Most business owners don’t really know how to interview and select their staff. One business owner just confessed that they had 2 poor hires, but when they were pressed about their hiring and evaluation process, they didn’t have one. They hired people because they liked them.

Not having a standard hiring and evaluation process for hiring is a recipe for disaster. A wrong hire ends up costing thousands of dollars by the time you add in the manager’s time, training the wrong person, and then having to do it all over again.

We agree that finding the right candidate for your position is a laborious task if done correctly. It takes between 15-20 hours just to find qualified candidates. At HireSmart Virtual Employees, we reduce the hiring manager’s time down to 2 hours or less.

Here are the steps to getting a great result every time:

Identify the Tasks. While this may sound very simple, most people don’t really have a clear expectation of the required elements of the what they need their hire to do. We highly recommend that you rank the tasks you want someone to do first and then look for common skills sets.

What we mean by this is if you need someone to primarily deal with accounting issues, they should have other tasks that use those analytical skills. However, we have seen people who want someone who is good in accounting, but also want them to do sales calls – to different skills sets that are polar opposites.

Once you have determined the top 3 tasks and that they are all in the same skills set, then create a written job description and develop your goals and objectives for the position.

Recruit. Now that you have a written job description and a way to evaluate and measure your candidates, you need to start looking for the best person for the job. I highly recommend that you create an ad template that you can use over and over again that talks about your company and then you can plug in the position requirements.

Once you have your ad, then you need to place them where the best candidates will read them. Depending on your market, if you are looking to hire locally or globally, it may vary. You should have a list of sites that you like and then update them as you find new ones.

Research the candidates. While looking at a resume may provide you with some insight, it only provides a part of the picture, especially if you are hiring remote staff. You want to make sure that you are selecting someone who is aligned with your needs, has the capacity to do the work and has been put through the paces.

At HireSmartVAs, because we hire global talent, we make sure all our candidates are fully vetted. They go through a technology assessment, a background screening, a personality screening, a skills assessment and then they are put through several rigorous interviews. This allows for our clients to have the confidence that they are fully screened and ready to work.

Interview & Assessment. Once you have the short list of candidates, you want to put all the candidates through the same interviewing process so that you can easily evaluate them side by side.

We highly recommend that you rate your interviews 0 to 10 on the top 4 skills and then provide a soft skills evaluate and then average out the scores. This allows you to be more objective and not emotionally swayed into hiring someone just because you like them more.

Make the Offer. Once you have your top candidate, you want to make the offer and get them on board quickly. The very best talent doesn’t stay on the market very long. You want to make sure that you are prepared to make the offer and be ready for a quick start date. If you are not ready, then don’t waste your time starting the process. The days of top candidates being available and clamoring for your position are no longer an option in 2017. While that may change again, for now, you should be ready to act.

I hope these tips have helped you. We help business owners find and train top global talent for a fraction of the cost and headaches of hiring locally. If you are interested in finding out more, feel free to book a consultation with us.

To your success!

Anne