Mastering the recruitment challenge

In parts One and Two,  I discussed how to design and implement an effective recruitment campaign and the resources that you can draw on. In Part Three,  I look at interviewing, referencing, making the offer to the preferred candidate and positioning your business as an employer of choice.

Click on the link to read Mastering the recruitment challenge #1 or Mastering the recruitment challenge #2.

Step Four – The interview
When you are about to proceed to the interview stage you should ensure that you have a structured questionnaire to work from. The most effective questionnaire will not only cover the candidate’s experience but should include a range of behavioural questions that make an allowance for the candidate to describe examples of how they have handled certain challenges, projects or staff management issues in their career.

These questions may be as simple as what did you learn from a mistake that you made? Or tell me a time you had to…

Communication
Recruitment requires a great deal of focus and in a candidate short market you need to be in constant contact with preferred candidates ensuring they are aware about where they are placed in the process and what the next step will be and when it will be. This where all your hard work can come unstuck.

Putting candidates on hold without proper explanation while you attend to other issues can lead to the derailing of the process. Candidates may lose interest as they interpret your lack of communication as reflecting your lack of interest in them or even worse they’re attracted to another role and when you get back to them they’re committed to another opportunity.

Referencing
It is critical that prior to contact being made with any past employer that consent is obtained from the candidate being referenced. Apart from breaching the Privacy Act it could jeopardise the person’s current position and also result in you losing the candidate.

Referencing is a critical component of the recruitment process and falls into three categories:

Verbal reference from past employers
The person undertaking the reference procedure should have a structured list of questions that will canvass a range of performance, cultural fit and job fit issues. There needs to be the ability to ask follow up questions and the person undertaking the reference should ask probing questions that require specific examples. As a guide a reference call should take up to an hour and the person providing the reference should be the candidate’s former manager.

Academic checks with educational institutions
Candidates should be asked to supply academic transcripts and then the educational institution should be approached to ensure the accuracy of the documents supplied.

Federal Police check
Most financial services institutions undertake police checks for their staff particularly those where there is a legal requirement. Police checks are relatively straight forward with on line lodgement with the cost being minimal.

Step Five – The offer
The offer should be discussed with the preferred candidate in detail then a copy of the letter of offer made available to them with the expectation that they will accept or reject the offer in an agreed time frame.

The letter of offer should provide as much detail as possible as to the terms and conditions attached to the role. These include but are not restricted to:

• Remuneration including superannuation, short term and long term incentives and entitlements on termination of employment.  There should be mention of additional entitlements that come with the position including the provision of a car or allowance for the payment of car costs, the payment of health insurance premiums, gym memberships etc.
• Reporting arrangements. While you are the employer this position may report to another senior member of your staff and this should be noted.
• Leave entitlements including sick leave, long service and Parental leave.
• Values and ethical standards that the employee is expected to uphold.
• The handling of confidential information.
• Restraints on the employees activities including not undertaking work for another company.
• Disciplinary action for any breach of company policy.
• Termination/resignation entitlements.

It is advisable to seek professional advice when drafting a letter of offer particularly if you have limited or no experience. The ramifications of including ambiguous or unclear wording or alternatively leaving out critical information can come back to haunt you if you should get into a dispute with an employee over the terms and conditions as were originally agreed between you.

Dealing with candidate negotiations
It is best to conduct discussions with the candidate in person as phone conversations are less personal and may not resolve the points raised as quickly as a meeting in your office. If you have outlined the offer during the interview process then there shouldn’t be too many unresolved issues.

The one issue that is a constant in negotiations is remuneration and this will usually revolve around the candidate seeking a higher base salary and or additional benefits or wanting more in terms of short term incentives. For senior staff there may also be discussion around long term incentives including equity participation in your firm.

If you have an attractive offer then these negotiations should be relatively straight forward unless the candidate has a competing offer that provides them with additional remuneration. Then you have to decide how much you want this candidate or would you be better served going with your second choice candidate if you still have one.

The other issue that arises in negotiations is the counter offer by the candidate’s employer. Candidates often get swayed by the promises of promotion, additional remuneration and other incentives that are only offer as the candidate resigns so it is important that you discuss the possibility of a counter offer with the candidate and if necessary talk them through how to turn it down.

Making your business an employer of choice
Your approach to conducting interviews is a critical ingredient in your success or failure to secure your preferred candidate. Don’t underestimate how important it is for you to present your business in the best possible light drawing out points of cultural differentiation and short and long term benefits.

Increasingly prospective employees are seeking a work culture that:

• is flexible in terms of work environment
• offers career progression
• is committed to training
• offers security of employment
• has strong leadership.

It is important that you are able to articulate the culture of your business and your commitment to staff in terms of work environment and career development as this will be a critical to your success in recruiting the best possible candidate for the role you’re seeking to fill.

Great Place to Work annually compiles a list of the top 50 companies that they rate as the Best Places to Work in Australia. The 2012 list has good representation of small to mid-sized businesses that have demonstrated a strong commitment to engendering a work place culture that position them to be employers of choice.

A final word of advice
If you have little or no experience in recruiting staff it will pay you to consider working with a recruiter or a recruitment adviser as it will not only increase your chances of securing the candidate you are after but will take a lot of stress out of the recruitment process.

http://dawsonpartnership.com.au/

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