How to Find (Ah-mazing!) Employees

How to Find Employees?

Finding great employees can feel like a daunting task, but there are in person and online approaches you can use to find employees that help your business shine. We’ve brought together the traits to look for in your employees, how to find employees, and how to filter through employees to find the best fit.

Traits of the Best Employees

The best employees are not only loyal and dedicated to their field, but they also hold a variety of other traits that can support an office’s growth. We’ve included some of our favorite traits in great employees below:

1. Tactful yet Honest. Honesty is essential to the workplace, but to make a company and team grow in a healthy way employees must be honest regardless of their position. Given the opportunity, an employee should have the skills to communicate their suggestions and experience without being rude or disrespectful. This trait is greatly fostered by a company’s culture.

2. Eagerness. Find employees that are eager and happy to continue their learning development, support their team members, and offer suggestions to the company. Interns and experienced professionals alike should show eager dedication to their field and company. When eagerness is drained from an employee, a team lead should chat with them – they may have a gold nugget for the company’s improvement.

3. Self-Improvement. Employees dedicated to their field are interested in developing themselves through courses, community meetings, volunteering, and outside reading. Signs that your team is engaged in their field is shown through this outside engagement. Team members that are always improving themselves will grow more easily within the business and their position.

4. Team Engagement. When your team desires to meetup outside of work hours, it is clear that they truly enjoy working together! When your team members bring doughnuts to the office or plan a volunteer event for the office, they help build your team’s bond. Engaged employees enjoy planning these events and enjoy working with team members they are friends with.

5. Social. Find employees that are friendly and jovial team members spread the happiness to their team members. A joke every once in a while or a chat in the kitchen can help team members bond and break up the workday. Spreading positive, fun energy can help keep the team motivation high!

Where to Find Employees

Find employees that fit your company’s needs and culture – although it can be tough! Especially when the demand for employees in certain industry’s is especially high.

We’ve compiled some of the best places to find new employees:

Online

• Social media
• Use online, freelance support
• Online virtual job fair
• Online applications through your website

In-Person

• Employee referral program
• In-person job fair
• Unique advertising ideas
• Meetup communities related to the job opportunity
• Online employee recruitment like: ZipRecruiter, Jopwell , Outsourcely, and Found

Questions to Ask Interviewees

Now that you have gotten potential team members in the door, you can begin sifting through them to find the best fit for your team.

First Round of Applicant Review

Before interviewing anyone, start by determining the applicants that have the potential experience and skillset you need. Although many companies use a streamlined computer algorithm to choose the best applicants, we recommend choosing your interviewees by hand. Despite the time it takes to read each resume, remember that you are looking to hire a human for your team, so it is best to choose the applicant using humans too.

After receiving applicant resumes, it is time to start choosing the people who are best for interviewing. To pass the first round of inspection, analyze the applicants resumes and cover letters for the following:

• Consider their “soft skills”
• Potential for growth within your company
• Enthusiasm and ability to learn
• Experience relevant to the position

Second Round of Applicant Review – The Interview

Next, begins the interview process. Use a system to track your applicant interviews including when they responded to your inquiry, when you plan to interview them, and any additional notes that may be important for you.

Creating a Great First Impression

Remember that the interview is not only your first impression of the applicant, but their first impression of you and your team! Ensure that your team is prepared to welcome your applicants warmly when they first enter your building. We’ve also included some other great tips for creating an excellent first impression to your applicants:

• Dress professionally, yet comfortable (similar to your day to day wear)
• Invite another team member to join the interview
• Attend to the applicant as soon as they enter the building
• Offer coffee, tea or water
• Interview them within 5-15 minutes of their arrival
• Allow them a few minutes to themselves in the room before interviewing (to calm any nerves!)
• Ask how their day has been
• Inquire about how travel to the office was

Questions for Interviewees

Now that you have introduced yourself and began the interview process, it is time to ask your applicant great, thought through interview questions!

When creating the questions for your interview, some of your top goals should be to discover the applicant’s passion, how they see themselves grow in the company, and how your company can fill a career void the applicant currently wants filled.

Below are some examples of questions to ask your applicant, and what the question’s response will tell you about the applicant.

Discover their passion:

• What hobbies do you enjoy in your spare time?
• What meetups or communities do you participate in? Are you interested in any?
• What interested you in applying for your previous opportunity?

Discover how they want their career to grow:

• Over the course of the next year, what do you hope to learn during your career?
• In the next 5 years, where do you hope your career leads?
• How do you expect to grow within this opportunity?

Discover the void your company can fill:

• How do you balance work and life? How can our company support that?
• Outside of your day to day activities, how could our team support your professional development?

What is your strategy for finding great employees? Do you have any suggestions to fellow business owners?

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