Considering the evolution of the internet in recent years, it’s incredible to think that despite its advancement there is still a long way to go for it to change the method of employment and hiring.

At the moment, the current process follows the same old procedure:

1. Create the job advertisement for your role
2. Conduct interviews for potential candidates
3. Contact the relevant references
4. Consider your likely candidates for the role
5. Make an offer
6. Confirm the candidates position 
7. Hire the employee 

These steps require time and resources, which means if you were to make the wrong decision about hiring, it could cost the company up to $50,000. As well as direct and indirect costs, when they leave you’ll have to go through the whole process of hiring someone new as well as having a domino effect on others in the workplace. Co-workers will feel frustrated from candidates that are inadequate to perform the role after the new candidate has been hired. This is likely to give your top talent a reason to leave which won’t be beneficial for the company.

This is why your hiring process should be reviewed and considered as a great way for your business to grow. But first, let’s look at what growth hacking is exactly.

Growth hacking

Growth hacking is like marketing on steroids where each of the elements that are considered in it are aligned to reach one specific goal: to grow your user base. The idea is to utilize the data that you receive to develop strategies quickly that can reach out to more of your audience. Its aim is to increase your overall audience for your product or service.

Think of growth hacking as a way to sift through your audience and find only candidates that are worthy of the role you’re advertising, but doing it efficiently. So, this is probably something that you’re looking to and here are strategies in place to help reach your goals.

Poaching talent from rivals

This is known as ‘head hunting’ or ‘recruiting’ and are common terms used when you ‘steal’ talented employees from other employers. It involves the process going out and sourcing some talented individuals who are already in a job and approach them. 

The internet makes this even easier with the use of LinkedIn. This social network for professionals has almost 500,000 members and most are open to hearing from a recruiter, just search for candidates who match your specifications and message them. 

You could even consider hiring international employees who could fill the knowledge gap in your company. Just ensure the onboarding process is smooth if you do poach them. Consider arranging aspects such as accommodation, travel arrangements, UK visa applications and others.

Consider a recruiting agency

As this is a quick process and not everyone has lots of time, sometimes handling interviews and hiring team members is much more time consuming than you think, you could prioritise your time elsewhere. Therefore if you have the budget for it, handing the recruitment process to someone else is much easier and much less time-consuming.

Use recruiting software

Another method that you could use alternative to hiring a recruiter is using recruiting software. It’s also beneficial if you wish to keep hiring strictly internally. It’s extremely easy to use and less time-consuming which means the applications will come to you rather than the other way around. 

You can add new jobs to your website easily, post on multiple job boards and find all social profiles automatically which makes it a far more efficient process.

Ask for references and portfolio’s in your job advertisement

During the recruiting process, you need to act fast as it’s likely the candidate may have quite a few roles on the table but it also means you use up less time. Asking for candidates to provide references and portfolio’s beforehand can go a long way to saving you time and resources. Instead of waiting until after the face-to-face interviews to ask for references and work samples, you should ask for them up front in the job advertisement. You will be able to see if they actually have the skills you require first. 

Make a wish list

You need to create a list before you start interviewing anyone on all the necessary, must have, skills and qualities that your employees MUST have. 

This list will ensure you hire someone that is suited to the job and the culture of the workplace. It’ll include all the unwritten rules needed to be followed in order to work well in your business including behaviour you expect from your employees to the qualities needed for a head leadership team to be successful.

So overall employing someone who fits in well will decrease the overall rate of employee turnover. Stick to the list that you’ve created regardless of how the potential employee looks on their CV. If you discover something that you don’t like about the person during their interview, move on to the next candidate.

Their first day

For a new candidate, it’s important that they’re able to feel comfortable when they first arrive. This is why you should set a plan in place for their first day as a candidate may reconsider their choice if they turn up without anything to do. Most candidates tend to leave their old jobs as they feel as though they’ll gain something better from the new one so ensure that the grass is greener on the other side for them.

In order to stop your new employee walking back to their old jobs your training plan should have these key elements: 

• Job description. 
• Corporate goals. 
• Personal development milestones. 
• Check-in dates. 

If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail, planning is key when managing new employees.