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Seven simple steps to recruiting

1: What do we need this person to do?

This might sound obvious – but sit down, have a coffee and consider what exactly the new person needs to do? Think about who does what within your company? Is this an opportunity to shuffle the cabinet?

List out the tasks in order of importance and think about the workflow. Will this person be constantly busy? Or will there be busy and quiet periods? Try to blend time bound and on-going tasks.

Keep a lid on your expectations. Most roles expand as people become efficient so plan ahead. A new colleague will be far more motivated by the confidence you show in them by giving them additional tasks when they are ready against the new starter who is overwhelmed by the workload in front of them and runs for the hills after a few months.

 

2: Who would do this? What are the skills / attributes they need?

This breaks down to three sections:

a) What legal requirements are there? For example they may require a certain level of certification or they may need to obtain a level of security clearance. Be careful here – keep only to the legal “must haves” and not the “would like to haves.”

b) List out the skills specific to the role; a skill is a physical capability demonstrated by “having done it before”. Break them down in to the essential “must have’s” and the optimal “would be good to have”. Again be realistic and consider where specialist training might be required on specific systems or machinery.

c) List out the attributes that would best suit the role and your own company style. An attribute is a personality trait such as “self-starter” or “dedicated” or “good communicator”. Be careful here – we all want bright happy people to work for us but if the role requires precision and care then these are more important. Think of someone who was great in this role – what was it that made them great? Again list these in order of importance.

Finally reconsider your skills and attributes lists and delete all beyond the top 5 of each.

 

3: Lets go find them – where do they hang out?

Now you know what you are looking for consider where is the best place to find such people? Do you already know this person? Who do I know who would know this person? Maybe your competitors, or suppliers or other network contacts? Ask your trusted contacts for ideas where to find such a person – what works and what doesn’t. Fisher-King can help you here.

This really is a case of horses for courses, if you are looking for a particular niche such as IT or Accounts then you could consider specialist job boards, or other media these people will follow. If your need is for lower paid general staff then a more local medium would be more appropriate.

 

4: Tell the world – We’re Hiring

Now you’ve hit the green button and you need to spread the word.

Hold on! Consider how you are going to handle the response. Who’s going to field the enquiries, who’s going to filter the good guys and reject the rest?

Have one central point of contact and then drive all your responses to that one point. This may be an individual or it may be a page on your company website or simply an email address.

Then - Yes advertise through the routes you’ve identified above, but also include general social media such as Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, or any other networking media for your industry.

 

5: Can they do the job? - Selection

It’s not important to receive a CV or have a complicated application process, you can equally consider a LinkedIn profile or the testimony of a trusted source; however, each candidate should be assessed against your requirements from section 2 above. This will give you three simple piles: Yes / No / maybe.

Set a timescale and reject the No’s. Invite the Yes’s to interview.

 

6: Will they fit in - Interviewing

The purpose of an interview is to determine 3 things:

a) Can they do the job?

You need to construct questions which determine that the candidate can actually do what you need them to do. Use competency based questions that invite the candidate to give examples of where they have done certain things. Challenge their answers and drill down for fine detail – this way you will soon work out the boffins from the bull-shitters.

b) Do they want the job?

Through the course of the interview process you need to determine why they want this job? What’s their motivation? Don’t think that just because they applied that they really want your job. This is important to get right – without the right motivation the candidate won’t be committed to you or your company.

c) Can I work with this individual?

We all have our own quirks and idiosyncrasies. If you are going to spend 7hrs a day with this person will you get on? Can you manage them?

Once you find a candidate who satisfies a b and c then you have a contender. If they don’t satisfy all three then – DON’T HIRE THEM.

 

7: Making the offer

Getting the offer right is key to your ongoing relationship with your new employee. By this stage you should have determined their worth to you and their expectations regarding salary and benefits etc.

If your offer is complex then bring the candidate back for a face-to-face offer so that you can bash out any fine details and eliminate any mis-understandings.

Finally gain verbal acceptance to an offer before you put it in writing. Never presume someone will simply say yes. Follow this up with written acceptance and set a start date. Now you can reject the maybe’s.

 

About Fisher-King

Fisher King Associates Ltd was created to improve the application of good recruitment practice across the spectrum of small and medium growing enterprises..

Through the sharing of our knowledge and experience, our aim is to enlighten our clients by giving them the tools and understanding to be significantly more effective in the modern recruitment marketplace reducing their cost per hire and time to hire by taking ownership of their own recruitment processes.

Come and talk to us.

 

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by admin