Regardless of the business you are in, finding and hiring the right employees is crucial to the long-term success and sustainability of your company. Hiring your first employee is a significant milestone. It is the point where you share your vision and ideas for the brand with others and invite them in.

Besides having the required skills and qualities, a potential employee needs to mesh with the company culture and ideally, be a nice person to have around your office. Adding the right people offers a fresh perspective and an injection of excitement to the company. Getting it wrong means your business can suffer. Before starting to look for your first employee, ask yourself the following questions.

What am I looking for in an employee?

Hiring new employees starts with the realisation# that you have a need to be fulfilled. Start by defining their function and laying out their day-to-day activities before going into the specifics. For example, if you are looking for a developer, establish what they will be working on and which code languages they will need to know. This ensures that you are not hiring for the sake of hiring, but approach the process with a plan.

A well-defined position is the first step in creating a job opening that attracts the right people and weeds out some of the less suitable candidates straight away. It might take more time to properly define, but in the long run your company will benefit from it. The hiring process is accelerated because you generally have fewer applicants, but the ones that do contact you are more suitable and of a higher standard.

Do I have an inviting description of the job & the company?

Now that you know who you are looking for, you can move forward by presenting the vacancy to the world. In this description, you’ll need to convince someone that your company is the right fit for them culturally. Your brand should shine through from the way the vacancy is written to the places potential employees can find it.

Set up a page on your website showcasing which vacancies you have and invite people to apply. On this page, you can also tell them more about yourself and create an inviting atmosphere so that potential applicants feel motivated to apply for the function. Remember, you are trying to sell them the job to them as much as they are trying to impress you…

Are the right people able to see my job opening?

There are numerous job boards available, ranging from the well-known (Monster, Indeed) to the highly-specific (DutchStartupJobs). Since you’ve already defined what kind of employee you need to hire, you can consider the websites where you want to post the job opening. Defining the exact function available will pay off in reaching the right people. Another thing to consider is your personal network: Maybe your next-door neighbors’ cousin is that amazing marketing manager that you are looking for.

How can I structure the hiring process to be fast and efficient?

Different companies take different approaches to the hiring process. Look at the function and how you want to assess suitability. For example, if you are hiring a salesperson, you might have a video conference with them first to get to know them. As a follow-up, you create a short assignment for them to showcase their skills. From there you can decide to either hire the applicant or move on with other prospects. This process can be repeated for each hire you intend to make afterwards and help you evaluate each candidate efficiently and quickly.

For all these questions and steps, an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) can help in making the process simpler and more efficient. However, the process starts with your company and your own desire to find the right person, whoever that may be.

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Author bio:

Perry Oostdam is the co-founder and CEO of Recruitee, a collaborative hiring platform for teams of all sizes. Recruitee helps optimize the entire hiring process, from candidate relationship management, employer branding, and job posting to candidate sourcing and applicant tracking. The company has offices in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Poznań, Poland and works with companies around the world.