12 Priceless Interview Tips for Hiring Your First Employee

April 16, 2019

Are you finally in a position to start hiring people to work for your small business?

Hiring your first employee is one of the first true signs of success. It shows that you’re no longer able to take care of everything that needs to be done to keep your business afloat on your own.

But before you bring your first employee on board, it’s important to make sure they’re the right person for the job. Hiring the wrong person could set your small business back in a big way.

Here are 12 priceless interview tips for hiring your first employee.

1. Make Sure You Can Afford to Hire an Employee

Before hiring your first employee, crunch the numbers to see how much you can afford to pay them.

You’re going to need your first employee to run point on a lot of different things. So you’re going to have to pay them accordingly and make it worth their while.

If you’re not prepared to give them a decent salary to join your small business, it might be a sign that you need to wait a little longer to make your first hire.

2. Create a Comprehensive Job Listing for the Position

If you ultimately decide that you can, in fact, afford to go about hiring your first employee, create a job listing that spells out exactly what you need someone to do.

As we just mentioned, the person you hire will need to be ready to do a little bit of everything. Spell out what their job responsibilities will be in your listing so they know what to expect from the job.

This will help you create the right pool of candidates. You can weed out lots of unqualified people without ever interviewing them by taking the time to craft a comprehensive job listing and posting it online.

3. Set Up Interviews With the Right Candidates

There are more than 100 people who apply for the average job. And it’s going to be almost impossible for you to speak with every last one of them.

Therefore, you need to go through the job applications you receive and narrow down the pool of candidates. Select only the ones who appear to be qualified for the position you’re trying to fill. Try to put together a list of about 10 names.

4. Prepare a List of Questions for Each Person

Now comes the fun part—actually interviewing the job candidates left on your list!

Come up with a list of questions you want to ask each one. Your list should include questions like:

“Why do you think you would be the best candidate for the position we’re trying to fill?”
“How would your strengths as an employee benefit me as a business owner?”
“What skills do you bring to the table that set you apart from other people?”

You don’t have to ask every question to every person you interview. You might get the sense that someone isn’t right for the position from the start and want to cut their interview short.

But having questions prepared ahead of time will give you something to reference throughout the interview to keep it on track.

5. Avoid Asking Illegal Questions

There are some questions that you cannot ask candidates during a job interview. You’re not allowed to ask about:

Race
Religion
Sexual orientation
Pregnancy
Marital status

This may be your first time interviewing anyone for a job. Don’t get yourself into trouble by asking an illegal question.

6. Ask People What They’d Do in Real-Life Scenarios

If you get the feeling that someone might be a good fit for your company, push them a little harder during an interview by throwing real-life scenarios at them and asking them how they would respond.

This will illustrate how they’ll handle themselves in the role you’re attempting to fill. It’ll also show you how quickly they’re able to think on their feet.

7. Pay Close Attention to How Passionate People Are

Is a candidate really interested in working for your specific company—or do they just sound like they need a job at any company that will hire them?

Keep your eyes peeled for passionate people who want to get on board with what you’re doing. Feel free to ask people what they know about your company and listen to see if they did their research on it ahead of time.

8. See Which People Send a Thank You Note

After attending a job interview, it’s customary for candidates to send a thank you note to the person who interviewed them.

If you love one particular candidate and they don’t send you a thank you note, you shouldn’t consider it a dealbreaker. But if there are several good candidates, those who send a thank you note might deserve an extra bump over the ones who don’t.

9. Consider Doing a Credit Check on Candidates

Did you know that it’s legal to run a credit check on those applying for a job at your company? It can shed some more light on what kind of person they are when it comes to managing money and credit.

This helpful site touches on one way all the job candidates out there can improve their credit score before applying for positions.

10. Spend Time Thinking About Your Options

In the immediate aftermath of holding interviews, you might like one candidate more over all the rest. But you shouldn’t hire them immediately.

Take your time and give each candidate the proper consideration. You want to be careful about falling in love with a candidate who isn’t 100 percent qualified for a position simply because you liked their personality.

11. Create an Attractive Job Offer

When you find the person you want to hire to work for you, come up with your best offer for them. Put together a package that includes a good salary and other perks.

12. Contact the Person You Want to Hire

At the end of all this, the only thing that’ll be left to do is to reach out to the best candidate and offer them the position.

If they need a few days to think it over, give them time to make sure they’re ready to commit to your company. It’ll ensure that they’re prepared to sign on with your business and get to work.

Hiring Your First Employee Is a Big Step

Hiring your first employee is exciting. But it can also be an overwhelming experience.

Set the right tone for your company by asking job candidates the right questions and doing your homework on each of them. It should make it easier for you to find the best person for the job.

Read our blog to find more hiring tips for startup companies.