Finding Great Employees When You’re Early Stage

Every business owner struggles with hiring. Personally, I did for years. Finding quality candidates and then shepherding them through the interview process was something I did not particularly enjoy. I loved working in my business, and only when I was particularly overwhelmed would I actively start recruiting. But what changed for me was the realisation that I would have to go through a lot of below average employees, before I found someone who truly above average for our needs. And as soon as that clicked, I started to understand that finding great team members wasn't that hard—I was just doing the wrong thing. Here's what I found to be the best way to find quality candidates: Always be hiring Finding someone great is easy, if you’re not desperate to hire someone instantly. Great candidates are usually are not looking for a job, and especially when you are hiring. So it makes sense to keep job applications open and keep interviewing candidates as well. You can easily pass this along the burden of regular interviews to your team. Your team members can vet the candidates before you do the final round Not finding the right candidates is one of the biggest problems that currently keeps business leaders awake at night. Finding them can be easier if you're looking for them all the time instead of just when you need them. Don't dig a well when you're thirsty. Anticipate that you'll lose a little time weeding through candidates that are not perfect , but you'll be better suited to expand when the factors are right for your business. When you have a few hires in the pipeline, you'll be in a better place to handle the next surge in your business. Continuous hiring - for the growth in your business, or the churn in your team. Collecting videos from your applicants is the best thing you can do to find the best candidate to actually interview. The problem is what your hires don't know how to upload a video to youtube, or don't care enough. You've got to make it easy for them. To solve this exact problem, I started hirevire.com a two person startup last August. Hirevire lets you setup a page with questions one time (less than 10 mins) and candidates keep sending you video responses that you can check in your downtime. Candidates can answer on their phones, no software to install. You can even connect your Indeed or ZipRecruiter jobs posts so you can understand a lot more than what the CV tells you.