Recruitment - Getting it Right More Often

The Accounts Clerk had resigned and the Administration Manager
leapt into action and placed an advertisement in the local paper
for a replacement. Two weeks of frenzied résumé reading and
interviews followed and a suitable replacement was found. 

The Administration Manager was feeling very pleased with himself
until the General Manager decided she was not getting the
information she required and said they really needed an
accountant. She was very surprised they had recruited another
bookkeeper level person as she always intended to upgrade the
accounts area when the opportunity arose. "No problem", said the
Administration Manager, "she is on probation. I'll just
terminate her."

What effect does this have on other employees? How professional
does management look? How much has this cost? How unfair was
this on the new employee? Which employees would recommend this
organization to their friends?

When we run training on recruitment and ask what the next action
should be after a resignation, the response is invariably to
advertise. This response is indicative of organizations that do
not have a process for recruiting - probably one of the most
expensive exercises undertaken by most managers. The cost of
losing and replacing an employee ranges from three months pay to
up to three times annual salary.

This is an involved and important exercise, yet it is quite
often carried out in an ad hoc way with often very serious and
expensive consequences.

A process is necessary and people need to be trained in it.

The process needs to cover such issues as:

Who will be involved in the recruitment process? This may
include the supervisor, internal customers and peers.

Is the job necessary? The job may be able to be combined with
another job or be outsourced.

Does the job need redefining? An up to date job description
should be prepared.

Is it full time, part-time or can it be combined with another
job? The amount of work carried out by the job should be
assessed to see if it can be restructured. New systems often
change the size of some jobs. Recruitment is a good time to
review this.

What type of person do we need? The person needs to be described
in terms of knowledge, experience, skills and attributes.

What do they have to do to be successful? Specifically define
what must they have done in the past to show they can do the job.

What type of competencies do they need? Define the behaviours
they must exhibit when they are doing the job. This is how they
do the job. 

Where can we best find such a person? Decide on what you are
going to ask for in an advertisement as "must haves".

What is the best way of reaching them? Do we use consultants or
an employment agency? Is external advertising the best way?
Print media, the Internet? Are these people already in the
organization? Would existing employees know anyone?

How will we know if they have what we want? Define what you want
to see in a résumé. This should show they have had the
opportunity to acquire the "must haves".

How do we screen the applicants? Can we screen by reading
résumés and over the telephone before face to face interviews?

How do we plan the interview? The key pieces of information
required should be defined with the key questions written out.

How will we make the final selection? If this process is
followed, the final decision making is easier. Only those that
have demonstrated the "must haves" are on then short list. Some
testing may be required for specific issues. 

Reference checking is a must. Who are the right people to ask
and what shall we ask them?

What conditions will the person be recruited on? If you have
policies and systems in place for these this will also be a
relatively easy decision.

How will we know we have made the right decision? Having key
measures of success in place before the appointment will make
reviewing the new employee an easy task during the probation
period.

While some people are good at recruitment, it needs a process
that is known by all recruiters to obtain consistent results in
an organization. It is unlikely you would let an employee
operate expensive equipment without training. Not having
training for recruitment is expensive, time consuming and sends
the wrong message to current and potential employees.

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