Nibletz Staff
When you start up on your own, you tend to go through a set of firsts. Your first sale, your first customer, your first paycheck – and then it moves up a notch. You’ll get your first tax return filed, get your first office, and even hire your first employee. But, when it comes to the latter, you can often hit a wall that you haven’t with any of your other first. Because with your business, making those sales was easy. But hiring people? Not so much! Especially when you’ve never done it before. So when you’re looking to take on your first employee, here’s how to nail the interview process like you’re a pro.
Know What You’re Looking For
Although this entire process probably seems alien to you at the moment, it won’t forget. Instead of worrying about how you’re going to get through interviewing candidates, you need to start at the top. First of all, you should really aim to understand what it is that you need from your new employee. The best way to do that is to write up a person and job specification. If you go into great detail on what it is you need from them as a person, you’ll know when you find the right one.
Write A Killer Ad
Once you know the kind of person that you’re looking for, you can then have a go at writing your job advertisement. Because if you’re going to get a new employee, no matter where you get them wrong, you will need to advertise. Be sure to sell the benefits of working for you in the ad as well as stating what you’re looking for. That way, you’ll be sure to get the best candidates apply. Then, choose your outlets to advertise and wait.
Compare Your Applications
With your job advertised out there for the world to see, it will only be a matter of time before you get a bunch of applications come through. As you start to get resumes and cover letters, you’re going to want to start going through them. But, it’s important that you do this with your person and job specification with you. That way, you’re able to compare the applications to what you were looking for to see how they match up.
Do Some Background Research
As you start to narrow down the applicants and compile your shortlist, you may also want to think about ensuring that you only interview the right people. If you get 50 applications and 20 of them seem good, you don’t really want to have to interview 20 people. So you need to have a cull. A way to help you decide is to do some research. Be sure to find people online, look into their work history and recommendations on LinkedIn and across their social media. That way, you’ll get a better understanding of who they are and if they’ll be a good fit.
Host The Actual Interview
With your interviewees selected, all that’s left to do is get the interviews done. Now, once you’ve invited each of the candidates in for an interview, you’re going to want to make sure that you are ready. Get your questions together and plan out the process. You may even want to practice before you go in, just to make sure everything feels right. Then, you’ll be able to figure out which person will become your first employee.
