How do you feel about recruitment? Perhaps it’s something that’s becoming more pressing as your business grows and you see more and more success. If you’re struggling with your workload and find yourself torn between the jobs you need to do and jobs you love, then maybe it’s time to find your team.
Starting the process of recruitment can be daunting. Making the wrong hire is not only time consuming, it can also be costly. Getting it right first time is crucial. In this guide we take you through the process step-by-step to help avoid making mistakes and getting your best hire.
Starting The Process
The very first part of the process is to be intentional about the position you want fulfilled. Understand what exactly it is that you want your new hire to do. Write down a list of the duties they will be expected to carry out but make these duties relevant to one role and not spread across several job titles. If you find that your list becomes longer and longer it may be that you’re going to need to look at hiring more than one post.
This first document is going to form your job description and will be the first element of your recruitment pack. Get it right and you will have the markers that you need to find your ideal candidate.
Person Specification
This document is no less important than the job description and is the tool in which you set out your exact requirements for the type of person you need in your team. Unless you’re using a candidate profile service to draw out more details about individual candidates, this will be the checklist that you need to determine whether your candidate has the right amount of real life experience as well as the expertise and educational attainment that you require.
You will need to think about your ideal candidate’s skills, including everything they’ll need to carry out the roles you drew up in the job description. Think about those hard skills they’ll need to demonstrate but also the soft skills that give an all round performance. By soft skills we mean great communication, an ability to adapt to change and to keep a cool head under pressure.
The Sift
While it’s always encouraging to see response from a great many candidates, you really want to avoid each and every potential interviewee. For some this will be as easy as a quick glance through their resume, which will reveal a severe lack of skills, ability or experience. While for others there will be spelling mistakes and other careless errors that lead you to the conclusion that their work might suffer the same carelessness.
Interviewing
Once you’ve narrowed down the field to several candidates it’s time to fill out the details by meeting them face-to-face. The interview gives you the chance to get a better idea of the interviewee’s personality and other areas such as how good they are at communicating and how confident and personable they appear.
Expect your candidates to be a little nervous, that’s fine and you’ll get a good idea how they cope under pressure. For every part of the job description you’ve created you’ll want to tease out a real-life example of when they’ve demonstrated those abilities.
Don’t be afraid to bring back candidates for a second interview if you’re deciding between two or more candidates. After you make your decision then you’ll be in a position to negotiate on salary and so on.
Make it clear that the role will be subject to a six-month (or shorter) probationary period at which point, if it’s not working out, you can terminate the contract.
While the process may seem long-winded and drawn out, getting the right hire, first time is crucial for the smooth running of your business. On top of this, you want to avoid having to spend your time going through the whole process again should you pick someone who doesn’t work out.
Make sure you have a very clear idea of exactly what you need your candidate to do and the type of person you want to hire. Prioritise the kinds of softer skills you’re looking for and keep an open mind. Sometimes the candidate on paper who seems like a perfect fit, will be the last person you hire in real life. Go with your gut instinct and find someone you can work with closely and who you know will have your back and become a central part of your team.
