Recruitment - how can I do it better?

Most managers have had to do it at some point in their career but most have never been taught how and they bumble through doing the best they can. Make no mistake, it is still a 'war for talent' in the market and to improve the productivity levels of your business and beat your competition you need to be hiring the right people, at the right time, in the right place.

Effective recruitment practice is a process but also a skill and you can definitely get better at it. It's also critical for your business as hiring mistakes can be costly - both financially and how they impact on your team and their levels of engagement.

So answer some questions for me; do you do most of the talking in an interview? Can you articulate why the candidate wants the job with you rather than with your main competitor? Can you tell me post interview how that candidate would handle a crisis in your workplace, if they experienced one? Do they have the qualifications they say they have? When I was working in India, we found that a number of candidates had forged their University qualifications. Many were actually performing well in their roles but they were still terminated on grounds that integrity was a core value for the organisation.

Here are some things you can do to improve your Employee Talent Pool:

 

1. Scope the recruitment process - articulate the process from end to end and follow it consistently; at the beginning when you need to confirm there is a vacancy, for the position description, the sourcing strategy, interviewing, the decision process and finally the offer

2. Due diligence - once you have made a hiring decision don't stop there. You should conduct reference checks with the last two previous employers. Ensure you speak with their former manager rather than a friend.  You should consider conducting background checks; this might include credit, police and employment history or academic checks.

3. Interview skills - brush up on these skills (we can assist you here), use both a technical and a behavioural interview format. You should be competent in controlling the interviewee and use probing questions effectively. You also need to document the interview as these notes can be called up as evidence up to seven years after the event.

4. Measurement - look to measure your recruitment performance; your ratios for interview vs. offer, offer vs. acceptance and advertisement vs. application.  How long do recruits stay with you? Did the role live up to their expectations? How will you find this out?

5. Sourcing strategy - where is the best source to find your candidates; good people know good people. Ask your team and pay a finder's fee. Use LinkedIn; you can pay an annual fee enabling you to access every CV in the system. This can be a very cost effective way to recruit. Use SEEK or Hire Me Up (specialist part time, contract, virtual or project job board).

6. Recruitment Management System (RMS) - depending of the volume of your recruitment it may be worth considering purchasing a Recruitment Management Tool - we use Jobadder and think it is fantastic.

7. Induction - many resignations occur early - either due to the role not being as described at interview or after a poorly managed induction. This is not difficult - give them a buddy, make sure the desk and IT are ready, arrange meetings with the key people, take them out for a sandwich, check in with them formally at the end of week 1, 4 & 12 and run them through an orientation of the company. This can be very effective to integrate new team members well into your organisation.

It is really important to get this right as in the majority of cases your team are critical to your success. What do you think? Make recruitment matter.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management. – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

The cruellest cut of all

Everywhere you look at the moment there is doom and gloom and there are some organisations doing it really tough - hoping that the market will pick up but, if it doesn't, what can you do? Some organisations may need to consider redundancies for the greater good of the business; so can you make roles redundant to reduce your overall cost base? The answer is yes, but here are ten things you need to know:

1.      Under the changes to the Fair Work Act, all permanent and part time and, possibly, some casual employees are entitled to a retrenchment pay out

2.      The length of service is calculated only from 1st January 2010, regardless of how many years service the employee may have

3.      There is a formal process that all businesses need to follow to ensure procedural fairness. This includes a consultation period where both parties need to attempt to find alternative employment within the company (redeployment) or associated companies for the impacted individual

4.      Where possible, but not a legal requirement, offer additional support such as an Employee Assistance Program or Outplacement

5.      Check your Modern Award to confirm whether you have any additional requirements around advising your Union

6.      Communicate well, both with the individual and the organisation, as redundancies do unsettle teams. Also the organisation may have an obligation to advise the employees as soon as is practical after a decision has been made

7.      The process of identifying the employees impacted needs to be carefully assessed, managed and documented

8.      You cannot rehire into a redundant role for a period of 12 months

9.      Redundancy is not a replacement for active management of poor performing employees, which is a cheaper option (and not, necessarily, hugely time consuming if done well)

10.   Invest back into the remaining team to reassure them about the future, ensuring that you do not lose any additional employees through resignations. Ensure that the work that now needs to be completed elsewhere in the business is reassigned and factored into position descriptions

Redundancies are not only tough on the individual but on everyone. They are a tool at your disposal if you need it, but use it correctly.

When business starts to pick up, think about changing your team mix, enabling you to flex resources using a combination of permanent, part-time, virtual and casuals. The businesses that do this effectively are successful as they can buffer the market troughs.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management. – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

So why would you do it really?

As I watch the Olympics, I am inspired by these wonderful athletes and their desire for success and Olympic medals. But why do they do it? I mean, really, four years or more of preparation for sometimes 10 seconds of competition and it is over, mostly forever. There are a lot of sacrifices for that 10 seconds, so why do they do it? More importantly how can we apply to our businesses what we learn from this?
 
1. Goals - there is a goal and a looming deadline with milestones along the way. There is a clear vision of what the end goal is and what the athlete is working towards. Many athletes use visual prompts, for example, Natalie Cook had the Union Jack printed on all her equipment in her lead up

2. Team work - every single Australian athlete, regardless of whether their sport is an individual one or not, is part of a team, the Australian team

3. Motivation - every athlete has a motivating factor or factors driving them whether it is to represent their country, doing it for Mum and Dad or that they want to be the best in the world. Their coach is acutely aware of these motivators and uses them to pick the athlete up, when they flag

4. Opportunity - there is the opportunity, often fleeting but inspiring all the same. Think of all the sportsmen and sportswomen who undertook all that preparation over the past four years only to fail to make the national Olympic team, sometimes by a fraction of a second

5. Engagement - levels are really high and sustained and with engagement comes increased performance - the same as in business

6. Olympic values - the Olympics Values are clear and aspired to by the majority of athletes and those who emulate them are remembered. Just think of 'Eric the Eel' - who else was in his race? I know I can't remember, but I remember Eric 12 years later

7. Being part of something bigger than just you - there is that sense, with a history and future beyond your role. It is the magnitude of the event including more than just sport, but art, dance, singing and music

 8. Money - for some there may be a financial reward but, for most, their families have sacrificed money, holidays, time and sleep - but I suspect if you asked them whether they would do it all again, they would

9. Reward - for most the reward is knowing that they performed at their best, they made it to the Olympics, they were cheered on by a nation and they pushed their bodies and their minds to the limit

 It also makes me think of the fabulous Volunteers who receive no monetary reward but apply in their droves for an opportunity to be involved and largely do an excellent job, with minimal training and no previous experience.

I truly believe that applying these some attributes with your employees can help productivity and let's face it we all need this help with Australia ranking poorly in comparison with other OECD countries measuring productivity. Do you know what motivates your employees? What would motivate them further? Do they understand the goals of the business? Are you rewarding them and I don't mean purely from a monetary sense. Maybe it is time to put some Olympic spirit into your business and go for gold!!!!

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au