The Hiring Process
The hiring process, or the recruitment process, includes making the decision to hire a new employee, deciding what skills and experience an employee will need, recruiting for the position, selecting an employee, onboarding, and new employee training.
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What are the Steps in the Recruiting Process?
1. Deciding to hire a new employee.
The goal of this stage in the hiring process is to determine if it makes economic sense to fill the position. Sometimes it's pretty clear that an employee needs to be hired. For instance, when a key employee leaves a position. Before hiring, you may want to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the employee will produce enough revenue to cover the costs of recruiting and employing them, or you may be better off using a freelancer.
At larger companies, you may be submitting a job requisition at this point.
Costs of Hiring an Employee:
Method | Cost |
|---|---|
External hiring team | $16,000.00 per year. |
Internal HR team | $91,000.00 to $120,000 per year. |
Career events | $125.00 to $225.00 per event. |
Job boards fees | $300.00 per month. |
Background checks | $5.00 to $80.00 per applicant. |
Onboarding and Training | 1% to 2.5% of total revenue. |
Careers page | In-house. |
Salary + extras | $62,500.00 to $70,000.00 per year. |
2. Creating a job description.
You'll need to describe the job duties, responsibilities, skills, and level of experience your ideal candidate will have in a fairly dry job description that will be used internally. You can use one of our pre-written job description templates that cover most of the popular roles.
3. Recruiting candidates.
First, you want to create a pool of applicants from which you can draw great candidates by putting the word out via job boards, your company career page, and employee referral program, etc. Writing a great job posting is critical, and so is a well-crafted referral email for recruiting from within. If the traditional recruiting methods do not work, you should look at other ways of finding employees and modifying your overall recruiting strategy.
4. Initial screening of applicants.
Try responding to each application with an email that asks a series of around 5 questions pertinent to the position. The questions should take about 20 minutes to answer and should require the level of experience you'd expect for the job. Average candidates will not respond and great ones will, so it is an easy and efficient screening step.
5. Interviewing candidates.
Start off with a 15-minute phone interview. This will allow you to quickly determine if they really meet your qualifications and if your expectations and goals line up. We've got a full guide to phone interviews, with sample questions. For some roles you may need more specific interview questions.
For more practical tips, read our article on how to create an interview process.
6. Making your job offer.
As you go through the hiring process, be sure to check in several times with candidates on what their expected salary is. This can change, depending on other offers they're looking at. When it comes time to make your offer, send a great job offer letter template that explains everything that you're offering, including paid time off and any perks or allowances for equipment, etc.
7. Onboarding and new employee orientation.
Once your offer has been accepted, it's time to bring the new employee on board. There will be new employee paperwork you'll need to take care of, and you'll need to introduce them to your team, their workspace, and the company culture. You'll also want to go over projects and expectations for the coming months as part of a complete new employee orientation.
Forms for New Employees:
- Form W-4 for Federal Income Tax Withholding.
- Form I-9 and E-Verify System for Employment Eligibility.
- Job Application Form.
- State Withholding and Registration.
- A Checklist for Hiring New Employees.
- Your Employee Handbook.
8. Training your new hire.
Once new employees have been shown the basics through your orientation and onboarding process, it's time to train them on any new job-related tasks they'll be responsible for.
How to Pay Your Employees:
- Have all employees complete a W-4.
- Find or sign up for Employer Identification Numbers.
- Choose your payroll schedule.
- Calculate and withhold income taxes.
- Pay taxes.
- File tax forms & employee W-2s.
FAQs:
What are the steps in the hiring process?
What is the typical hiring process?
Typically, hiring starts when you advertise a job opportunity and begin screening applicants.
How long is the hiring process?
This depends on how many applicants you receive and what your deadline if for hire. Finding the right candidate can take several weeks, at the least.
How can I improve my hiring?
Make sure that you have a clearly written job description so that candidates know exactly what is required of them. Adding in a screening test and a second interview can also help to bring forward the best candidates.
How can I speed up the hiring process?
We recommend using an applicant tracking system like Betterteam to streamline and organize applications as they come in. This will make it easier to communicate with applicants and sort through the top candidates.
What forms do I need for a new employee?
- Form W-4 for Federal Income Tax Withholding.
- Form I-9 and E-Verify System for Employment Eligibility.
- Job Application Form.
- State Withholding and Registration.
- A Checklist for Hiring New Employees.
- Your Employee Handbook.
How do you start paying employees?
If you don't want to use payroll software and instead choose to process payroll yourself, you need to follow these six steps:
- Have all employees complete a W-4.
- Find or sign up for Employer Identification Numbers.
- Choose your payroll schedule.
- Calculate and withhold income taxes.
- Pay taxes.
- File tax forms & employee W-2s.
What does it cost to hire an employee?
The average U.S. business spends $4,000 on hiring a new employee. There are different ways of recruiting, each with varying costs.