Hiring Tool vs. Hiring Process

One of the first questions I ask a prospective client is, “How do you hire new employees?”  The typical responses I often hear from small business owners are:

1) Through my business referral network,

2) Advertise on jobboards or newspapers, 3) Hire friends&family. 

4) Use temporary staffing firms. 

These responses reflect only the strategies or tools used to source or identify candidates. But what happens next?  Hiring involves more than just candidate identification.  What about screening and evaluation? Is this not important in hiring “A” players?   

It is rare that a company tells me they have a “hiring process.”  A process would sound something like this:  We use xyz tools to source candidates, the Dept Manager screens and interviews viable candidates, final candidates complete a skills & behavioral assessment, the owner conducts a 2nd interview, and reference and background check is performed on the final candidate.  Now this is a process!  

Seems odd that companies might implement better systems and processes to order office equipment or pay their bills than they do to hire employees.