4 Tips for Startups Looking to Improve Their Interview Process

As a startup owner, you wear many hats, and so do your employees. One of those many hats may be that of a hiring team and interviewers.

Hiring is often a task that everyone must assist with on top of everything that’s on their plate.

To help you have the most effective recruitment and hiring process possible, check out these four tips for startups looking to improve their interview process.

#1: Prepare for the Interview

Many startups overlook this important first step. It’s easy to do, especially because you and your staff are really busy.

But, you’ll save yourselves a lot of headaches down the road if you spend 30 minutes preparing for the interview. This is also especially important if you have a team doing the interview.

Here’s what to do in your prep meeting:

• Review the candidate and the resume.
• Look over the job description you are interviewing for.
• Make a list of appropriate questions – be sure to include both technical and cultural questions.

You’ll do the same thing for every interviewee. Be sure and ask all the same questions so it’s easy to compare candidates.

#2: Have a Post Interview Meeting

If you’re interviewing several people over the course of a week, when it comes time to review candidates at the end, you might forget earlier interviews.

You can overcome this by meeting after the interview for a few minutes for a review.

This allows everyone on the interview team to speak up and sort out thoughts and feelings about the candidate.

You’ll have a more thorough and complete interview process if you do this step.

#3: Pay Attention to Personality

When hiring a new team member, you certainly want to pay attention to their skillset, education, and experience, but you also want to ensure that your candidate is a good fit.

You can always train a new team member and encourage skill development, but you certainly can’t change someone’s personality.

Because you’re hiring for a startup, you want to ensure that your candidate’s personality aligns with the rest of your team, your company culture, and your business’ mission and values.

If your candidate isn’t a good fit, you’ll cause yourself unnecessary trouble.

Pay attention to your open job and ensure that your candidate’s personality traits align with the job’s task. Often the type of person you hire depends on the kind of job opening you have as well as the culture of your startup.

#4: Cultivate Talent

It’s good business practice, especially for startups, to always be on the lookout for new talent.

If you’re always keeping your eye open for talented people with an entrepreneurial spirit, you’re well on your way to building a top-notch team.

One of the most important things for startups to consider is the culture you’re creating.

Because you have the ability to create it from the ground up, it’s important to pay attention to the attitude as well as the skills of potential talent.

When you are always on the lookout, you also aren’t scrambling to fill a much-needed position.

Final Thoughts

After you’ve hired just the right person, it’s time to ensure you have the right processes and policies in place.

Your new team member’s success depends on the information he/she receives in the first weeks of employment.

Do you have a new hire onboarding process? If not, you’ll want to create one. This is vital to your new employee’s success and retention.

In addition, you want to make sure your processes and policies are clearly spelled out in your employee handbook. This makes it easy for your new team member to know exactly what’s expected and when.

Fine tuning your interview process ensures that you’ll hire the right people every time and helps you create a strong, motivated, talented, and loyal team.

Are you a new startup ready to succeed? Are you looking to get your new business off the ground and watch it rise to success? We are here for you. We can help answer your questions and guide you through the process. Outsource your HR duties, finances, payroll and more to us. Contact Escalon today to get started.