How to Hire Employees: The Complete Guide

Whether you’re preparing for your first hire or your hundredth, we know the process can be intimidating. From crafting the perfect job description to asking the right interview questions, a lot goes into finding the best talent for your company.

That’s why we created this complete guide to show you how to hire employees with ease. We will walk you through each step of every stage of the hiring process, including:

Finding qualified candidates
Screening applicants
Interviewing candidates
Hiring new employees

And if you need a detailed breakdown of each individual step in the hiring process, don’t worry. We have you covered! As you read through this guide on how to hire employees, you’ll also find links to blog posts on the different topics. We break down everything from developing job descriptions to onboarding new hires, enabling you to hire great people for your team confidently and efficiently.

If you’re ready for a bold approach towards hiring new employees, read on!

Prepare Your Business to Hire Employees

The hiring process starts long before you post a job. You first need to create a work environment that will attract and retain the best talent—and you need to set up everything to follow local labor laws and regulations. Before you start hiring employees, you need to do some research.

Do Your Research

As a hiring manager or small business owner, it’s important to consider various factors before making any hiring decisions.

First of all, it’s vital to research your industry and see who else is hiring. Look at job postings by competitors in your local region. What are the job titles? What does compensation look like? This information will guide your hiring strategy.

If you’re hiring your first employee, or if you haven’t hired in a while, your research also needs to include new hire paperwork.

Set up Your New Hire Paperwork

When it comes to hiring new employees, new hire paperwork should be one of the top priorities on your to-do list. This ensures proper documentation and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Setting up the paperwork prior to hiring new employees will save time and also reflect positively on your organization’s culture. By doing this, it sends a clear message to new hires that your company is efficient and organized—and that your company takes compliance seriously.

Also, handling new hire paperwork in advance allows new hires to have a better onboarding experience during the first week. Anything they need to read or to sign will be waiting for them.

Now that your business is ready to hire new employees, it’s time to figure out your hiring needs!

Identify Your Hiring Needs

Before you can begin the recruitment process, it’s important to identify your hiring needs. Do you need an entry-level position or a more experienced candidate? Are there specific skillsets that you require for the job? Are you looking to improve diversity in the workplace?

Evaluating your current team and pinpointing any gaps in skills and experience can help you determine exactly what type of hire you need to bring on board.

This is also when you need to decide what type of worker your company needs to hire. An independent contractor is one option if you just need skilled labor to assist with a specific project. Temporary workers through a staffing agency are another option. Not only can they assist with a specific project, but they can help meet seasonal demand or other temporary needs. Employees can be hired part-time or full-time, again depending on how much help your company needs.

Once you have identified your hiring needs, you can begin crafting a job description and start the recruitment process.

Write a Job Description

Writing a job description is one of the most important steps in the hiring process. Not only does it explain what you’re looking for in a new hire, but it also sells your company culture to qualified candidates. With a good job description, you’ll attract candidates who both meet the necessary job requirements and who are excited to work for your business.

To create a strong job description, include a detailed summary of the position’s responsibilities, desired skills and qualifications, and any other relevant information. Additionally, make sure to include the company’s mission statement and values to give candidates a better understanding of what it’s like to work for your organization.

Once you have a job description, the next step is to write a job requisition.

Write a Job Requisition

A job requisition serves as an internal record of the position. It also provides key details about the hiring process.

A job requisition should include information such as:

The title of the role
Reporting structure
Budget information
Timeline for recruitment and onboarding
Criteria for selecting candidates
Other relevant details

It should also include information about both the person who will be hiring and any other people who will be involved in the selection process.

By creating a job requisition, employers can ensure that the entire hiring process is organized and efficient. The req is ultimately delivered to HR, who then approves the hire.

Find Job Candidates

Once you have the job requisition in place, and you’ve received all necessary approval to hire, it’s time to start looking for potential job candidates. If you’ve had trouble with traditional sourcing methods, looking into diverse recruiting options to expand your talent pool.

Advertise the Job Opening

Advertise your job opening with confidence by following a few key steps.

First, figure out the best places to advertise the job opening. Social media, job boards, and word of mouth are all viable options, depending on your industry.

When writing the job ad, follow the job description as a guide. Be sure to highlight the key selling points of the position, including benefits, salary, and opportunities for growth.

Finally, make sure your application process is seamless and user-friendly to encourage candidates to apply.

Partner with a Staffing Agency

Partnering with a staffing agency like Insight Global is an effective way to quickly fill open positions. A staffing firm can find qualified job candidates more quickly than most hiring managers can do on their own.

A staffing agency can help you identify the right candidates and streamline your recruitment process. They will analyze the job requisition and determine which skills, qualifications, and experiences are necessary for success in the role. The agency will then use their network of job seekers to find the perfect candidate for your organization.

Additionally, a staffing agency can provide valuable insights into the competitive marketplace and advise you on how to maintain an attractive employer brand. Finally, they can help with onboarding and ensure that the new hire is properly integrated into their new role.

And, if you’re interested in diverse talent solutions, a staffing firm like Insight Global can help with that too.

Review Applicants

Hiring the right candidate is crucial to any organization’s success, but you don’t have time to interview every single job applicant. So how do you go through all the applicants and decide which ones to interview?

As applicable, you first want to go through cover letters, resumes, and job applications. Take this time to quickly rule out unsuitable candidates. From there, another option to screen job applicants is to utilize pre-employment tests.

Let’s look at these steps more closely.

