Recruitment is a highly specialized process that refers to the drawing in and selecting out, of new employees within a business. This process can be fulfilled by the general manager, Human Resource manager, external recruiter or via a collaboration of all three. The intention here comes down to finding a candidate with the correct experience, the best skills and the right personality to suit both the job and the setting. It’s a lengthy process that involves interviewing, selecting and onboarding the candidates into the desired position.
What makes a recruitment process successful?
This often comes down to speed and efficiency but behind the scenes the process relies on careful planning and consistent evaluation. These logistics are often led by the HR manager who needs to field the applicants and then give the manager CV’s, backgrounds on potential applicants before the interviews begin. The candidates also need to be briefed on the process and how it will unfold so they are not left wondering about the next steps. So what else do you need to know about setting up a top recruitment strategy in order to build a successful team in the new year?
Benefits of a smooth recruitment process
By taking the time to build and implement a thorough recruitment process you can enjoy many benefits within your business:
- You will lower your hiring costs: Hiring the wrong employee is an expensive mistake. But also an efficient employee can improve profitability and performance.
- You will enjoy better hires: This is because the higher the quality of your candidates, the more you will retain their interest and keep good people close to your organisation.
- You will increase employee productivity: The better the quality of your staff, the less HR have to do once they are within your organisation and the more you will free up your HR to focus on other important tasks.
Steps to building a thorough recruitment process
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Planning
This involves creating a clear job spec for the position. Here you should outline both the major and minor job requirements as well as the skill, experience and qualification requirements. Here you need to have a good understanding of other factors like pay, start date and any special conditions associated with the position.
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Strategy development
Once you understand what type of applicant you’re looking for, you then need to figure out how you’re going to find them. Are they going to come from within or outside the organisation? What geographical location are they coming from and what sequence the rest of the roll out will take.
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Searching
Now you need to attract these applicants to your business. You can do this through social media channels and distributing on formal job seeking channels. Another highly effective way to advertise a position is through an employee referral program which widens the net substantially.
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Screening
Once the interested candidates begin coming forward, the screening process can begin. You can immediately start shortlisting and prioritizing candidates who are more appropriate than others. Remember that it takes many hours to conduct interviews so you need to make sure that only those who are eligible make it to that point.
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Evaluation and control
At every point in the pipeline, you need to evaluate candidates and control the process. This is because recruitment is an extremely costly process and so a lot of care needs to be taken throughout the process.
The bottom line
The people you hire are the lifeblood of your business. Not only that, but the process is costly and has a lot riding on it. So it stands to reason that you take a lot of care when it comes to selecting new staff and have a clear recruitment strategy in place in order to give your business (and your new recruits) the best chance of a successful collaboration. With these tips implemented into your business, you will be well on your way to finding and retaining great team members in the new year ahead.
