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Exempt or Non-Exempt?
A good starting place is to first determine the "type" or classification of employee that will be filling your new position. Virtually all employees are classified as either "exempt" or "non-exempt', depending on several criteria. Read the criteria below to determine the classification. Then, identify the category for the employee you are thinking about hiring. We will get to the job description, and duties and responsibilities of the position a little later. But first, think about the position, and from the two classifications and various categories described below, place the person you want to hire in one of those classifications and one of the categories. Which category and classification you pick will determine some reporting responsibilities on your part, but will also help you define that person's position within the company, and will help you focus more efficiently on identifying resources to search and identify the right candidate for the position.
The U.S. Department of Labor specifically designates certain classes of workers as exempt, including executives, administrative personnel, outside salespeople, highly skilled computer-related employees and licensed professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers and certified public accountants, among others.
To be exempt from overtime pay, an employee must be paid on a weekly basis (at least $250 per week regardless of the number of hours worked). In addition, managers who hire and fire employees and who spend less than half their time
All employees are classified as either exempt or non-exempt. Read these two classifications carefully and make your choice.
Employee Categories
The following categories define your employees according to their tasks and responsibilities. Identify the appropriate category for your new position and go to step two for more information.
Executive
At least 50 percent of the time is spent managing the enterprise or a department of the enterprise in which they are employed. Customarily and regularly directs the work of two or more employees.
Professional
Performance of work requires advanced knowledge acquired by a prolonged course, or primarily performs original and creative work in a recognized field or artistic endeavor or is a teacher. Consistently exercises discretion and judgment.
Administrative
Primarily performs office or non-manual work directly related to management policies or general business operations. Customarily and regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment
Workers
Workers, especially in industrial operations, are generally separated into three skill classifications: unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled.
Unskilled
An unskilled worker is someone who is not required to use reasoning to perform work. Someone in a group of unskilled people may be said to be in an unskilled workforce, unskilled labor force, or unskilled labor pool.
Semi-Skilled
Semi-skilled workers have to be able to read, write and communicate, but are usually not required to have educational or apprenticeship credentials to qualify for their jobs.
Skilled
Skilled workers are workers engaged in professions or activities that require talents, experience and training to accomplish tasks.
Contract/Temporary
Contract and/or temporary employees are employees who fill in staffing shortages caused by special projects, seasonal coverage, leaves of absence or other reasons.
Universities, Colleges and Vocational Schools
(New) Graduate
An individual who has satisfactorily completed a course of study and receives an academic degree from a higher-education institution.
Intern
An advanced student studying for a first degree in a higher education establishment who gains practical experience by working, especially in an area related to his/her academic specialty.
A well-written job description tells potential employees the exact requirements of the position and helps you evaluate all candidates based on the same criteria.
Taking the time to write a complete job description may sound like a big effort, but it will give you a much better idea about the characteristics of the ideal candidate you want to attract to your company. To view a sampling of job descriptions and to help you develop a good job description, visit www.salary.com.
These items should be in your job description:
- a. Job title
- A summary of five to ten key of the position's responsibilities. As a minimum, be sure to include the job's purpose and typical duties
- Essential requirements needed to accomplish the duties. In this section, describe any specific physical and mental requirements, such as typing speed, computer skills, driving licenses or weight lifting capabilities that are necessary to get the job done
- Minimum qualifications, such as skills, experience, and educational requirements necessary to perform the job
- Any special training, credentials, licenses or other requirements necessary in order to perform the job
- Description of the working environment. Mention if the work site has any unique or hazardous conditions, such as high noise levels, dust or heat
You can use the duties and responsibilities in the job description to help you in screening resumes, performing phone screenings, and eventually to create questions to ask during the interviews. By referring to the tasks, responsibilities and qualifications in the job description, you can quickly weed out candidates who fall short of your expectations.
In the end, a good job description will help you find the best fit for your company and will allow you to base your hiring decisions on clear and objective criteria.