Review Resumes

As you begin the resume review process, make sure you’re clear on the key qualifications and traits you’re looking for in a candidate. You can also put together a checklist of minimum requirements as a quick way to assess candidates.

If you’re worried about unconscious bias, ask someone else to remove identifying details from the resumes before you review. This is called a blind resume review. It allows you to compare candidates based on qualifications alone.

When looking through resumes, pay attention to the applicant’s qualifications and experience. How do their skills and experience relate to the specific job you need filled? Don’t forget to check for resume red flags like multiple typos or unprofessional details.

Utilize Pre-Employment Tests

Pre-employment tests cover multiple different assessments, testing anything from skills to personality. Skill assessments can be particularly valuable to confirm the job candidates meet the minimum requirements for the role.

Before the interview stage, any pre-employment test should be simple and straightforward. You don’t want to turn away qualified applicants by demanding too much early in the hiring process.

Pre-employment tests are a great way of comparing candidates based on impartial results. They can also provide valuable insights into a candidate’s potential success in a new role. Finally, they’re an effective way to whittle down your shortlist of candidates to interview.

Interview Top Candidates

You’ve decided which candidates to interview—great! Now what? First, communicate your decision with all applicants, even if they didn’t make it to the interview round. Be kind and respectful when letting applicants know they didn’t progress. Open, respectful communication can go a long way towards building a positive reputation for your organization.

Now you can start planning your interviews!

Whether you’re a hiring manager, human resources (HR) personnel, or small business owner, you know the importance of interviewing candidates. It’s your chance to get to know a candidate on a more personal level as well as to understand their skillset in relation to the job description.

As you prepare for interview sessions, it’s important that you take the time to create a structured environment that welcomes open discussion and encourages active participation. By doing this consciously, you can ensure that each stage of the interview will help you find the right person for your team.

Choose an Interview Format

Choosing the right format for your interview session is an important part of creating a structured and engaging environment. Common options include:

Phone interviews
One-on-one interviews by video or in person
Panel interviews
Group interviews

For many roles, you may need to have a series of interviews involving multiple stakeholders. In that situation, it’s common to start with a quick phone interview and then have a video interview. Only the final candidates come to the office for a final interview. This process is efficient for your company while also respecting the time of candidates.

Prepare Interview Questions

Once you’ve chosen your interview format, it’s time to come up with questions to ask. Start by considering what skills and qualities are required for success in this position. Then, create open-ended questions that will allow candidates to provide detailed answers about their experience and qualifications.

For the most part, you want to ask the same questions of each candidate. However, it’s also a good idea to prepare a few questions tailored to each candidate’s resume. You’ll also have questions that pop up based on the conversation you have.

Remember, the goal is to get the full story behind a candidate’s qualifications and understand how they would fit within your team.

Avoid Inappropriate Interview Questions

You may be wondering if you can ask funny interview questions to gauge a candidate’s personality or critical-thinking skills. Or perhaps you’re nervous about doing your first job interviews, and you want to prepare for everything, including the small talk and conversational questions.

What’s most important to remember is to remain professional. Don’t ask anything inappropriate. You want the candidate to feel at ease during the interview.

Follow-up with Candidates

Once you’ve finished conducting all interviews, it’s important to follow-up with the candidates you interviewed. This can be done through email or phone call. Thank them for their time. Let them know when to expect an update on a decision.

Once you’ve made a decision, reach out again to all candidates. If they didn’t get the job, or they aren’t moving forward to the next round of interviews, let them know you appreciated their time and interest.

Hire Your New Employee

Once you’ve conducted all of your interviews, made your final decision, and followed up with the candidates accordingly, it’s time to make a job offer to the successful applicant. This final stage of hiring a new employee is just as important as everything you did to recruit candidates and screen applicants.

Extend a Job Offer

Whenever possible, extend the initial job offer over the phone. Of course, there will be times when you need to make multiple job offers, and phone calls aren’t expedient. Sometimes you can extend a job offer immediately after a successful interview. Other times, you may email candidates.

When offering the job, be upfront about the details. Mention:

Pay and benefits
Typical work schedule
Job duties and expectations
Preferred start date

Also let the successful candidate know how soon you need them to respond. Give them at least a few days, as they may be weighing multiple offers.

Once they have initially accepted the job, confirm everything again through a formal, written job offer.

Inform the new hire if a background check or drug testing is required for the role.

Explain the onboarding process so they know what to expect.

Complete All New Hire Paperwork

You’ll also need to complete all necessary new hire paperwork once they’ve accepted the position. These usually include tax forms, employment contracts, and other company documents.

Try to handle as much of the new hire paperwork before your new employee’s first day. If anything needs to be signed or explained in-person, have it ready on their first day.

The final step in hiring new employees is also the most fun: onboarding!

Onboard Your New Employee

A successful new hire onboarding process covers at least their first week, but it can cover several months or even a year. During this time, you introduce your new employee to the company, and you train them in their role.

Onboarding ensures that your new team member feels comfortable in their role so they can start contributing right away.

Are You Ready to Hire Employees?

Hiring new employees can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. By following the steps outlined above, you’ll have a smooth:

Recruiting process
Screening process
Interviewing process
Hiring process

And you’ll hire talented new employees to improve your organization!

If you’re still feeling hesitant about all these steps, Insight Global can help. We’re experts at every stage of hiring, from writing job descriptions to onboarding new employees. Contact Insight Global today to find out how we can support your business.

Need Help Hiring ?

Let us know your needs below, and we can help you recruit, screen, interview, and onboard new employees in as little as one week. Questions? Call us toll-free: 855-485-8853