Where to Find and Hire Employees

Interviewing Candidates

After you review the sea of resumes from your job listing, it's time to select a few candidates and start the interview process. You can either begin with a telephone interview or schedule an in-person interview. An initial phone interview is best to filter applicants who either exaggerated on their resume or were not very clear about the specific qualifications you were looking for. Some applicants might not even know exactly what the job entails. The initial phone interview helps you screen applicants so that you don't waste your time or theirs.

When you schedule an interview, you will want to develop a set of interview questions. Having a standard set of questions helps you compare apples to apples. You can always have the applicants elaborate on each question, but this helps give you a starting point.

After you interview all the candidates and make your final decision, don't wait to long to make an offer. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that person will accept an offer from another company. Snatch up your new talent as quickly as possible. Contact candidates in writing, by letter, or, better, via email.

Screening Backgrounds and Checking References

Before making an offer, prescreen your applicants by performing background and reference checks. You want to make sure that no part of the resume or interview answers was fabricated.

Benefits of prescreening applicants include the following:

• Discourages applicants who are hiding something

• Saves time, resources, and money recruiting, hiring, and training

• Reduces the chance of injury to employees

• Reduces employee theft

• Reduces employment turnover

• Reduces insurance premiums

• Protects against negligent-hiring lawsuits

• Eliminates uncertainties in the hiring process

You can perform employment background checks by using services such as Verified Person, at www.verifiedperson.com (see Figure 22.1).

Its services include the following:

• Social Security number verification

• State and county criminal search

• Nationwide criminal search

• Federal criminal search

• Ongoing criminal screening

• Enhanced sex offender search

• Education verification

• Employment verification

• Professional license verification

• Pre-employment credit history

• Motor vehicle records

• Reference checks

• Workers' compensation

• U.S. government terrorist watch list search

• Drug screening

• International criminal searches

Pricing varies, depending on how much information you need to verify.