Honing Your Recruitment Practices. A No-Brainer

As an employer, improving your recruitment practices should be a ‘no brainer’. An increasingly globalised market has made it harder to target and attract high-calibre candidates, and with the vast resources available to those candidates – including professional resume writing, recruitment agents and image consultants - the recruitment process is only getting more challenging.

When you do find suitable candidates, chances are they will be looking at several positions across different organisations, which means employers need to be selling themselves as much as the candidates are.

Recruitment costs for any organisation are significant. Poor hiring decisions will also hit the purse strings, whether that be time invested in training, lowered team morale, reduced productivity or sub-standard client service. Employers can’t afford to get it wrong.

A recent story emerged in Australia about a Melbourne man who faked his CV and references, including claims that he’d worked for international brand Zara and the Inditex Group, was appointed to an executive role at the Australian-based retailer Myer. He was sacked shortly after being appointed when red-faced executives learned that he’d falsified his job history. The story, although strangely akin to the film Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of American con artist Frank Abagnales who bluffs his way into a number of glamorous roles, illustrates that even the large corporations don’t always get their recruitment practices right.

Here are some ways to help improve your recruitment process.

Understand the role requirements

Take the time to identify and understand all of the requirements of the role you are recruiting for before you start reviewing applications. An effective recruitment process should include a detailed job analysis and resourcing overview as well as a thorough review, selection and interview process. You need to have clearly articulated the role requirements as well as your expectations of a potential employee in filling those requirements. Having a clear understanding of what you are looking for will make it easier to benchmark candidates against the role requirements.

Communicate a compelling offer

You know your organisation is a great place to work but potential candidates may not be as convinced. Employers need to present a clear and compelling offer, this starts with consistent messages that clearly convey your vision, values and culture as well as the requirements of the role and the expectations of your employees. Communicating inconsistent messages, failing to sell the organisation or promoting a negative image of the organisation will result in an epic recruitment fail. Sell the role, but be honest and factual. The candidate will require a thorough understanding of the role requirements as well as a good understanding of the company so they have a base to work from if they are successful in securing the position.

Play by the rules

You are responsible for ensuring your recruitment practices are above board and in line with Equal Employment Opportunity requirements. The goal of equal opportunity laws are to ensure that any applicant with the right skills, qualifications, and experience is considered for the role and that employers aren’t disqualifying potential candidates because of personal attributes. In many countries, anti-discrimination laws prevent employers from asking questions or soliciting information from candidates – during any part of the recruitment process - regarding their age, race, religion or creed, ancestry or national origin, marital status and gender or sexual orientation.

An effective and thorough recruitment process is worth investing time in and makes good business sense  – much more than potentially exposing your business and impacting negatively on your existing employees. Improving your recruitment practices not only increases your chances of attracting the right people but it also helps you retain the great ones you already have on board, and that in itself really is a no brainer!

Posted by: Jaclyn Knight, on July 2, 2014
Categories: Articles

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