What? You Mean I Need A Recruiting Process?

“What? A Recruiting Process? You think to yourself…Do you mean I need one of those?  I just post an ad on an employment search engine, interview some folks, and hire someone. Is that what you mean?”

Whether you are a company of 5, 50, or 500, without a recruiting process, it can lead you to miss great candidates, potentially portray the wrong brand or unaligned culture, waste your time, and of course, your money. Your employees are your greatest, most valuable assets. Recruiting and retaining the right talent is a vital part of any successful business.

The steps to building a recruitment process are designed to provide you with a consistent and effective process that can be used by you, your executive team, or your line managers. The goal is to increase the chances of recruiting the right person to add to your team, to reduce your recruitment expenses, less risk of breaching any legal concerns, saving time, later on, project a more professional image, which attracts good people, and of course contribution to improved business productivity and profit.

Not sure where to start? Take a look at these steps in brief, like a checklist. Is this an actual vacancy? Does the role need to be redefined?

• Do you have a clear list of the job duties?
• Have you defined the expectations of Success (at Ethos, we use a Success Profile with every position).
• Do you know who you want to recruit? Do you know if they will fit your profile of success?
• Do you know where to advertise? How to write an ad?
• Do you plan carefully and effectively screen the resumes?
• Do you conduct a telephone screening? What questions do you ask at this point?
• Do you have a job application/procedure/form?
• Do you have a Selection Interview plan? Are those conducting the interviews prepared? Do you and they know how to interview? Do you know what questions are legal and pertinent?
• Do you have effective interview questions based on the success profile and the position requirements? Do you use an interview guide?
• Do you conduct second interviews? Which candidates make it to this step?
• Does this position require testing? How will you do that? What tools will you use?
• How do you make the decision?
• How do you manage the offer? The background and reference checks?
• Did you review the process, the success profile and the interview plan after your decision? What will you do next time?
• Do you have a new hire orientation/induction planned out? Do you have a training plan for the first few weeks of your new hire’s employment with specifics and timelines?

How did you do? Basically, a recruitment process has three key phases, including planning, recruitment, and employee selection, and can be modified to fit your business needs. Each organization has to start somewhere to improve recruiting, hiring, and retention of valued employees. In my experience, the steps asked here are your best bets for recruiting the best employees. These can help your organization succeed and grow; they create a workplace that will meet both your needs and the needs of your potential and current employees. Ask us how we can help you!

Author: Kimberly Kenner