How to Find Employees

Good employees are an essential part of a successful business, but sometimes they’re hard to find — or hard to hold onto. If you’re a business owner who’s wondering how to find employees, read on to learn about tips and methods that can help you find the employees you need.

1. Create the job posting.

The first step for finding new employees is to create a job posting that attracts good candidates. In a competitive job market, you’ll need to follow some best hiring practices in order for your listing to stand out.

Write a concise job description.

The most effective job postings present key information to applicants immediately — what kind of company they’d be working for and what kind of work they’d be doing in their role.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind when writing the job description:

• Try to summarize the job in just one sentence. Especially for jobs with complex responsibilities, it’s useful to think about how you would pitch the role to someone if you were only given a brief window to do so.
• Get the candidate’s attention. When a possible candidate is looking through dozens of postings, it’s important to get their attention and let them know right away what the job will entail.
• Create bulleted lists of responsibilities or qualifications. Bulleted lists can be an effective way to provide easily scannable, quick-hitting job responsibilities or qualifications. Don’t force candiatesto read through several long blocks of text to get to what they need.
• Focus on the job’s most important tasks. Try to keep the job description focused on the most important aspects of the job.

Describe the required job qualifications

Depending on the type of role you’re trying to fill, there could be some required professional credentials or certifications. As an example, if you need to hire a truck driver and your state mandates that truck drivers must have a commercial driver’s license, you’ll need to mention that in the job posting.

Be clear about what level of experience you’re looking for and what kind of professional background you’re looking for when finding employees to hire. When crafting the job description, come up with the ideal skills, qualifications and background for the person you’d like to fill the role.

Add salary and benefits information

Job seekers are interested in what kind of compensation they’ll receive if they’re hired. Providing salary ranges and benefits information provides transparency to potential applicants. Instead of talking vaguely about company culture, be specific about what kind of health care coverage, paid time off and other benefits an employee can expect to receive.

That kind of upfront transparency can also save you time in the long run. You don’t want to find out that the perfect candidate who went through the entire interview process and received an offer didn’t find the salary to be competitive.

2. Share the job posting online

The internet can be a great resource to recruit and find employees. Even if your business isn’t conducted online, it’s very important that you post the position on online job boards and job search engines to provide the most possible exposure.

Share on online job boards

Job boards and job search engines are websites designed to connect employers and job seekers. Some job boards charge a one-time fee or subscription, but others, like Indeed, let you post jobs for free and monetize their platforms by including some premium features. Depending on your recruitment needs, those premium options could be worthwhile.

Here are some of the most popular sites for finding employees:

• Indeed: Perhaps the most popular job search engine, Indeed allows you to post job listings for free — or you can pay to sponsor a listing.
• ZipRecruiter: By posting a listing on ZipRecruiter, it’s automatically shared on a wide range of other job boards as well.
• LinkedIn: A platform for professional networking, LinkedIn also offers the ability for employers to post jobs on the site.
• Glassdoor: Employees can anonymously review their employers and provide salary information on Glassdoor, which includes a job search engine.
• Monster: A longtime presence in the online job market, Monster offers premium packages to employers who post job listings.
• Upwork: Unlike many other job sites, which pair companies with candidates seeking full-time employment, Upwork is designed for freelance contracts.

Share on your own platforms

If you maintain a website or social media channels for your business, you should share any job openings there as well. Chances are that your audience is already familiar with your company, and it doesn’t cost anything to promote your job listing on your own channels.

Some businesses, especially larger ones, have their own job boards on their websites. Those job boards often integrate with software platforms like Greenhouse, which help facilitate the hiring process from postings to interviews.

3. Promote the job posting offline

While posting any job openings you have on the internet will help widen your search, there are still some traditional ways to find employees. The right candidate could be found through a referral — or even by walking through the front door.

List the job posting at your business

A “Help Wanted” sign is a great way to announce that you’re hiring, especially if you have a business that engages directly with its customers, like a pizza shop or other restaurants. Depending on the type of business you have or the type of role you’re hiring for, it could also make sense to have a stack of applications ready if someone walks in and seems interested in the job opening.

Generally, with those types of announcements, you’ll want to present some of the most basic information related to the role — what shift the employee is expected to work and what kind of hourly wage they’ll earn, for example. It would also be wise to mention any potential incentives like day-one benefits or a signing bonus as well.

Encourage employee referrals

Encourage your employees or coworkers to help you find employees. Some companies incentivize employee referrals by offering special bonuses. If the candidate mentions that they learned about the job through a particular person and that candidate is eventually hired, the employee who made the referral may earn a cash bonus.

4. Recruit potential job candidates

Depending on the type of role you’re trying to fill, you may need to actively recruit candidates. There are several ways to find employees through recruitment:

• Headhunters: For highly specialized or senior-level positions, a headhunter or consulting agency that specializes in executive recruitment can discreetly source a pool of qualified candidates and begin the screening process.
• Staffing agencies: If you’re looking to fill a larger volume of jobs, or perhaps find seasonal workers for certain kinds of roles, a staffing agency can help find workers who fit an employer’s needs.
• Job fairs: Organizations that set up job fairs to connect employers with job seekers can provide exposure to your company and even source resumes and applications from prospective employees.
• Colleges: Universities tend to partner with local companies to provide job opportunities to recent graduates, and colleges can be a great resource for companies that are looking for entry-level workers who are starting their careers.
• Internal promotions: Sometimes the best job candidates might already be working for you — and those candidates already have the institutional knowledge of how your company operates. Don’t be afraid to promote good workers from within if you think they can handle the job.

If you’ve been struggling to gain traction with your public job postings and have the resources to partner with a recruitment company, it could be a way to find the right candidate for your job opening.

Next steps for hiring new employees

Finding employees can be difficult. Creating a pool of strong candidates is an important first step, but there’s still more work to do.

Once you’ve put together a stack of resumes, you’ll need to interview qualified candidates for the job. You’ll also need to verify a candidate’s background by checking their references, employment history, education and other important information. Depending on the role, you may also need to create an assessment to ensure that the candidate will be able to satisfactorily complete their work if they’re hired. Eventually, you’ll be able to make a job offer.