Selection and Hiring Checklist

Selection and Hiring Checklist
Want to recruit and hire a superior workforce? This checklist for hiring employees will help you systematize your process for hiring employees, whether it's your first employee or one of many employees you are hiring. This hiring employees checklist helps you keep track of your recruiting efforts. This hiring employees checklist communicates both the recruiting and the hiring process and progress in recruiting to the hiring manager. Your feedback and comments are welcome to improve this checklist for hiring employees.
Checklist for Hiring Employees

• Determine the need for a new or replacement position.
  
• Think creatively about how to accomplish the work without adding staff (improve processes, eliminate work you don’t need to do, divide work differently, etc.).
  
• Hold a recruiting planning meeting with the recruiter, the HR leader, the hiring manager, and, potentially, a coworker or internal customer.
  
• Develop and prioritize the key requirements needed from the position and the special qualifications, traits, characteristics, and experience you seek in a candidate. (These will assist your Human Resources department to write the classified ad; post the job online and on your Web site; and screen resultant resumes for potential candidate interviews.)
  
• With HR department assistance, develop the job description for the position.
  
• Determine the salary range for the position.
  
• Decide whether the department can afford hiring employees to fill the position.
  
• Post the position internally on the "Job Opportunities” bulletin board for one week. If you anticipate difficulty finding a qualified internal candidate for the position, state in the posting that you are advertising the position externally at the same time.
  
• Send an all-company email to notify staff that a position has been posted and that you are hiring employees.
  
• All staff members encourage talented, qualified, diverse internal candidates to apply for the position. (If you are the hiring supervisor, as a courtesy, let the current supervisor know if you are talking to his or her reporting staff member.)
  
• Interested internal candidates fill out the Internal Position Application.
  
• Schedule an interview, for internal candidates, with the hiring supervisor, the manager of the hiring supervisor or a customer of the position and HR. (In all cases, tell the candidates the timelines you anticipate the interview process will take.)Hold the interviews with each interviewer clear about their role in the interview process. (Culture fit, technical qualifications, customer responsiveness and knowledge are several of the screening responsibilities you may want your interviewers to assume.)
  
• Interviewers fill out the Job Candidate Evaluation Form.
  
• If no internal candidates are selected for the position, make certain you clearly communicate with the applicants that they were not selected. Whenever possible, provide feedback that will help the employee continue to develop their skill and qualifications. Use this feedback as an opportunity to help the employee continue to grow their career.
  
• If an internal candidate is selected for the position, make a written job offer that includes the new job description and salary.
  
• Agree on a transition timeline with the internal candidate’s current supervisor.
  
• If you've created another internal opening, begin again.
  
• End the search.
  
• If no qualified internal candidates apply, extend the search to external candidates, if you didn't advertise the position simultaneously. Develop your candidate pool of diverse applicants.
  
• Spread word-of-mouth information about the position availability in your industry and to each employee’s network of friends and associates.
  
• Place a classified ad in newspapers with a delivery reach that will create a diverse
  candidate pool.
  
• Recruit online. Post the classified ad on jobs and newspaper-related websites including the company website.
  
• Post the position on professional association websites.
  
• Talk to university career centers.
  
• Contact temporary help agencies.
  
• Brainstorm other potential ways to locate a well-qualified pool of candidates for each position.
  
• Through your recruiting efforts, you've developed a pool of candidates. People are applying for your open job. Whether you have developed a candidate pool in advance of the job opening or you are searching from scratch, the development of a qualified pool of candidates is crucial.
  
• Send postcards or emails to each applicant to acknowledge receipt of the resume. (State that if the candidate appears to be a good match for the position, relative to your other applicants, you will contact them to schedule an interview. If not, you will keep their application/resume on file for a year in case other opportunities arise.)
  

Want to recruit and hire a superior workforce? This checklist for hiring employees will help you systematize your process for hiring employees, whether it's your first employee or one of many employees you are hiring. This hiring employees checklist helps you keep track of your recruiting efforts. This hiring employees checklist communicates both the recruiting and the hiring process and progress in recruiting to the hiring manager. You'll want to start with the first page of this checklist for hiring employees.

• Once you have developed a number of applicants for the position, screen resumes and/or applications against the prioritized qualifications and criteria established. Note that resume cover letters matter as you screen.
  
