Revisiting your recruitment process

Here are a few pointers to help ensure you attract and hire great people who stick around.

Involve employees within your business

It’s important to remember that your area of expertise is HR. HR managers are not experts in IT, social media, scientific research or data collection.

It is therefore essential to involve those within your business who do the job you are advertising for as they have the required skills and knowledge to identify and attract the right type of candidate.

Ask them to write down the desired skills, attributes or qualifications which are necessary for the job and include the current employees in the interview process. That way, you’ll be more likely to employ someone based on the team’s needs.

Remember, you were young once

HR departments are shying away from hiring university graduates. By creating inflated experience requirements or by specifically stating ‘no graduate applications accepted’, companies are missing out on many young but eager job seekers who could bring a lot of energy to a role.

University graduates are often very capable in using technologies and whilst you may have to invest a little more time up front to train them up, what graduates lack in experience they often make up in eagerness and enthusiasm. They come with new ideas and approaches and can add a lot to the workplace.

Of course, not all job positions will be able to embrace graduate applications but it’s important not to entirely neglect this important section of the job seeker pool.

Consider In-house candidates first

Make sure you don’t overlook strong internal candidates before you start casting the net wider. Whilst an employee might not appear to be quite ready to make that step up, it’s important to give current employees an interview and the opportunity to sell themselves for the role. Offering promotional and lateral opportunities for current employees will go a long way towards boosting morale and making employees feel their talents and contributions are being recognized. This will help in terms of improving overall staff retention levels.

Don’t overlook job boards

Many HR Managers are shying away from online job boards as the amount of applicants they receive for just one advertisement is often overwhelming. What’s more, it can be expensive to place advertisements on some of these online job sites.

There are however new technologies emerging which are addressing these issues. OneShift, for example, has an automatic matching system which ensures that only those job seekers who have the skills and qualification you’re after are matched to the job you post. Moreover, the platform limits the amount of applications you receive for any job post.

Generating your first short-list of candidates online is simple and quick. Using job boards could be coupled with more traditional recruitment methods.  

Think retention, not recruitment

The pressure to fill a role quickly can often result in a rushed decision. HR managers can make the job of recruiting a lot easier if the overall objective is retention rather than recruitment. One of the key ways to guarantee the staff you hire will remain working for your business is to ensure they fully understand the role and its requirements before they sign an employment contract. Don’t misrepresent what the position entails and make sure you spend time with them discussing the ins and outs of the role before launching into an agreement.

The success of your recruitment process will depend on the amount of time and energy you invest. It’s crucial to think of the bigger picture and to wait for the right person as quick and easy hires will, more often than not, sap your time, resources and energy and not benefit you in the long term.

About the author 

Genevieve George is Managing Director of OneShift, an online job network which matches employees with employers

https://oneshift.com.au/