We know that recruiting new staff can be a veritable minefield if you’re not completely clear on what you want. At HR Solutions we have the expertise to make sure that you get the best people into your business – and we’re sharing some of our tips on how.
With employment traditionally picking up towards the end of August it means that now is the ideal time to start identifying your resource requirements and planning for the year ahead. We know how vital it is that you hire the right person for your business, as making the wrong choice can create an imbalance within your existing team dynamic and, in the worst case scenario, be the start of a very expensive and time-consuming process to get back to the stage of recruiting for the role again.
With that in mind here are some of our tried and tested ways of making recruitment easier, and ensuring that you get the right person the first time around…
Identify business needs
Firstly you need to properly identify your business need. You may be recruiting due to a former employee moving on, or alternatively looking to expand a certain area of the team, but with the new role, you’re essentially looking at a blank slate that doesn’t need to be constrained by the same restrictions that were in place before.
See if there are additional responsibilities outside of the original job description that your outgoing team member completed, or if there’s any crossover with other roles that may affect the structure of the team or the pay grade of the role. If it’s a new role it might be worth a look at your existing staff to see if there are any opportunities to move people forward – internal promotions are a great way to keep staff morale high and ensure that you’re working with a known quantity. After all, anything that motivates your workforce and lets them know that you trust them to take on additional responsibilities can’t be bad, right?
Headhunting
If you’ve identified your business need and there’s no-one already in your organisation who fits the bill, try to get someone who matches the job spec completely – even if they’re already working elsewhere. Headhunting is an increasingly common way for employers to find the talent they need, and the continued growth of LinkedIn has made the process of identifying individuals by their skills and experience (and then making contact with them) even easier.
As headhunting has become more prevalent in recent years so too has criticism of the process, with some companies in direct competition with one another taking drastic steps to ensure that their top staff don’t move over to their rivals. However, companies don’t own their employees, and if their LinkedIn profile shows that they have the exact capabilities that you’re after then you’re well within your rights to send a prospective message. After all, the worst that they’re going to say is ‘no’ – and they might just be very interested in hearing what you have to say.
Consider past candidates
It’s good practice to keep unsuccessful CVs for at least six months after receipt, and it could be that there’s someone filed away in your vaults who wasn’t right at that moment in time but might just be perfect today. Considering past candidates is a good method of finding people who have already shown an interest in your company.
If you recently ran interviews and had several strong candidates that were unsuccessful, contact them directly and ask if they’re still looking for a job and if they’d be interested in reapplying. It might be that the candidate was within a whisker of getting the job but lost out to the person you did employ, and they’re worth giving a second chance. Alternatively, it could be that the candidate interviewed well but had a slightly different skill set to what was required then – but if you’ve identified a shift in your business need it could be just the skillset you require now. We’ve seen this happen, and it’s a great way to circumvent the vacancy process and get straight to the talent.
Fixed fee recruitment
If you haven’t got the time or expertise to start headhunting, or if there’s no dearth of unsuccessful candidates to choose from, perhaps it’s better to let someone else do the recruitment legwork. At HR Solutions we offer a fixed fee recruitment service, which means that it’s a flat rate no matter what level of staff you employ or how many people you recruit per role. The service includes:
- Identifying your requirements
- Writing the advertisement in line with your needs
- Targeted online advertising across the major jobs boards
- CV screening so you only see the most suitable applicants
- Arranging interviews and liaising with candidates
- Sending regrets to unsuccessful applicants
As well as the above we do everything possible when acting on your behalf to ensure that your company image is well-represented, throughout every stage of the process.
Recruitment is a time consuming and potentially risky business, but with a bit of planning and a thorough understanding of your requirements, and sometimes a bit of professional help, the process always runs a little more smoothly.
