How to Hire Employees Without a Recruiter There's no need to use expensive recruiters to find your next hire. These tips can help your business create an organized and efficient process for hiring employees.

Hiring employees is essential for a growing business, but using expensive recruiters isn't usually realistic for smaller budgets. Fortunately, plenty of organizations leverage powerful tools from job search sites like ZipRecruiter to hire employees and retain them in a competitive job market.

Finding the right person for a job can be a strenuous and rewarding process. Investing in a robust hiring strategy can ensure you're making the most of your resources and finding the right fit to reduce turnover. Learn how to hire employees without a recruiter by implementing the following tips into your hiring practices.

Write an effective job description.

Be clear about the roles and responsibilities of the position. Consider what job seekers are looking for out of their next career step, e.g., a clear path to promotion, an environmentally ethical company, work-life balance, competitive benefits, or enjoyable office culture.

To maximize the effectiveness of your job advertisement, use well-known terms instead of internal jargon, so potential candidates can quickly skim your listing. You'll also want to include keywords that people may be searching for so your open role can appear higher on search engines.

Recruit on job search sites.

Once you have an effective and optimized job description, it's time to post it where people are looking. Job search sites receive millions of visitors each month and offer useful tools and resources that make it easy for job seekers to discover the perfect role.

ZipRecruiter, for example, is a popular job site that streamlines the hiring process. It's the #1 rated job site in the U.S.¹ and has free and premium tools like powerful AI matching technology, job description templates and Applicant Tracking System integration. ZipRecruiter also makes it easy to review and rate candidates so your hiring team can stay organized and save time—it's like having a personal recruiter.

Evaluate applications.

As you receive applications, you'll need to create a shortlist of qualified applicants you want to learn more about. Consider their work experience, educational background, and achievements they list on their resume and cover letter. Compare their experience with your open role and note impressive qualities they have that you may not have previously considered. With ZipRecruiter, hiring managers can add screening questions to their job posts, allowing them to more efficiently find the most qualified candidates.

Interview and screen candidates.

After evaluating your applicants, you can create a shortlist of candidates and conduct screening calls to ensure their background, career goals and salary expectations align with your opening.

From there, you can start the interview process. Keep in mind they're interviewing you as much as you're interviewing them, so be prepared to answer questions they may have about the company culture, advancement, and resources your organization uses. Be sure to keep open communication throughout the entire process to keep candidates engaged.

Extend an offer.

An offer letter is a formal document that confirms the details of employment between a candidate and an employer. Many hiring managers extend a verbal offer over the phone and then follow up with an offer letter.

Formal offers should include essential information like start date, job title, salary, benefits, notice period and how long the offer is valid.

^{1 Based on G2 satisfaction ratings as of January 1, 2022}