4 Tips for Better Hiring

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By Adam Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Hireology

The difference between a successful and unsuccessful pet business is the people who help run it. But within a sector as specialized as the pet industry, it is not always easy to pinpoint which candidates would be a good fit for your business. Here are four tips that will not only make the hiring process quicker, easier and more efficient, but also improve the quality of your candidate pool.

Write a specific job description: The first step in filling an open position is clearly outlining the role of the position—a seemingly obvious step, but one that is often overlooked. Make a bullet-point list of the day-to-day duties of the person who previously held the position. If it is a new position, outline what you hope those day-to-day duties would be. From there, you can more easily determine the qualifications and skillsets you are looking for in a candidate. Once you have fully defined the role and necessary qualifications, create a job posting that specifically defines the role, responsibilities and necessary qualifications.

Listing the necessary skills for the position is important in ensuring you aren’t wasting your time sifting through unqualified candidates. However, studies show candidates are often deterred from exhaustive lists of necessary qualifications, so keep it concise and specific.

Make sure your careers page is easy to use: An easy-to-navigate careers page will save candidates time from searching aimlessly around your website and prevent them from getting too frustrated and not applying to the position. When a candidate’s time is saved, your time is, too. You can start reviewing applicants earlier on, which will speed up your hiring process and prevent quality candidates from going to the competition.

Your careers page should be easy for candidates to search and apply for jobs, but also make sure you are posting across other channels and platforms. According to the Wall Street Journal, 40 to 50 percent of jobs are filled through career sites like LinkedIn, Indeed and even Craigslist, so be sure to utilize these as well. You should also be using industry-specific job boards like FetchFind, instead of simply relying on your own careers page.

Streamline the process, where possible: There are many ways to streamline the different steps in your hiring process, and one of the most effective ways to start doing this is to integrate your Human Resources (HR) systems. Integrating your systems will not only make the beginning steps of hiring a new employee go more quickly and smoothly, but it will also make the transition to onboarding fairly seamless. By having a centralized system, you will be able to get your employee trained and working on the floor more efficiently.

Automating parts of your hiring process, from recruiting to onboarding, will save you time both in the short and long term. Automation will take these often labor-intensive duties off your plate, freeing up your time to focus elsewhere. It also reduces or even prevents errors that can happen if these tasks are done manually.

Do your research and make continual improvements: There are many problems that could be slowing down your hiring process. Identifying these problems early is essential to ensuring you are moving as efficiently as possible. Your pet business can experience problems when you have outdated hiring software or just a generally decentralized and unorganized process.

With automated software, you have access to reporting tools that can show different insights into your candidate pool and overall hiring activity. Some of these metrics include how fast the hiring process is going, points of strength and weakness and comparisons against pet industry benchmarks.

A streamlined, centralized and automated hiring process is essential to ensuring the success of your pet business. Candidates will feel more comfortable going into a business that is organized— from an easy-to-navigate careers page, to the company’s recruitment and onboarding. Not only will you save time during hiring, but you will also secure quality candidates.