How to Hire Process Servers or Investigators

• February 10, 2009
• by ServeNow.com Staff
• Business Tips

Make the best hiring decisions to grow your business

When you hire a new employee, you are entrusting that employee with the future of your company. A good employee can make your customers happy and can bring more leads and more enthusiasm into your workplace. However, the wrong employee can literally cost you your business. According to U.S. Department of Commerce statistics, employee dishonesty alone causes 30 percent of all business failures. Worse, the U.S. Department of Commerce is quick to point out that once an employee commits crimes against company property, employees and/or clients, this rate jumps to more than 60 percent.

Last month, we discussed when to hire and how to determine if hiring is right for you. If you’ve determined it’s time to add to your staff in the new year, you need a concrete plan to ensure that you hire the best applicants possible. Here are some steps to keep in mind when hiring:

Define your needs and determine your requirements. This will make it much easier for you to immediately separate qualified applicants from unqualified applicants. Make two lists – one of “must-have skills” and one of “nice-to-have skills”. It’s important to not bend on the “must-have” skills. If you hire someone who doesn’t have the tools to fill your role, you will end up in a situation where you have more overhead and you’re doing as much work as you were before. As applications come in, immediately send “thank you but no thank you” letters to those candidates who do not have the “must-have” skills for you.

Understand your business culture. Before you start hiring, think about your company. Is your office hectic or laid-back? Is it casual or professional? Why would someone want to work at your company? You will want to be able to find applicants who will work well with your existing team members. For example, if your team tends to work individually, but an applicant works better in groups, that person may be better suited elsewhere. Applicants will want to know what you can offer them. If your business culture and environment have some nice perks – casual dress or access to a gym – it is important to share that with interested applicants. The best candidates may have more than one job offer, so you want to make sure that your company is attractive to the applicants.

Post the position. You will want to write an attractive job ad first. To do this, write the position name first and follow up with a brief description of your company and the benefits you can offer to an employee. Follow up with a list of must-have traits, qualifications and skills. If you have room, add the nice-to-have skills, qualifications, and traits you are looking for. Make sure that you include your preferred method of contact. Once you have your ad written, consider posting it in a few places to get the best results. Think about the type of candidate you’re trying to attract when deciding between your local newspaper’s job classifieds, online classified ads, websites like craigslist.org and industry associations. A younger, more entry-level employee may be more likely to look for positions online. Upper-level positions may be filled by people who already are established in the industry and may be members of an association. Don’t forget to post it on your website, and consider contacting a local college’s career counseling office or employment agency.

Another option is to contact a temp agency. In many cases, you can hire a temporary employee to fill a position immediately, and if you decide that the person might be a valued member of your team, you can offer him or her a more permanent position.

Read the resumes. Once applications start to come in, really read the resumes. Look for red flags such as frequent job switches – that can indicate future patterns. Also, be sure to read every resume in its entirety. Some applicants with very good skills do not place their best skills at the forefront of their resume.

Research your candidate. Call references, verify education and licensing and conduct a background check. Check social networking sites such as MySpace.com or Facebook.com to see if there is a side to your candidate that you have not seen. According to Security Management Magazine, 30-80 percent of resumes contain some dishonesty, so take nothing on faith.

Interview applicants, and take notes. Before bringing a candidate in to interview, review a list of interview questions. Find out what types of questions are legally off-limits and avoid them. Generally, employers should not ask about a job candidate’s race, gender, religion, marital status, age, disabilities, ethnic background, country of origin, sexual preferences or age.

Ask what the applicant knows about the job and the company, determine whether the employee shows enthusiasm and ask why the applicant wants the job. Perhaps the biggest warning sign is when a candidate knows little or nothing about your organization. How serious could they be if they haven’t done their due diligence—especially in the process serving and investigation industries.

Of course, every employee wants a good paycheck and benefits, but the best employees will be genuinely interested in the work and in contributing to the company. Use this short time wisely to determine if your job candidate would excel in the given position.

Once you have gone through this process, you will be able to find the best candidate for the job. At that point, you can hire this new team member with full confidence, knowing that you have done all you can to hire wisely.