Most likely, the person you're looking for already has a job and he/she may not be looking for another one. If that might be the case, then it's up to you to develop an active recruitment campaign to seek out that ideal candidate. This section explores some of the various ways to actively search for potential candidates for your position:
- Trade shows and industry conferences.
If you are at a trade show or industry conference, use trade show booth time and the conference's networking opportunities to meet and get to know potential candidates as well as customers. The people you talk with may be interested themselves, or may be able to put you in contact with an interested person.
- Industry/professional associations.
Take advantage of industry/professional association and trade group memberships at the local, state and national levels. These organizations often have regular meetings and networking events at the local level that offer opportunities to seek qualified candidates. The larger national associations usually have job posting services that will advertise your job opening on their web sites or through their newsletters. More...
- Let people know you have an open position.
Share your job description with customers, colleagues, co-workers and friends through mail, e-mail, Internet and fax. Follow-up on every good lead they might give you. If that lead doesn't appear interested, ask him/her for suggestions or recommendations. You'll get additional leads to follow up on!
- Internet recruiting.
Recruiting through the internet has become the most popular method of recruiting. Web sites such as www.monster.com and other popular sites list millions of candidates and will post your job opening for a fee. There are also many free job posting sites. Click here to go to the free job posting sites.
- Use your company's website for recruiting .
Does your "Join Our Team" section of your website tell and even, "sell," potential employees about the vision, mission, values and culture of your company? Do you present a message about how people are valued? Do you express your commitment to quality and to your customers? If not, you are missing out on one of the most important recruiting tools you have to appeal to prospective high-potential employees. Create a section that lists you current open positions, and include job descriptions. Many sites that list jobs use a "web crawler", software designed to periodically access employer web sites, copy open positions and paste them into the job listing web site.
- Universities and schools.
Universities, colleges and vocational schools have career sites where you can often post your job openings. This is very useful if you might be looking for a new graduate or an intern to fill a position. A university's alumni association is also a good place to post job openings for positions requiring people with experience or specific skills. More...
- Executive search and employment agencies.
Executive search firms and employment agencies offer services to search for qualified candidates to fill your position and will present you with a few selected finalists. These companies are fee based, but may well be worth the cost if you have need for a person with special qualifications. More...
- If you run a classified ad in the local paper,
make sure the minimum requirements for the job are clearly defined. Job postings with only general or vague information will attract large numbers of resumes from candidates with a broad range of experiences, many of which may or may not be qualified for the job you want to fill. That may seem like the right tactic, but it actually makes hiring much harder because you'll receive so many more resumes and spend a lot of time sorting them out.
As anyone who has ever run an employment ad in the Sunday newspaper probably knows, screening the resumes from the job applicants can be exasperating. Efficient screening starts with specifying clear job requirements. If you have carefully written a complete job description, use the specific duties and responsibilities, and the skills, experience and knowledge contained in that job description to screen resumes against the qualifications and criteria you've established. .
After you've received the bulk of the responses, the process of reviewing and evaluating them begins. Pay attention to the condition of the resume itself. Is it dog-eared or riddled with spelling or grammatical errors? If so, that may not be the type of person you want representing your company! As you review each resume, place it in one of four stacks:
This is the stack where you'll place the very best resumes. The resumes here contain candidates experienced and skilled in areas you specified as necessary for the job.
The information in the candidate resumes in this stack need some clarification about a specific point or area before you would place them in the first stack. You will want to call them and ask specific questions about any area in their work history or experience that you are unsure of. Their answers will determine whether their resume gets moved up to the top stack or down to the bottom.
In this stack are resumes of people that are not qualified for the position you need to fill, but may be attractive candidates for other positions within your organization. Forward them to the appropriate office/person for review. Even if your company does not have a need to fill any other position, it's a good idea to hang onto good resumes for a few months just in case something opens up.
This is where all the unqualified resumes go. There is not now, nor will there be in the future, any job in your company that can utilize the talents of these candidates.