• Phone screen the candidates whose credentials look like a good fit with the position. Determine candidate salary requirements, if not stated with the application, as requested.
  
• Schedule qualified candidates, whose salary needs you can afford, for a first interview with the hiring supervisor and an HR representative, either in-person or on the phone. In all cases, tell the candidates the timeline you anticipate the interview process will take.
  
• Ask the candidate to fill out your official job application, upon their arrival for the interview.
  
• Give the candidate a copy ofthe job description to review.
  
• Hold screening interviews during which the candidate is assessed and and has the opportunity to learn about your organization and your needs.
  
• Fill out the Job Candidate Evaluation Form for each candidate interviewed.
  
• Meet to determine which (if any) candidates to invite back for a second interview.
  
• Determine the appropriate people to participate in the second round of interviews. This may include potential coworkers, customers, the hiring supervisor, the hiring supervisor’s manager and HR. Only include people who will impact the hiring decision.
  
• Schedule the additional interviews.
  
• Hold the second round of interviews with each interviewer clear about their role in the interview process. (Culture fit, technical qualifications,customer responsiveness and knowledge are several of the screening responsibilities you may want your interviewers to assume.)
  
• Candidates participate in any testing you may require for the position.
  
• Interviewers fill out the candidate rating form.
  
• Human Resources checks the finalists’ (people to whom you are considering offering the position) credentials, references and other qualifying documents and statements.
  
• Anyone who has stated qualifications dishonestly or who fails to pass the checks is eliminated as a candidate.
  
• Through the entire interviewing process, HR, and managers, where desired, stay in touch with the most qualified candidates via phone and email.
  
• Reach consensus on whether the organization wants to select any candidate (via informal discussion, a formal discussion meeting, HR staff touching base with interviewers, candidate rating forms, and so on). If dissension exists, the supervising manager should make the final decision.
  
• If no candidate is superior,start again to review your candidate pool and redevelop a pool if necessary.
  
• HR and the hiring supervisor agree on the offer to make to the candidate, with the concurrence of the supervisor’s manager and the departmental budget.
  
• Talk informally with the candidate about whether he or she is interested in the job at the offered salary and stated conditions. Make certain the candidate agrees that they
  will participate in a background check, a drug screen and sign a Non-compete Agreement or a Confidentiality Agreement, depending on the position. (This should have been signed off on the application.) If so, proceed with an offer letter. You can also make the job offer contingent on certain checks.
  
• If not, determine if negotiable factors exist that will bring the organization and the
  candidate into agreement. A reasonable negotiation is expected; a candidate that returns repeatedly to the company requesting more each time is not a candidate the company wants to hire.
  
• If the informal negotiation leads the organization to believe the candidate is viable, HR will prepare a written position offer letter from the supervisor that offers the position, states and formalizes the salary, reporting relationship, supervising relationships, and any other benefits or commitments the candidate has negotiated or the company has promised.
  
• The offer letter, the job description and the Company Non-Compete or Confidentiality Agreement are provided to the candidate.
  
• The candidate signs the offer documentation to accept the job or refuses the position.
  
• If yes, schedule the new employee's start date.
  
• If no, start again to review your candidate pool and redevelop a pool if necessary.
  

Top Ten Recruiting Tips
Finding the best possible people who can fit within your culture and contribute within your organization is a challenge and an opportunity. Keeping the best people, once you find them, is easy if you do the right things right. These specific actions will help you with recruiting and retaining all the talent you need. Here are ten tips for better recruiting.
Improve Your Candidate Pool When Recruiting Employees
Companies that select new employees from the candidates who walk in their door or answer an ad in the paper or online are missing the best candidates.They're usually working for someone else and they may not even be looking for a new position. Here are steps to take to improve your candidate pool.

• Invest time in developing relationships with university placement offices, recruiters and executive search firms.
  
• Enable current staff members to actively participate in industry professional associations and conferences where they are likely to meet candidates you may successfully woo.
  
• Watch the online job boards for potential candidates who may have resumes online even if they're not currently looking.
  
• Use professional association Web sites and magazines to advertise for professional staff.
  

