You’ve put together your job description and potential candidates have started submitting applications for your open position.

Now that you have applicants, what are the next best steps for ensuring that you pick the right team member?

Tip 1:  Interview all candidates (including ones who will be working with you virtually).

Set up a Skype interview to meet candidates “in person” so that you get a better feel for whether or not they’ll be a good fit.

Prepare questions to ask all candidates and listen carefully to their answers. Observe their attitude when responding.

Ask specific questions related to necessary tasks.

For example, if a chunk of your tasks revolves around using Twitter and social media for marketing, you might ask questions like these:

• What potential do you think Twitter has to build the brand of a small business?
• If I were releasing a new product on how to train health coaches to get more clients, what are a couple of ideas you would have for marketing that new product on Facebook?

These specific questions can follow more generic interview questions like:

• What’s one example of a work-related conflict that occurred due to miscommunication? How did you handle it?
• What’s your experience working with online teams?
• What did you find attractive about this position?

When you take the time to interview candidates “face to face,” you can make a more confident decision because you get an understanding of their individual personalities, attitudes, and mindsets.

Tip 2: Put your favorite candidates through a short test project.

If you narrow it down to a couple people who you think might be a good fit, start by giving them each a small, useful, and paid-for test project so they can demonstrate their skills.

This could be a task you actually need accomplished in your business or it could be a task you’ve done in the past.

If you choose the latter, you’re able to see how their approach differs from yours, which could be instrumental in helping you make a final decision. Hiring someone who has a different, but complementary approach will add dimension and a new perspective to the way you’ve been doing routine tasks.

When you make the space for a test project, you can evaluate your potential hire based on how they handled a task or an assignment.

Tip 3: Hire for a trial period before hiring long-term.

Once they’ve completed the test project and you’ve chosen one person, hire them for a trial period of one to two months before making any long-term commitments.

If you aren’t satisfied with their work after this trial period, let them go and use your experience to rework the job description and modify your interview questions.

When you make it clear that they’re being hired for a trial period, you don’t feel pressured to keep a candidate who isn’t the right fit for your team and they don’t feel pressured to remain in a position they feel isn’t right for them.

Bonus Tip: Start off slowly.

Once you hire someone, either in the trial period or long term, try to not overwhelm your new team member with projects.

Be sure to check in on a regular basis, and give them feedback after the tasks or projects are completed.

Be clear with exactly what you liked about how they completed a task and how they could change their process in the future to complete tasks in a way that’s best for the business.

Then, slowly increase the volume of the tasks. If small problems arise, give your new assistant a friendly warning with constructive criticism.

Back to You

What have you done to make sure you hire the right person for your team?