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In order to deter claims of discrimination and follow best practices in the hiring process, a well thought out Hiring Policy should be drafted. The policy will address these main topics:
- Personnel Requisitions – This is initiated by the department manager/supervisor and approved by company VP or President.
Once a supervisor has identified a need to hire a new employee, either to replace a terminated employee or because of an increase in workload the first step should be to formally complete a Position Requisition form. The main purpose of this form is to establish a need for the new position, and also demonstrating that funds and space is available. Drafting the job posting would be the next step and listing all key position functions, including education and experience. Once the form is complete then the supervisor or company VP will approve.
- Recruitment (External and Internal) – Time to find a viable candidate, this can be achieved by job postings, bulletin boards, social media etc.
What services does the company use to find viable job candidates? Social media (LinkedIn or Facebook), online job postings (Career builder and Zip Recruiter), employee referral program (incentivize employees who refer job candidates). The resources you are using to gather an applicant pool should be non-discriminatory and open to all qualified candidates.
- Interview Process – Gather a pool of candidates and conduct either phone or in person interviews.
In order to save everyone time it’s strongly recommended to conduct a preliminary phone interview first to see if the candidate is a good fit for the organization. Nothing is worse than scheduling a face-to-face interview with a candidate, spending time with them and then learning that their salary requirements are completely off from what the business is offering. We highly recommend creating a list of questions that can be asked during the phone interview, here are a few that work:
-What are 3 qualities that set you apart from the average candidate?
-What are your current salary requirements?
-Name 3 things you didn’t like about your last employer.
-Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 3 to 5 years?
- Employment Background Checks – You’ve found the man for the job; now make sure he doesn’t have anything in his background that would disqualify him from employment.
Time is of the essence at this point. Hopefully you have already disclosed to the applicant during the interview that part of the hiring process consists of an employment background check. Here is where you will engage your third party background screening company to provide the screening on the new hire. Make sure that the proper notices have been provided to the new hire, and you have acquired their signed consent to the background check.
- Start date and orientation – Have the new employee complete all new hire paperwork. Have manager/supervisor provided orientation that will consist of a check list for company policies and procedures.
Now that they employee has passed the employment background check, it’s time for the orientation and on-boarding. It would be wise to develop a new hire check list that can address these points:
- New Hire Paperwork (Tax forms, and any internal policies)
- Employee Handbook signature (Confirm that the employee acknowledges receiving the handbook)
- Orientation (consisting of introductions by hiring manager to other employees)
- Employee Training (is there any mandatory compliance training that the new hire needs?)
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