a good candidate.

Naturally after this initial interview there are usually a few additional rounds where key company decision makers conduct interviews to make sure the person fits well in the position and with the overall strategy the company has moving forward. These interviews are necessary but, in my opinion, less vital than the colleague interview.

Depending on the structure of your company, you may have a position filled where a specific recruiter does all the interviewing for your company, at least in the initial phase, to protect the time of current company employees and supervisors.

These roles likely exist in large companies that hire people on a daily or weekly basis.

No matter the size of your company and whether your have a dedicated recruiter or not, you will definitely want to check out the free ZipRecruiter trial here and at then end of this article.

The recruiter should spend some time with current employees to get an idea of the synergy that exists in different departments to help get a good idea who is a good fit. Some job boards have application questionnaires that can be used to help find the right people from the start, and save your recruiter time in pre-screening.

What Qualities Make a Good Candidate?

The qualities that make a good candidate largely depend on your company and what position you need to fill.

An introverted quality may not be suitable for a person applying for a position to work the front desk of your office.

Conversely, an extroverted person may not be best for a position where employees need to have their head down and work on their own, as this person may feel the need to talk and distract others.

I want to reiterate that you should craft your help wanted ad in a way that describes exactly what you are looking for, and doesn’t have unrealistic qualifications included. Be descriptive in your ad, and try to avoid vague entries.

From my own experience I like to see what personality employers are looking for, education requirements, a little bit about company culture, job schedule and benefits, and a salary range I can expect so I know whether we have the same expectations in that regard.

Should I Really List Salary In My Help Wanted Ad?

Yes!

Or at least you should list a range that the applicant can expect.

I feel like salary expectation is a big part of pre-qualifying candidates, and listing it in your help wanted ad will save you and applicants wasted time.

If the applicant says a salary expectation that is too high during an interview, they may have just researched that that’s what they should expect, but may have been happier still with a lower amount. You just missed out on a good candidate.

Conversely, if you take the time to interview an applicant and in round 3 of interviews you make an offer that is way below what they will reasonably take for their skills, then you have just wasted everyone’s time in the process.

Save everyone time and list an expected salary range so everyone is on the same page from the start.

The Stages of Going From “Help Wanted” to “You’re Hired!”

It is important to have a plan in place before you put out your request for applications. Below is a brief summary of the process, but if you are interested you can always read more about this in our article on finding employees that just fit with your company.

Identifying the Need to Hire

If your employees are being overworked, and doing jobs that they aren’t necessarily an expert in just to check a box of things that need done, it may be time to put out the help wanted sign.

Writing Out Your Full Job Description

Once you have identified the need for a new employee, you need to write out a job description. This should be as detailed as you possibly can be about what this new position is.

Identifying What Makes a Good Fit

Next, you need to examine your company culture and the position you are hiring for, and list out what type of personality this person will need to be able to fit in with your company culture.

Setting Up Your Internal Structure

If you don’t already have one in place, it’s important to set up the structure about how the interview process is going to go.

Posting Your Help Wanted

Now that you have thoroughly defined what you are looking for and set up a process for interviewing and hiring, it’s time to get place your ad.

Interviewing and Hiring

Now that you have qualified applicants, it’s time to implement your interview process that you’ve already defined.

Filling Your Help Wanted Requests

You may be wondering, out of all the 100s of job boards and millions of candidates out there, how you can possibly pull someone who is a good fit?

Well, you can research and find the right job boards for your listing, post to as many as you have time to, hope the right candidate is on those job boards, read hundreds of resumes, take calls with candidates who may or may not be a good fit, and spend all of your time narrowing down the list until you have someone that may work.

Or you can try using ZipRecruiter.

You can get started posting your job with a FREE TRIAL.

You get to post your job for free, and keep whatever candidates you collect whether you cancel during the trial or not.

The best part?

ZipRecruiter says that 80% of companies find a high-quality candidate within just 1 day. That’s because they post your listing to over 100 job boards for you, source top, qualified talent, and allow you to submit pre-screening questionnaires for candidates to fill out.

Pre-screening is amazing since, with the right questions asked, you can narrow down which candidates get through for you to review. It does so much of the work for you.

You have nothing to lose with a free trial, and you can cancel at any point during the trial period and you won’t be charged.

Stop being anxious about posting your help wanted ad, and get started with ZipRecruiter.

Your company will thank you.

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