New Jersey Enterpreneur - Small Business, Entrepreneurs and Venture Capital

Hiring quality candidates has a bigger impact on your business than you might think

As a business owner, you know better than anyone that recruitment is a high-stakes game. Not only are there potential hits to your bottom line, but there can be other setbacks, including:

• Lost productivity; longer learning curves
• Poor customer service
• Increased company liability
• Higher employee turnover
• Morale issues with your other employees

How can you help reduce these negative impacts to your business?

• Identify, locate and recruit the right candidate the first time
• Determine the appropriate level of compensation and benefits needed to attract and retain the right people
• Create an atmosphere conducive to retaining your best employees

To improve the effectiveness of your recruiting efforts, you should plan up-front to save valuable time and potential costly mistakes later. Best recruiting practices include job description development, determining appropriate salaries, implementing legal interviewing guidelines, developing a good mix of recruitment advertising, and implementing thorough candidate assessment practices.

Job description development

How can you tell if you are hiring the right person if you haven’t identified specifically what that person will be doing? How will a candidate know if they want to work for you if they don’t know exactly what their responsibilities are? Don’t assume that an "office manager" or another title means the same thing to everyone. Having job descriptions prepared for every position in your organization is one of the most important steps in ensuring effective hiring practices.

New hire salary information

There are several factors you should consider when determining salaries in a compensation plan.

• Job analysis: First, every compensation program should start with a job analysis — observing the tasks performed by your employees and writing job descriptions based on what you observed. The job analysis and resulting job description provide information on the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to perform the job. The job description can also be used for reasonable accommodation analysis needed to remain compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Job evaluation: It’s important to conduct a job evaluation, which involves reviewing job descriptions, formulating job titles and developing a scale to measure the differences between each job position. The most popular method of job evaluation is the factor comparison method, which depicts a pay rate based on several factors related to the job.
• Market salary rates: One of the most common mistakes made in the hiring process is compensation. Compensation consists of more than just salary. It also includes the perks that come with the position. There are tools available to help you determine the proper compensation for each position in your business, specific to your geographic area. If you are working with a full-service HR outsourcing company you can obtain access to online tools that will show you the average rates for each position. This helps ensure that your business doesn’t pay too much — but does pay enough to attract the right employees.

Interview guidelines and assistance

It is critical that everyone who interviews potential candidates understands the types of questions that can be asked by law. A seemingly harmless question could lead to accusations of discrimination. A well thought-out interview guide will maximize your time and ensure that you gather the information you need to make the right decision.

Recruitment advertising development

The more specific you are about what you are looking for, the better the response will be. Remember — "better" doesn’t mean more resumes. (Who has time to fumble through hundreds of resumes?) A better response rate means fewer resumes from more qualified candidates. It’s also important not to assume that newspapers and the internet are the only places to recruit the right people. Many businesses offer their employees a bonus for referring great candidates to fill vacant positions.

Candidate assessment

Resume screening, background screening, pre-employment assessment and drug screening are tools to help ensure you hire the right person the first time. If you are using an HR outsourcing company, these services are provided to your business — freeing you up to focus on your core business activities.

If you have five or more employees in your business, you can benefit from HR outsourcing. If you want to learn how Gevity can help with your recruitment efforts and other HR issues, please call 1.800.2GEVITY or visit gevity.com.

ABOUT GEVITY:

Thousands of small and mid-sized businesses nationwide leverage the flexibility and scalability of Gevity’s Human Resources (HR) solution to help them maximize the return on investment in their people. Essentially, Gevity serves as the full-service HR department for these businesses, providing each employee with support previously only available at much larger companies.

Gevity delivers the Gevity Edge™, a comprehensive solution comprised of innovative management and administration services, helping employers to streamline HR administration, optimize HR practices, and maximize people and performance. This solution enables both businesses and their employees to achieve their full potential, giving them an edge over competitors.

Gevity’s unique approach features Gevity OnSite™, experienced HR Consultants based in local markets backed by nationwide resources and easy-to-use technology, including Gevity OnLine™ and Gevity OnCall™. For more information, visit gevity.com.