7 Best Hiring Practices for Small Business Owners in 2020

As you grow your small business, you may need more people on your team to help you achieve your goals. The employees you hire set the foundation for your company’s success.

While you may be eager to begin hiring, don’t share job listings or start interviewing candidates until you’re ready to act quickly. You could lose out on a valuable employee if you drag out the process too long.

Once you’re prepared to expand your team, follow these best practices to make the most of your hiring process.

7 Best Hiring Practices in 2020

1. Spend less time on the job description.

Business owners and hiring managers tend to write lengthy job descriptions that include paragraphs about the company, job duties and responsibilities in addition to a long list of required skills. While applicants should understand the full scope of the position, extensive text may be intimidating to job seekers, she said.

2. Ask open-ended questions with answers in mind.

Asking candidates open-ended questions during an interview will allow you to pick up on soft skills that indicate how they may behave in the workplace,

By asking more conversational questions that lead to a dialogue, you’ll have a more accurate impression of whether you can work with this person and whether he or she is up for the challenge.

You should also have an idea of the responses you’d like to hear so you can adequately judge candidates, she said. If multiple managers are conducting interviews, you should be in agreement in what you expect. Anyone conducting interviews should ask questions in the same style and represent the company culture to give the applicant a cohesive impression of the business.

3. Create a sense of belonging from the first phone call.

From the first point of contact with a job candidate, make sure they feel like they would have a place within the company.

You should maintain the same level of enthusiasm throughout the hiring and onboarding processes once they join your team.

4. Give candidates time to ask questions.

Candidates’ questions during an interview are often just as important as managers’. Job seekers have a responsibility to find out if the job and workplace is a good match, and you should give them time to do so.

They have to be able to sense if the employer is a right fit for them.

5. Prepare for interviews.

When you give candidates an opportunity to ask questions, you must be prepared to answer. You should be ready to provide information about the position in question, the company as a whole and how the candidate could succeed at the company.

Coming into an interview unprepared could not only ruin a candidate’s perception of the job, but could also damage your reputation as well.

6. Don’t rely too much on technology.

Technological tools have become prevalent in recruiting processes, but they don’t always help you find the best person for the job. Tools like artificial intelligence software that matches keywords in job descriptions and resumes may limit your pool of candidates.

Without face-to-face interaction, you won’t be able to judge the soft skills that make someone a good fit or not for the job at hand. Relying too much on data could be detrimental to finding the right employee.

7. Hold informational interviews or meetings.

When searching for a job, people will often reach out to a company where they would like to work even if the company isn’t hiring. As a manager or business owner, you should take meetings with people who are exploring their career options. You can reach out to them at a later time when you have an opening.