Employee hiring is vital in building a desired culture within small businesses and organizations. Having a team that truly understands what your business is trying to accomplish and that works well together to meet common goals is the quickest path to success. But how do you get to that point? It all starts with finding the best HR solutions for the employee hiring process -- more specifically, detailed employee applications.
You may think that accepting a resume should be sufficient, but using a comprehensive employee application saves organizations time and money in the long-run by making the hiring process more efficient.
Here are five reasons to develop and use a strategic employee application.
Reason 1: To Weed Out Obvious Wrong Choices
The employee application is your first chance to filter out those candidates who simply aren't a good fit for your company culture. When you include relevant, behavior-driven questions, in addition to the basics, you're better able to filter through applicants before ever meeting them in person.
Using the employee application form in this manner prevents wasted time on interviews that won't produce qualified job candidates. It also frees you up to spend more time learning about potential employees in whom you're genuinely interested.
Reason 2: To Be Prepared for Interviews
Scheduling and conducting interviews is a time-consuming process. More often than not, the majority of interview time is spent discussing job history, career and personal goals, and values. Knowing the answers to these types of questions before you begin each interview allows you to dive right in and get straight to the point.
A comprehensive employee application helps you prepare for interviews so that you can truly get to know every interviewee and determine if he or she is a good fit for your organization.
Reason 3: To Remain Legally Compliant
In today's world, inadvertently asking someone the wrong thing can lead to serious legal repercussions. This holds true whether the incident occurs in person, in writing, or otherwise. Unfortunately for business owners and managers, there's a fine line between getting the information you need and digging too deep.
It's important to the success of your business that you know as much as is necessary to choose the right person for your team; the engagement of your employees depends on it. On the other hand, being too invasive could get you into trouble. Finding the right balance starts with developing an effective employee application.
Reason 4: To Eliminate Untruthful Candidates
When you use employment applications instead of relying on resumes only you have a strong base for rejecting candidates who are untruthful. Applicants can be required to sign an application and state that all information contained in the application is true. Failure to be truthful or omission of relevant information such as a criminal conviction can later be grounds for immediate dismissal. Resumes only give you the information the candidate wants you to have. An application can ask for information you need to evaluate the suitability of the candidate
Reason 5: To Streamline the Employee Hiring Process
Last, but certainly not least, developing a comprehensive and strategic employee application helps to streamline the hiring process, making it a more efficient and effective procedure. This relieves some of the stress that naturally accompanies times of transition and growth within organizations.
Margaret Jacoby, SPHR, is the founder and president of MJ Management Solutions, a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive. This article first appeared on the MJ Management Solutions blog.
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