Our Hiring Cheat Sheet for Small Business

Hiring is not easy. I have written before about preparing for interviews, best practices when a candidate is onsite, and how to make an offer that sets you apart. But if you haven’t been able to read all of those pieces, we decided to put it all in one place: our hiring cheat sheet for small businesses.

If you do 75% of the suggestions on this list, we guarantee you will have a leg up on other small businesses. Here we go.

Before the Interview

Tip #1 — Let the candidate know what to expect. No one wants a surprise, and no one wants to wait around wondering what comes next. Tell your candidates at the very beginning of the process what is likely to happen. It alleviates anxiety and lets them show up prepared.

Tip #2 — Get the logistics right. Make sure parking, reception, and every other logistic is in order. We hear from candidates all the time about how there was no direction and they did not know where to go. A smooth arrival means a relaxed, focused candidate.

Tip #3 — Don’t overload the candidate. Plan on the interview running 30-45 minutes. Keep interviews to no more than a 3-to-1 ratio of interviewers to interviewee — large panel interviews stress candidates, and the feedback we get is that more than three feels like a firing squad. If someone has multiple interviews in one visit, plan a break with a snack or coffee.

Tip #4 — Be prepared. Review the resume and highlight a couple of interesting things. Look at their LinkedIn to see what you might have in common. Have 2-3 questions written about their background, and 2-3 more to gauge culture fit and skills fit.

During the On-Site Interview

Tip #1 — Don’t lead with everything bad about your company. The old strategy was to share the good, the bad, and the ugly up front. Focus instead on the positive aspects of the company and the role.

Tip #2 — Let them catch your love for the company. Tell the candidate why you love working there, and sell them on it. Enthusiasm is contagious.

Tip #3 — Be on time. Being late creates a negative impression and can make the candidate feel disrespected before you’ve said a word.

Tip #4 — Shut off your phone and your computer. The number of interviewees turned off by interviewers who are “not paying attention” is a large one.

Tip #5 — Pay attention. Actively listen and ask follow-up questions to genuinely understand their skills, experience, and potential.

Tip #6 — Quit asking impossibly hard questions. Assessing skills matters, but so does creating a comfortable, non-threatening environment. Gotcha questions do more harm than good.

Tip #7 — Next interviews need to happen quickly. If you decide to bring a candidate back, schedule it within the next couple of days. You have a very high chance of losing your candidate if that next interview isn’t fast.

When You Make the Offer

Tip #1 — Call the candidate with excitement. The hiring manager (or CEO, if appropriate) should make the call personally and enthusiastically. Conveying real excitement makes acceptance far more likely.

Tip #2 — Put the offer in writing that same day. The written offer should follow the call the same day, preferably within the hour — and never before the call. It shows you are organized, professional, and value their time.

Tip #3 — Meet or exceed their salary expectations. Don’t offer less than they thought was coming. Even if they take the job at the lower rate, you have communicated that they weren’t worth the bottom of the range — and you’ll be starting off poorly.

Tip #4 — Keep communicating. If there’s time between acceptance and their start date, stay in touch: a company t-shirt, your newsletter, welcome emails from staff. Surprise and delight them.

In Conclusion

We would love to talk with you about your hiring process. We coach our clients through every step when we recruit with them, and our survey scores are 5 out of 5 on both the client and candidate side. We know that sounds like bragging — it is. Hiring and HR is what we do best.

Want the cheat sheet applied to your next search? Grab a free 30-minute session with one of our HR experts, and let’s get your process ahead of the pack.