Is it time to revisit your common approach to recruitment?
In this article we look at some commonly used approaches, but with a fresh look for a fresh year ahead.
Progression planning
Progression planning is a common HR strategy used to safeguard an organisation against staff shortages. Particularly for senior positions where a level understanding of the business and its nuances are invaluable. This also helps to minimise time and money spent on resourcing brand new candidates.
Regular training, development, and exposure are key requirements for a successful succession plan. It is also advisable to have regular appraisals as the employee may need them to track and progress their skills. Discussions in this area can be extremely important to a staff member who is invested in progression, so conversations should be structured, encouraging and constructive.
There should be a clear progression ladder and transparent advertising of recruitment opportunities that arise within the company. Staff should have a general understanding of the duties of various positions and varying levels of seniority. They should be able to find out the skills, qualifications, and experience an individual is likely to possess to be successful in appointment to a position.
Recruitment agencies
If you are using an agent, ensure you understand all the offerings as part of your recruitment services contract with them so you can utilise anything useful and make the most of your money. If you have been with the same agent for a while, consider shopping around or negotiating a better deal.
Recommend a friend
Implement a ‘Recommend a friend’ recruitment scheme. Your employees are likely to have worked with people in the past who are in the same line of working. Offering a payment upon appointment and/or after successful passing of a probation can be a relatively cheap, quick and effective way of finding a suitable candidate. It also shows you value the opinion and input of your staff, which may help to improve commitment.
Social media
Use social media to not only market your organisation but also to promote your employer brand and the vacancies which arise in your organisation. Social online media is an everyday part of life in the digital age we live in. You can use it to make candidate application easy and direct whilst also demonstrating that you are a responsive and forward-thinking organisation.
Re-think your recruitment adverts
Ensure your adverts are appealing. Sifting through CVs can be a monotonous, yawn-inducing job. Although it is difficult to think of innovative ideas, when you see something new and honest in a CV it can make you sit up and take notice. Just like reading through CVs, reading through endless job adverts can also make candidates glassy-eyed. As individuals, we become used to the same structure, same choice phrases, and same faceless expressions. Candidates know you need a ‘reliable, punctual, well organised team player’; in fact, they probably put that at the top of their CV (along with a brief introduction on what they did at school and why working in your industry has always been a passion of theirs….) Put something new and get noticed!
Speed up the recruitment process
Recent research by Totaljobs reveals that 46% of employers have streamlined their hiring procedures to make it easier to find the best candidates and get them in their post more quickly. Employers have been driven to speed up the recruitment process as they were concerned that candidates were put off by the time it took to hire. Employers are now more likely to make job offers in less than a week after the interview. The time between advertising a job and the first round of interviews is now more likely to be less than two weeks.
Further HR assistance
At HR Solutions we know how important it is to recruit the right people in the right places and how much time that process can take. Our Fixed Fee Recruitment service will manage your hiring process from start to finish and ensure that you only have to deal with the most serious applicants. For more information visit: www.hrsolutions-uk.com/services/fixed-fee-recruitment
