In today's market, many businesses are finding that they’re spending increasing amounts of time on talent acquisition. When time is of the essence, the pressure to recruit can sometimes equal bad hiring decisions and costly mistakes. Have a look at our 9 top tips to ensure you are getting the most out of your time and your recruitment process.
Recruit the right recruiter
Engaging a professional recruiter who specialises in your industry sector, such as engineering or manufacturing recruitment, will greatly improve your chances of sourcing the best available candidates. Most often, a reputable recruiter will already have relationships with the types of candidates you are seeking. Furthermore, a professionally managed recruitment campaign will enable you to amplify marketing results across multiple advertising platforms while also saving you valuable time and resources required to review and respond to countless job applications.
Be clear about the job details
Take the time to prepare a professional job description that outlines the main duties and responsibilities of the role as well as the desired applicant skills and attributes. It's also important to communicate how this person will fit into the big picture, who they will report to and other similar key details.
Keep your Recruitment partner informed
When you receive CV’s try to provide constructive feedback. No one knows your business like you do and, if you give thoughtful feedback, the recruiter can refine the search, ensuring you see the right candidates and avoiding wasting your time. Be open minded. Try not to come up with too many reasons not to interview a candidate. If you don’t think a CV is telling you enough about the person, then rather than instantly rejecting them, ask your recruiter for more information or ask for the candidate to write a covering letter to explain why they are suitable for the position and why they want to work for you.
Timing is Key
It is important you allocate appropriate time to recruiting the right person, not just the first person you meet. That being said, be mindful that the best candidates don’t remain available for long and an excessively slow hiring process can be one of the biggest turnoffs for jobseekers.
Interviews can be a nervous time for potential candidates.
Interviews do not suit everyone. Try to give candidates an opportunity to relax a little if they are anxious or uncomfortable. Ensure you have reserved an appropriate meeting space, be on time, offer a warm welcome and provide a glass of water.
Interview everyone the same way
Ask every applicant the same questions and evaluating the responses gives each candidate the same opportunity to perform. Sticking to questions that are relevant to the role will provide you better information and insight than questions that are generic or irrelevant to your business.
Make the next stage clear to them
If you are going to reject them you may decide to leave this to the recruiter but tell the candidate at interview when and what the next step will be and make sure you can stick to this.
Benefits as important as salary
In addition to providing fair pay and a comfortable work environment, even the most basic employee benefits can have a significant impact on team morale and loyalty. Building a reputation as a desirable employer doesn’t need to be expensive yet the investment can be an employer’s best asset in attracting and retaining staff.
It doesn’t stop until they start
After the candidate has accepted a position, you might think it’s all done and dusted but there are still things that can go wrong - particularly if the candidate has a long notice period. After the initial excitement of accepting the position, the candidate can start to have niggling doubts. Your recruiter should stay in regular contact with the candidate until they start and support them through the difficult process of handing their notice in. A great way of building on your rapport with the candidate and ensuring they hit the ground running is to maybe organise a meeting before they actually start. Take them out for a celebratory drink or lunch, introduce them to the team and tell them what they’re going to be working on when they start. You should both feel excited about the future.
For more information on how we can help your recruitment needs, give us a call on 01276 405870.
