Guide to Recruiting Employees

Generate Leads

First, identify the skills and attitudes that you want in an ideal team member. If you don't know what you are looking for you are probally not going to find it. Next, market the position to generate as much interest as possible. Use the traditional methods such as local newspapers, employment agencies, and online sources. Don't forget houses of worship, trade publications and associations, industry salespeople and suppliers that call on your competitors, networking, an ad in your company newsletters, fax/email/mail your existing customer database, and create a internal reward to encourage leads from your existing staff.

I recommend: www.monster.com

Phone Screening

This is the step where you can save a lot of time. All your marketing material should include a phone number that leads directly to a dedicated voice mail line. You should not take any of these calls personally. The message should sound something like this. "Thank you for calling XYZ company! We are growing and we are looking for people with heart and passion to join our team. At the sound of the tone leave your contact information, the most significant accomplishment in your professional career, the biggest frustration in your previous position and what attracted you to the advertisment." Most people will hang up, some will call back, some will not be capable of following directions, and some will sound sharp. The good news is that you will separate the haves from the have nots without fielding tons of calls. By the way the ones that will talk you to death on the phone and waste most of your time will probally not leave a message. Isn't that great!

I recommend: www.voicenation.com as a resource for an extremely affordable voice mail system that can give you a local number and allow the messages to be pushed to your email account. 

Invite to Interview

Select canidates that you would like to take to the next stage and let them know they have been invited to the next stage of the interview. The interview will be next Wednesday from 6 - 10 p.m. Please bring a copy of your resume and dress as you would be coming to work.

I recommend: www.barnesandnoble.com and search for the book Instant Team Building by Bradley Sugars for other ideas to help build your team.

Group Interview

If you invite 20 people to a 4 hour interview in the evening, only 10 or so will show up. Start out with giving the group your vision, mission, culture and expectations of the positions. Then let them know that in just a minute you are going to have them stand up and introduce themselves, their qualifications and why they feel like they are the best person in the room to fill this position. Let them know that you are going to take a break for 10 minutes to let them gather their thoughts and if anyone feels like they are not a good fit for the company and the position please feel free to leave at the break. Half the crowd will leave and that's a good thing. The candidates that stay will introduce themselves and sell themselves to the selection team. The team will ask all the candidates a series of questions and record their responses. The candidates will complete behavioral and personality profiles.

I recommend: www.discprofile.com to purchase behavioral profiles to provide a more accuate analysis of what they are really like.

Team Decision

Get everyone involved in making the decision. Have you ever hired that you really liked that the team really didn't? Getting everyone involved in the process will create ownership in the induction and training process of the new team member. The new team member will feel more obligation to the team as well.

I recommend: www.actioncoaching.com/reggieshropshire  to find out more about this and many other systems that will help get better results with less effort.