Finding Qualified Employees

Exciting news: Your startup has reached the stage where you, the owner, can no longer do it all yourself. Scary news: That means it’s time to hire your first employee. If you’ve never hired before, the process may seem intimidating—and as a result, many new business owners rush to hire the first person who seems halfway suited for the job. Don’t make this mistake. A few simple steps will ensure you’ll land more qualified job candidates than you know what to do with.

What To Look For

Finding good employees begins with understanding exactly what you want and need from your first staffer. What duties are involved in the job you’re looking to fill, and what skills and characteristics are needed? Consider:

• The mental and physical tasks the job involves. Will the person be giving haircuts, doing accounting, driving a delivery truck or maintaining your Web site?
• The skills needed. Does the person need to know specific computer programs, have certain degrees or professional training, or have X years of experience in the field?
• The goals of the job. Why are you hiring for this position? What should this employee accomplish for your company?

Once you’ve thought through all these elements, you’re ready to write a job description. This includes the job duties, job title, who the employee reports to, any educational requirements or special skills needed, the pay range and the employee benefits you offer (if any).

Using this information, you’re ready to write your ad. By knowing exactly what you want from the employee you’re seeking to hire, you’ll be able to write a detailed, specific ad that should help you weed out unqualified candidates. Focus on the most important duties and job requirements. Specify how employees should contact you, and whether they should send you a resume or fill out a job application.

Where To Look

Once you know what type of person you’re looking for, there are lots of ways to find him or her. Here are some places to start:

Your network. Tell your colleagues, friends and family about the position you’re hiring for and see if anyone can refer qualified candidates to you. Also tell contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook or any other online social networking sites you use.

College and university placement offices. Depending on the level of experience and skills you need, you may want to list your job opening with a trade school, college or university.

Industry associations. Trade groups often have job banks you can use to find employees with experience in your field. You can also advertise in trade publications and on the publications’ Web sites.

Careerbuilder: Post job listings for 30 days and up; get a discount for posting multiple jobs. You pay a fee to search the site’s database of resumes. There’s also a BrandBuilder feature that lets you create a profile of your company.

Jobster lets you post jobs and search resumes. In addition to a per-post fee option, Jobster also offers a $10 per applicant option, so you pay by how many responses you get.

Monster.com offers job posting, discounts for bulk posting and resume search. You can post a job for as little as 14 days.

Yahoo! Hotjobs: Post jobs for 30 or 60 days, with a discount for bulk postings. You can search the site’s database of resumes, and get resumes delivered to your email. You can also create a full company profile to help attract job candidates.

Craigslist: This site requests you post in the region where you’re hiring (so if you’re in Seattle, you can’t post your ad on the New York City Craigslist site.) Job postings stay live for 7 days, and costs range from free to $75 depending on your city. One major difference from the other sites: You can search resumes and “jobs wanted” listings for free.

By spending a little time and thought on the process of attracting job candidates, you’ll have a better pool of applicants to start with—increasing your chances of making your first hire a good one.