The key is to build your candidate pool before you need it.
Hire the Sure Thing When Recruiting Employees
Bruce N. Pfau and Ira T. Kay, authors of The Human Capital Edge( compare prices), are convinced that you should hire a person who has done this "exact job, in this exact industry, in this particular business climate, from a company with a very similar culture." They believe that "past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior" and suggest that this is the strategy that will enable you to hire winners. They say that you must hire the candidates whom you believe can hit the ground running in your company. You can't afford the time to train a possibly successful candidate.
Look First at In-house Candidates
Providing promotional and lateral opportunities for current employees positively boosts morale and makes your current staff members feel their talents, capabilities, and accomplishments are appreciated. Always post positions internally first. Give potential candidates an interview. It's a chance for you to know them better. They learn more about the goals and needs of the organization. Sometimes, a good fit is found between your needs and theirs.
Be Known as a Great Employer
Pfau and Kay make a strong case for not just being a great employer, but letting people know that you are a great employer. Take a look at your employee practices for retention, motivation, accountability, reward, recognition,flexibility in work-life balance, promotion, and involvement. These are your key areas for becoming an employer of choice. You want your employees bragging that your organization is a great place to work. People will believe the employees before they believe the corporate literature.
Involve Your Employees in the Hiring Process
You have three opportunities to involve your employees in the hiring process.

• Your employees can recommend excellent candidates to your firm.
  
• They can assist you to review resumes and qualifications of potential candidates.
  
• They can help you interview people to assess their potential "fit" within your company.
  

Organizations that fail to use employees to assess potential employees are underutilizing one of their most important assets. People who participate in the selection process are committed to helping the new employee succeed. It can't get any better than that for you.
Pay Better Than Your Competition
Yes, you do get what you pay for in the job market. Survey your local job market and take a hard look at the compensation people in your industry attract. You want to pay better than average to attract and keep the best candidates. Seems obvious, doesn't it? It's not. I listen to employers every day who talk about how to get employees cheaply. It's a bad practice. Did I say, "you do get what you pay for in the job market?" Sure, you can luck out and attract a person who has golden handcuffs because they are following their spouse to a new
community or need your benefits. But, they will resent their pay scale, feel unappreciated, and leave you for their first good job offer. I have seen employee-replacement costs that range from two to three times the person's annual salary. Did I say that you do get what you are willing to pay for in the job market?
Use Your Benefits to Your Advantage In Recruiting Employees
Keep your benefits above industry standard and add new benefits as you can afford them. You also need to educate employees about the cost and value of their benefits so they appreciate how well you are looking out for their needs.Treasured currently by employees is flexibility and the opportunity to balance work with other life responsibilities, interests, and issues. You can't be an employer of choice without a good benefits package that includes standard benefits such as medical insurance, retirement, and dental insurance.Employees are increasingly looking for cafeteria-style benefit plans in which they can balance their choices with those of a working spouse or partner. Pfau and Kay recommend stock and ownership opportunities for every level of employees in your organization. I like profit sharing plans and bonuses that pay the employee for measurable achievements and contributions.
Hire the Smartest Person You Can Find
The successful managers believe: "People don't change that much. Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough." If you're looking for someone who will work well with people, you need to hire an individual who has the talent of working well with people. You're unlikely to train missing talents into the person later. You can try, but then, you are not building on the employee's strengths which 80,000 managers, via Gallup's research, highly recommend. The recommendation? Hire for strengths; don't expect to develop weak areas of performance, habits, and talents. Build on what is great about your new employee in the first place.
Use Your Web Site for Recruiting
Your Web site portrays your vision, mission, values, goals, and products. It is also effective for recruiting employees who experience a resonance with what you state on your site. Do create an employment section which describes your available positions and contains information about you and why an interested person might want to contact your company. A recruiting Web site is your opportunity to shine and a highly effective way to attract candidates today.
Check References When Recruiting Employees
The purpose of this section is to keep you out of trouble with the candidates you are seeking and selecting and the employees you currently employ. You really need to check references carefuly and do background checks. In the litigious society in which we live (don't even ask me what percentage of the world's lawyers reside in the United States of America) you need to pursue every avenue to assure that the people you hire can do the job, contribute to your growth and development, and have no past transgressions which might endanger your current workforce. In fact, you might be liable if you failed to do a background check on a person who then attacked another in your workplace.
Conclusion: Start With These Recommendations
Each organization has to start somewhere to improve recruiting, hiring, and retention of valued employees. In my experience, the tactics and opportunities detailed here are your best bets for recruiting the best employees. These ideas can help your organization succeed and grow, they create a workplace that will meet both your needs and the needs of your potential and current employees.