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Employer Tips and Tools:

Finding the right employee
Strive to earn a reputation
Gathering information
Preparing for an interview
Keeping great employees

Finding the Right Employee

Staffing. It’s a challenge faced by all businesses, both large and small. Finding (and keeping) the perfect employee for your company begins with considerable planning and thoughtful decision-making long before you begin the formal recruitment and hiring process.

Strive to earn a reputation –

Become the best place to work in Chilliwack. Job-seekers will come to you because they’ve heard great things about working for your company!

Offer your current and prospective employees:

  • a safe and healthy work environment
  • competitive pay, including benefits
  • comprehensive training
  • reasonable job demands
  • rewarding work
  • good employer-employee communication and relationships
  • job security
  • training and development opportunities

Gather information –

Before you can begin the formal recruitment process, you need to know a few things about your hiring needs.

Assess:

  • What are the main tasks, responsibilities and skills of your current employees?
  • Are your job descriptions current and accurate?
  • What are the essential skills, attitudes and qualifications needed in both this position and within your company?
  • Can you reorganize current work to help meet future skill requirements?

Define:

  • What are your company’s goals and values?
  • What are the policies and practices which define how you do business?

Determine:

  • Who are your competitors? What is a competitive salary for this type of work?
  • What are the minimum age and wage requirements?
  • What sort of employee are you looking for?
  • What does your company have to offer a new employee?
  • Why would someone want to work for you?

In answering the ADD (Assess, Define, and Determine) questions above, you are in a great position to begin formal recruitment and hiring.

Find the right employee –

1. Prepare for the interview.

Before you advertise the position, there are a few things you need to consider:

  • Decide which tools you will use to help make you make a decision – application forms, skill tests, interview questions – and design them to reflect your needs.
  • Use a current job description to decide what skills and training are absolutely required for the position. Then identify which skills and talents you would like have in a new employee.
  • Establish selection criteria.
  • Prepare interview questions. Design the questions to try to get a sense of the job applicant beyond what is written in their resume, but avoid personal questions.

Some key questions to consider using in your interview:

  1. What skills or knowledge can you bring to this position?
  2. Describe your ideal job. Your ideal boss?
  3. Describe a time when you were under pressure to make a decision. How did you handle the situation?
  4. How did you organize your work in your most recent position? What happened when there was an emergency?
  5. Describe a major accomplishment in your previous work.
  6. Describe a difficult situation you faced with a co-worker or supervisor. How did you handle it?

2. Advertise the position.

There are many different options to be explored: local newspapers, job sites on-line, Chilliwack Employment Services, the UCFV Career Centre, career fairs, the federal government JobBank and many others. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

3. Short-list applicants based on their resumes.

4. Schedule the interviews.

  • Set aside a designated period of time for the interview process. Then schedule interviews approximately 45 minutes apart – 30 minutes with each applicant and 15 minutes for note-taking and preparation for the next interview.

5. Start interviewing!

  • Read each resume thoroughly before each interview and make notes if there are areas on the resume you would like to clarify.
  • Use the questions you prepared ahead of time and ask each applicant the same questions.
  • After the interview, make notes and be sure to follow-up with thorough reference checks.

6. Make your decision.

  • Use notes from the interview, reference checks and the selection criteria to make your decision. Phone your applicant to offer the position and then follow-up with a letter to welcome your new employee and to confirm employment with your company.

Now keep those great employees!

Employee turnover is expensive. A 2001 Hay Group (U.K.) survey of approximately one million employees at over 330 companies worldwide showed it can cost a company up to 18 months salary to lose a manager or professional. And losing and replacing an hourly worker can cost up to six months of that worker’s salary.

The Hay Group also determined there is a direct connection between losing employees and identifiable hidden costs such as lost sales, lower productivity, loss of customers and decreased employee morale.

1. Know why your company attracts, keeps, or loses employees.

  • Be sure to find out why your new employee accepted the position. This can be done through interviews or informal conversation. Knowing why can tell you a lot about how your business is perceived and what draws job seekers to your company.
  • Know why your current employees stay. Staff satisfaction surveys can help you spot problem areas in addition to helping you identify your business strengths.
  • Try to find out why employees leave. Keep accurate records about your employee turnover and look for patterns. Use an exit interview if possible.

2. Build an employee retention plan.

In order to keep employee turnover to a minimum, you need to formulate clear goals and targets with regard to employee retention and then regularly evaluate how your business is doing. Develop a strategy in consultation with your employees, business colleagues, and human resources professionals.

Some basic employee retention strategies:

  1. Provide adequate training to new recruits. Use training not only to ensure employees have the skills they need to do the job both safely and well but also to educate new employees about the company’s vision and goals.
  2. Give recognition for a job well done and provide constructive feedback often.
  3. Use praise to raise employee morale and productivity, but be genuine and target specific accomplishments rather than general work. Often praising one employee in public will improve the morale of all employees.
  4. Plan work effectively and clearly communicate about what must be accomplished.
  5. Be sure to let your employees know that you are interested in their success.
  6. Keep employees informed. Ask employees for input before making decisions that affect their work. Let them know both the short and long-term goals of the company.
  7. Find a way to measure and reward “people skills”. If your employees get the impression that “people skills” don’t matter, then they assume neither do people.
  8. Keep training relevant. Training should broaden employee experience, not waste staff time.
  9. Develop and maintain a good management team.
  10. Allow – no, encourage – your employees to generate and participate in playful fun that results in congratulations and cheers from co-workers. Play is about employees being spontaneous and creative and enjoying their time on the job. Join in!

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Staffing can be a real challenge. But with the right strategies, you can not only attract the very best employees for your business but also keep those employees motivated, productive and willing to stay with your company for many years.