
A strong job market is great for the economy, but it creates challenges for small business owners seeking to compete for top talent. Whether you’re hiring your first or your fortieth employee, taking a hard look at your hiring process can help you attract better candidates. Here are some key steps to take when recruiting new employees for your small business.
Determine the positions for which you need to hire
Starting a recruitment process without a clear goal is a bit like cooking without a recipe. The end result could work out, but there’s a risk it’s missing one key ingredient that would complete the meal. The same is true for building a team: What positions do you need to help your business perform successfully?
Determine what skill gaps exist in your current operation, or if you’re a new business, analyze the necessary roles you need to fill. Analyze your current workload: Are there day-to-day activities you, the business owner, are spending too much time on? Are existing employees overloaded and missing deadlines? Are there specific processes that keep breaking down?


It’s also helpful to consider what skills would benefit your team in the future. For example, if you are looking to enter a new market, level up your customer service, or introduce a new technology, you may want someone with specific experience. Define your short- and long-term business goals to figure out where hiring can help.
[Read more: How to Know When It's Time to Hire]
Lastly, some businesses find it useful to create a job-level classification system or organizational chart. This system categorizes job positions into different ranks according to experience, education level, responsibilities, or impact on the organization. A formal system can give you structure when hiring and promoting within your company.
Write a strong job description
Next, write a job description that includes the position title, a summary of the job’s major function, requirements and preferences, and the benefits you plan to offer.
There’s an art to writing a compelling job description that motivates someone to apply. From a technical standpoint, including key words will help increase the chances that someone will find your open role. Write a strong headline that includes a familiar title, like “Sales Representative” (rather than “Sales Guru”). “Avoid sterile, robotic language that blends in with other job descriptions. Corporate buzzwords like ‘synergy’ and ‘thought leadership’ will quickly make a candidate’s eyes glaze over,” wrote Vervoe, an HR tech company.
Additionally, the best job descriptions are easy to read, brief, and succinct. Provide a list of reasonable requirements for the position, but don’t go overboard. “You can’t necessarily expect to get a candidate with 15 years’ experience in web development but a young energy and a great design sense,” wrote Zippia. Listing too many requirements can discourage the right candidates from applying.
[Read more: 3 Strategies for Writing a Great Job Description]
Promote your open positions
Next, advertise your open roles near and far. There are dozens of ways to share your job, and job advertising can get expensive. Think about where your ideal candidate congregates: Are they local to the area? Are they more likely to use Facebook or SnapChat? Are there any internal candidates who might want to apply?
A quick way to get the word out is to post on a job platform like Indeed, Monster, or a smaller site like Handshake. Social media is also a great way to recruit someone who might already be familiar with your brand. Ask your team or vendors for referrals too—referral candidates tend to be better matches than the general applicant pool.
Here are a few other places to consider advertising your position:
- Your website and email newsletter.
- The local newspaper.
- A college job site.
- Professional organizations and associations.
- At your brick-and-mortar location.
Narrow down your list of candidates
This next part of the hiring process is highly customizable. Once you’ve sourced resumes and applications from enough interested people, it’s time to start assessing who you want to interview. The selection process needs to balance thoroughly evaluating each candidate while still moving quickly; candidates don’t want to go through an eight-step hiring process, nor will they wait for weeks to hear back from you.
Fortunately, there are tools and strategies that can help you select a smaller group of candidates. Resume screening tools can help weed out spam and candidates who don’t meet your basic requirements, although you can also manually screen resumes if your pool is manageable. Some companies use skill assessments next to verify that someone is capable of fulfilling the job requirements. Phone screens, social media screening, and cover letters are other tools that can help you figure out who are the best candidates.
Avoid sterile, robotic language that blends in with other job descriptions. Corporate buzzwords like ‘synergy’ and ‘thought leadership’ will quickly make a candidate’s eyes glaze over.Emily Heaslip, Vervoe
It’s important, as you screen candidates, to be aware of any recruitment bias that may inadvertently harm your hiring process. “As through every step of the employee selection procedures, you want to keep your unconscious bias in check,” wrote Workable. “For example, during the selection process, watch out for potential biases including someone’s name, gender, race, age, class, and even academic background—for instance, just because someone got their MBA from a local college rather than from Harvard doesn’t necessarily make them less worthy of a candidate or their MBA degree less impressive.”
Conduct a successful interview
Employers often forget that a job interview is an opportunity for them to make a great first impression, too. So much emphasis is placed on the candidate’s preparation, but it’s also a chance for a potential new hire to assess your workplace.
[Read more: Job Interview Steps: Understanding the Interviewing Process]
By this point in the hiring process, you should feel confident that someone has the talent and experience necessary to thrive in the position. Interviews help you get to know them on a more personal level. Prepare your questions ahead of time and make them relevant to both your job description and the candidate’s application.
Ask a combination of behavioral and hypothetical questions. Here are a few examples:
- What does a day in your life look like?
- Can you provide an example of a time when you were juggling multiple projects at once?
- How do you approach problem-solving?
- What do you look for in a workplace culture?
Give candidates plenty of time to prepare by scheduling interviews at least two business days in advance. Make the experience stress-free by giving them all the information they need upfront: where to go, what time, the names of the people conducting the interview, and how much time to set aside.
“Naturally, you won’t hire every candidate you interview,” wrote Workable. “But, if you come to interviews prepared, ask job-related questions and are respectful to candidates, even the ones you reject will leave with a positive impression about your company.”
Onboard your new employee
The hiring process doesn’t end once you’ve selected a candidate and signed their contract. Onboarding is a critical component for employee success, and can lead to higher employee retention.
[Read more: Onboarding New Employees: What to Do in the First Two Weeks]
Onboarding is the fun part of hiring, but there are some compliance requirements to meet, too. Square away key paperwork, like your tax forms, benefits and payroll selection, and HR policies. Some businesses put together a structured onboarding plan that sets clear expectations for the first three months.
Other than the administrative aspect, onboarding is all about making your new hire feel welcomed and valued. Spend time introducing them to the rest of the team, inviting them to meetings, and giving them the support they need to perform.
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