After you've reviewed the resumes and separated the resumes into stacks, it's time to begin your screening and interviewing process. The first step is to conduct a phone screening with the candidates whose resumes are in the first two stacks. Briefly talk to the candidates about their skills and your company before you bring them in for a face-to-face interview. A phone screening enables you to ask a few pertinent questions to finalize in your mind if a candidate has the experience and qualifications you seek. The candidate's tone, energy, and clarity will give you a good clue as to his/her oral skills, confidence and personality. During the phone screening, you can also determine the salary needs of the candidate to determine whether to continue the discussion in person.
Phone screenings are laborious, but well worth it. Resist the impulse to immediately schedule personal interviews with candidates in the top list. Many people look good on paper, but make a terrible phone impression. Trust your instincts!
From your telephone screenings, narrow your list down to the top half-dozen or so candidates. These are the candidates that you will invite to your company for interviews. The goal of this process is to make your candidate want to work for you and for you to decide if you've found the right person. Your presentation needs to be upbeat, positive and honest. Take advantage of the interview process to show your company's strengths and to introduce your candidates to your company's top performers. Keep in mind, you'll probably want to have the top two or three finalists back for a second series of interviews with a broader group of people.
To help ensure that you get what you most need to know about the candidate, form the questions you'll ask before the interview. Then, divide the questions among the people who will interview the candidate. It takes time to develop good questions, but the time is well spent and will reward you with a better employee who will "fit" well into your organization.
Schedule interviews for candidates with several people on your staff. For example, the hiring supervisor and the manager of the hiring supervisor should participate in the interview process. If the position has a lot of interactions with one or more departments, managers in those departments may also become involved in the interviews. In all cases, coordinate with the candidates on the schedule, interview times and how long you expect the process to take.
Make sure each interviewer is clear about his/her role in the interview process. Interviewing is often just as stressful for the interviewer as it is for the job seeker. Everyone must be prepared for the interview by reviewing beforehand the candidate's application, resume, test results, and any other materials submitted by the candidate.
When the candidate arrives, try and put him/her at ease with casual conversation and a friendly attitude. Remember, you're selling yourself and your company, too! As you begin asking questions, try and phrase them so that they cannot be answered with a "yes" or "no" response. These open-ended questions allow applicants an opportunity to tell all about their skills, knowledge and abilities. Some examples of open ended questions are: "Why are you leaving your current employer?" and "Do you prefer routine, consistent work or fast-paced tasks that change daily?" "And why?"
As a general rule, to avoid asking any inappropriate questions, be sure that all questions relate to the job. Any other questions, such as those relating to personal lifestyles and preferences are inappropriate and are to be avoided. For example, you shouldn't ask a female applicant detailed questions about her husband, children or family plans. Such questions could be used as proof of sex discrimination if, for example, a male applicant is selected for the position, or if the female is hired and later terminated.
After the interview is completed, the interviewer should complete a candidate rating form for each candidate interviewed, assessing a candidate on his/her merits. When developing evaluation criteria for the candidate ranking form, break down broad, subjective impressions into more objective factors. This form, when completed immediately after an interview, helps interviewers to recall impressions and evaluations later, and will be an aid in determining who to call back for a second interview or hire.
Once a single candidate is identified, the hiring supervisor, the supervisor's manager and human resources agree on the offer to make to the candidate.
The first step in making an offer istalk on the phone informally with the candidate about whether he or she is interested in the job at the offered salary and stated conditions. Make certain the candidate agrees to cooperate if company policies require a background check, drug screening, signing a non-compete agreement or confidentiality agreement.
If there are any outstanding items not agreed to, find out what negotiable factors exist that will bring the company and the candidate into agreement. A reasonable negotiation is expected, however, a candidate that returns repeatedly to the company requesting more each time is probably not a person the company wants to hire.
If the telephone conversation leads you to believe the candidate is viable, Human Resources then prepares a written offer letter from the supervisor that offers the position. The offer letter states and formalizes the salary, reporting relationship, supervising relationships, and any other benefits or commitments the candidate has negotiated or the company has promised. The offer letter, the job description and other documents, such as a non-compete or confidentiality agreement are provided to the candidate. The candidate then signs the offer letter to accept the job or refuses the position.
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