There is a lot more that goes into hiring than it seems. Even if your company is looking to fill just one role, you have to coordinate schedules with the candidate and multiple members of your team, assess their skill sets, behavior and personality traits, as well as compare and contrast the candidates you are deciding between, while at the same time trying to keep the candidates experience with your team as positive as possible. And that’s just the high-level process overview. When you do not know how to approach the interview to get the information you are looking for, you may loose candidates solely based on the fact that you lack interview experience. Here are five hiring tips for your startup:
1) Transparency is Key
During job interviews, it’s not uncommon for hiring managers to sugar coat everything about their company, as well as the open role. It’s where they work; of course they want it to sound appealing. However, making everything seem perfect won’t actually get you a perfect employee. Instead, try fully disclosing the positive and negative parts of the job when you’re interviewing a potential candidate. Being completely transparent right off the bat will help you distinguish the underperforming employees from the ones who aren’t afraid to commit, despite the challenges. You’ll have more confidence knowing you’re hiring someone who has enough skills and experience to handle certain situations instead of just running away from them. Not only that, but with each new hire you’ll also be building a passionate team and seamlessly creating a positive work environment.
2) Cultural Fit Matters
Owning a startup means that you have to spend a countless amount of hours working closely with your first hires in order to drive your business forward, so make sure you can get along with them. This is where role-playing comes in handy. Pretend you have to take a 3-hour road trip with a potential employee, but the radio doesn’t work. The only options you have are to talk to that person or remain awkwardly silent the entire time. If you do not want to spend 3 hours in the car with them, then do not hire them. It may seem a little harsh, but you want your first hires to be very compatible with you and the other team members since they are the people who are going to help your company grow and shape the culture.
3) Candidate’s Online Brand Serves as a Second Resume
Depending on what industry you’re in, it’s always beneficial to look beyond just the candidate's resume and check their online brands to determine what kind of presence they may or may not have. Their online content can serve as a second source that contains additional work or skills they may not have shown you during the interview. Content can include a portfolio of their past projects, a blog showcasing their interests and hobbies, or even conversations on LinkedIn or Twitter that show they are staying up-to-date on the industry’s latest news and trends. Besides, if a candidate is able to promote and represent themselves in a positive way online, he or she won’t have a problem doing the same thing with your brand.
4) It’s All About Timing
Timing out the hiring process can be quite tricky since there are moments where you just desperately need more employees, or you’re so picky about filling a certain position that you want to take your time choosing the right candidate. There may not be a perfect formula out there that tells you how long you should take, but you can most certainly find a happy medium. If you rush to hire new employees, it may cause you to skip components that are pretty crucial in the process such as background checks, references or previous work just to fill positions. If you don’t take a moment to really get to know the candidates, you’ll end up hiring complete strangers that could potentially slow your company down. On the contrary, taking too long to make a decision can cause your company to lose talent if a potential candidate gets impatient and decides to go work for someone else. To avoid these two extremes, create hiring objectives and set a schedule around them to stay at a consistent pace.
5) Testing the Waters
Sometimes, having just a one-on-one conversation with a potential candidate isn’t enough to assess if they’re truly fit for the position they applied for. Besides, it’s pretty common and easy for applicants to play up their resumes and make it seem like they have significantly more experience to better their chances of getting the job. This is where the fun part comes in: skill assessments. Interviewers love it and interviewees hate it, but it’s the perfect way to figure out if someone is just as capable as they say they are. Skill assessments can be personalized depending on the position and serve as an indicator of whether or not they have the skill-set and level of expertise that is essential to the role.
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