The employer’s quick guide to effective recruitment

Recruitment is a bit of a nightmare at the moment.

There are loads of jobs out there but not enough people to fill them. And the employee’s mindset has completely changed since COVID.

We’re now in a candidate driven market, which makes hiring your next employee more time consuming, difficult and costly.

That’s why we’ve created this article for you. Below, we’ll talk you through 7 steps you need to consider when hiring your next employee.

Step one – Identify what you’re looking for

Before you start recruiting, it’s key to understand exactly what you’re looking for, how your new employee will help your business and what skills and attitudes this person will need to do the job.

When thinking about what your new candidate, be careful not allow unconscious bias to play a part in any decision making and ensure your recruitment process does not discriminate at any stage.

Step two – create a job description that stands out

You’re competing against every other employer at the moment, so you need to create a job description that stands out for all of the right reasons.

Ensure your job description includes all of the information a candidate needs to make a decision, including wage. And try and make your job description reflect the culture of your company.

Step three – Decide how you’re going to advertise your role

The first thing you should consider is whether you could recruit from within your business. Or if you need to bring someone new into the company.

Then depending on your industry and the type of candidate you’re looking for you may decide to advertise your role differently.

Think about where your ideal candidate will be searching and ensure your advert is seen.

Step four - screen and shortlist

This can often take the most time and this process is high risk in terms of unconscious bias and discrimination.

There’s a number of different ways to rule out unconscious bias and discrimination and that’s to remove any personal details from your CVS and screen via skills and experience first.

Once you’ve created this shortlist, you can then contact them to arrange an interview.

Step five - Interviews

While you’re on the lookout for the most impressive candidates, you’ll need to also remember that it’s your job to impress the candidates too.

It’s very important that you take time to consider the candidate experience if you want to attract and obtain the best talent for your business.

Will you hold preliminary telephone calls with candidates? Perhaps you’ll decide to hold short video interviews initially? Or would you prefer a more traditional face-to-face approach from the beginning?

You should also consider whether or not you need to conduct any form of trial or testing for candidates. Psychometric testing can be a fantastic way to identify how well your candidate will fit in with the business and complement the skills and personalities you already have within the business.

Look at your interview process and document it. Create a timeline that demonstrates exactly how the interview process will play out. You can even share this with your candidates so they know what to expect, and the timeframe in which they should know whether they’ve been successful at each stage.

Remember, be as flexible as you can with your candidates. They may be in roles that are tricky to take time away from, so insisting on a particular time or day may prevent you from finding the best fit for your business.

You could even try to implement a system where candidates book their own time slot with an online booking system, for ultimate flexibility.

Step six – making an offer

Before you make an offer to your favourite applicant, there are a few things you need to consider.

The first is checking references. You’d be surprised at just how many businesses skip this step, only to be shocked later on when something goes awry.

Make someone involved in the interview process responsible for following up on the references of your favourite candidate - just make sure not to contact the present employer!

You should also keep in mind that your favourite candidate may not have taken the same impression away from their interview with you. Never turn down other candidates before you’ve offered the job to your favourite and they’ve accepted.

You may wish to choose a second favourite in case your first decides to take another job, or you may decide that there were no other applicants you liked and instead would start the process again. Just make sure you have a plan before you tell people they were unsuccessful this time.

Step seven - Excellent onboarding

This step is so often forgotten about when it comes to the recruitment process. But it’s one of the most essential parts to get right when welcoming a new employee… you know what they say about first impressions.

You need a solid plan to help welcome and settle a new employee into the business and their role.

Think about what they need to be able to start their new job easily. This will include things like introducing them to their new colleagues, showing them around the office, providing them with devices - like laptops and phones- as well as access to all of the systems that they’ll be using for their job.

Consider what training they’ll need, and the other roles that they’ll need to interact with or understand in order to do their job properly. Arrange training on systems, and shadowing with colleagues so they’re able to build a good picture of how things work.

You should check-in with your new hire regularly for the first week or two. This will not only encourage good communication, but it will also give them ample opportunity to voice any concerns they may have, giving you a chance to make sure everything is exactly as you want and need it to be.

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