The starting point in the hiring process is setting job requirements. What do you need an employee to do? Answering this question has a major impact on issues including:
Begin by examining what led you to conclude that you need some help. There may be more work than the existing staff can handle, or an existing employee may have left. Business expansion or bringing work in house that was previously outsourced may also lead to a decision to hire.
If you're creating a new position, identify what you want the new employee to do, and what you want to be done by you or an existing employee. This depends on your level of confidence in delegating tasks to a new employee.
If you're filling an existing position, you can list what the former employee did, and decide if you want to directly replace the former employee with someone performing the same job. This is also an opportunity to determine if job responsibilities are being allocated in the most efficient manner.
Setting job requirements focuses on the activities the employee will perform. This will dictate the skills a person requires to perform those activities. Here, the focus is on your business process and the role that the new employee will play. Bringing in a new employee may mean realigning work assignments of existing employees. This can occur because of the new employee's inexperience or training needs.
Organize the information relating to the specific activities the new employee will perform in a manner that is meaningful to your business processes. It's helpful to rank the activities in order of importance and frequency. Also consider the time commitment to each activity. This will help you measure whether the amount of work justifies hiring a full-time, part-time, or temporary employee. Finally, look at the group of individual tasks required to complete each activity.
At the end of this process, you should have a specific set of requirements that accurately describe what you want your new employee to do. This will form the basis for all subsequent steps in finding and hiring the right employee.
| Sample Form |
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Here's a sample job description form that can help you assemble and organize the information about a new position. |
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