July 11, 2017

Top 10 tips on recruiting staff

By Melissa Thompson, managing director of KMS Partners

KMS PartnersRecruiting the right people is vital to the success of your business. Business Central tenant Melissa Thompson, managing director of recruitment solutions agency KMS Partners, presents her top 10 tips for recruiting…

1. Understand your employer value proposition – why would someone want to work for your business? If you don’t know, talk to your employees.

2. Is your salary right? There is plenty of information available to enable you to benchmark your salary bracket – vital in today’s competitive talent market.

3. Spend some time thinking about what the core role and responsibilities will include and develop the job specification.

4. Your person specification is as equally important as your job specification – develop a list of the key attributes your candidates need to have.

5. Decide how you are going to advertise the vacancy and also your response mechanism for candidates. Don’t forget to engage your staff – who better to recommend a place to work than someone working there already?!

6. Recruitment agencies – spend some time deciding if your chosen agency really understands what your business needs. Spend some time with the consultant recruiting on your behalf to enable them to understand your business and what you are looking for. If you choose to use a number of agencies, use no more than two or three well-chosen agencies rather than flooding the market.

7. Selection process – it is essential that you plan time for this. Think about the other key stakeholders within your business who should be involved. Ensure you use your job specification and person specification to draw up your shortlist for interview as well as planning time to give feedback to your applicants. Consider using a personality profiling tool.

8. The interview – prepare your generic questions and also tailor several specific questions based on the individual. Where possible have a colleague interview with you, if this is not possible ask your recruitment agency to support you. Having support during the interview enables you to pick up any non-verbal communications as well as having someone to discuss the candidates with objectively to assist you in your decision making process. Don’t forget to ask your candidate about their notice period and where possible give them an opportunity to get to know your business, a short tour or overview of your business is a nice touch.

9. If you decide on a second interview be specific and keep it relevant. For example, there may be some concerns you wish to address with your candidate – let them know specifically what you would like to discuss. If you are recruiting a sales person, give your candidates a topic to present on, if it is for a design role give your candidates a design to prepare, and if you are recruiting for a manual consider a dexterity test etc.

10. Once you have completed the interview process don’t delay in making your decision and securing your chosen candidate. It is also just as important to give specific feedback to the unsuccessful candidates – just because someone doesn’t have what you are looking for today doesn’t mean they will not be a desirable candidate for your business in the future.

Final thought: in today’s market, with the well documented skills gap, it is sometimes essential to consider what skills the candidate can develop and learn through working with your existing team and by attending training courses. There will be, however, some ‘no compromise’ values, attitudes and characteristics that your business needs in its people and you may need to recruit to match those. If you need any advice or support on any of the above I am always happy to have a conversation.