Dear Consultant,

We’ve recently lost someone on our team, and my manager has tasked me with bringing in a new employee who can do the job as well as, or better than the last person.  Any suggestions about how I should do it?

Hiring a new employee is not as easy as it might seem initially.  Remember that there are a lot of things to think about, not only about writing a job description, but also about marketing the job to the right audience is also important attracting a good pool of applicants. Here is a process that you can follow that is partially based on industry best practices as well as information from Catano, Weisner and Hackett (2013).  Depending on your organization, and the position that you’re hiring for you can adapt this as you deem appropriate.  A more in-depth explanation of each step is also linked below.

1. If you have a Human Resources Department, consult with them to follow your organization’s procedures for hiring a new employee.
2. Learn about the job that you’re hiring for if you don’t already know a lot about it.  This is sometimes called “job analysis” and it will help you understand what knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes (KSAOs) are necessary to perform this job well.  A job analysis involves interviews with subject matter experts who know the job well, or even direct observation of people who are doing the job currently.  It also requires that you itemize the tasks will need to be accomplished in the job and the competencies necessary to excel in the position.
3. Write a “Job Description” that explains what an employee doing this job will be required to do and how they are supposed to do it.  The job description should also include the minimum necessary KSAOs required for the job, and the desired KSAOs.  Usually the minimum and desired KSAO sections are where you specify previous work experience, education, professional designations, motivations, etc.
4. Come up with a “Recruitment Strategy” that can either be formal or informal.  This strategy should include some thinking around your budget for marketing the position, what mediums you have available to post your job as well as what “selling points” you’re willing to share in your job description.
5. Develop a “Screening Process” that will help to save you time.  Depending on the number of applicants, you may not be able to interview everyone who applies to the job.  In this case, an initial screening process can help.  Screening can include looking for minimum qualification and cut-off scores for grades or test, years of experience, professional designations, etc.  These minimum qualifications and cut-offs should be carefully thought through, it is at this stage that you can easily disregard a wonderful candidate because they have one year less experience than you’ve specified in your cut-off.
6. Next you’ll need to “Create a short list of applicants”.  This list will be used to determine who you’d like to spend more time with and interview. As best as you can, try to come up with objective criteria for evaluating each application against the KSAOs that you’ve already defined in your job analysis.  Be transparent about this, because it will offer insight into your decision making in the case of disputes later on.
7. Once you’ve created your short list of applicants, you’ll want to reach out to them to “Conduct Interviews”.  The main goal of interviews are to fill in the blanks that are not specified on their resumes/CVs and applications.  They are also useful to determine soft skills not easily articulated on applications as well as organizational fit.  Some things you’ll want to keep in mind:

• • Be careful not to think that someone is a good fit for the job just because you like them, or that they are similar to you.
  • To keep things fair, make sure that you have a standard set of interview questions that are asked to each applicant.
  • Conduct the interviews in a similar manner for each applicant.  Similar room, similar questions (ideally, identical), everyone offered refreshments, etc.
  • All interviewers fill out a standard form that evaluates as objectively as possible, all of the KSAOs required for the job.
  • Ask for contact information for two or three references and get the applicant to sign a document giving you permission to contact and ask questions of the people they’ve specified
  • Keep the standard forms that were filled out during and after interviews on file in case of hiring disputes down the road.  You need to have transparency into your decision making at every point in the hiring process.

8.    The next step is to “Do Reference Checks”.  Once you have signed permission to contact references, you can begin setting up times to talk on the phone.  Only check references on applicants whom you’re seriously considering for the position.  Make sure that you follow a similar set of questions for each reference and fill out a standard form based on the answers provided by each reference.

9.    The most important part is the final “Selection Process” in choosing the top two or three candidates, and the order in which you’d like to send out offers.  Even if you don’t have a lot of objective measures in your evaluation process, you can sometime apply a score to each of the KSAOs developed in the job analysis.  This provides a transparent and objective way to rank applicants and provide insight into why one applicant was selected over another.  Avoid “gutt-feel” or “intuition” that is not backed up with further thought and objective justification.  Then send out an offer to your top candidate and await their approval before telling the next candidate that they have not been selected for the position.  If negotiations with the top candidate are not successful, send a letter of offer to your second highest candidate.

I hope that this process helps with your new hire.  Each stage described above can be quite detailed, please click on the links for each stage for further information.

References: http://www.amazon.ca/Recruitment-Selection-Canada-Victor-Catano/dp/0176504370