Recruitment Tips – Raise Your Game

 Guest Written: Atim Arden, IAM partner, HR Solutions.

In the battle to hire the best talent, many employers are looking at new and more effective ways of recruiting. Is it time to revisit your common approach to recruitment? In this article we look at some commonly used approaches, but with a fresh outlook as we also consider the impact of Brexit.

Progression planning

Progression planning is a common HR strategy used to safeguard an organisation against staff shortages; particularly for senior positions where a level understanding about the business and its nuances are invaluable. Progression planning helps to minimise time and money spent on resourcing brand new candidates.

Regular training, development and exposure are key requirements for a successful succession plan. It is also advisable to have regular appraisals as the employee may need them to track and progress their skills. Discussions in this area can be extremely important to a staff member who is invested in progression, so conversations should be structured, encouraging and constructive.

There should be a clear progression ladder and transparent advertising of opportunities that arise within the company. Staff should have a general understanding of the duties of various positions and varying levels of seniority. They should be able to find out the skills, qualifications and experience an individual is likely to possess to be successful in appointment to a position.

Agencies

If you are using an agent, ensure you understand all the offerings as part of your contract with them so you can maximise the value of using outsourced recruitment and make the most of your money. If you have been with the same agent for a while, consider shopping around or negotiating a better deal.

Recommend a friend

Implement a ‘recommend a friend’ scheme. Your employees are likely to have worked with people in the past who are in the same line of working. Offering a payment upon appointment or after successful passing of a probation can be a relatively cheap, quick and effective way of finding a suitable candidate. It also shows you value the opinion and input of your staff, which may help to improve commitment.

Social media

Use social media to not only market your organisation but also to promote your employer brand and the vacancies which arise in your organisation. Social online media is an everyday part of life in the digital age we live in. You can use it to make candidate application easy and direct whilst also demonstrating that you are a responsive, forward-thinking organisation and a great place to work.

Re-think your adverts

Ensure your adverts are appealing. Sifting through CVs can be a monotonous, yawn-inducing job. Although it is difficult to think of innovative ideas, when you see something new and honest in a CV it can make you sit up and take notice. Just like reading through CVs, reading through endless job adverts can also make candidates glassy eyed. As individuals, we become used to the same structure, same choice phrases and same faceless expressions. Candidates know you need a ‘reliable, punctual, well organised team player’; in fact, they probably put that at the top of their CV (along with a brief introduction on what they did at school and why working in your industry has always been a passion of theirs). Put in something new and get noticed!

Speed up the recruitment process

Recent research by Totaljobs reveals that 46% of employers have streamlined their hiring procedures to make it easier to find the best candidates and get them in their post more quickly. Employers have been driven to speed up the recruitment process as they were concerned that candidates were put off by the time it took to hire. Employers are now more likely to make job offers in less than a week after interview. The time between advertising a job and the first round of interviews is now more likely to be less than two weeks.

Brexit and Recruitment

In HR it’s the beginning of the year that often spells resignations and a wider talent pool, as individuals make resolutions to make a change and get a fresh start. In addition and unfortunately, due to the increasingly looming date for Brexit, it seems that many  organisations  have already seen their workforce from overseas parting company with them in these uncertain times.

HR solutions have a webinar recording available, reviewing Brexit and recruitment issues as well as considering how organisations can keep a healthy headcount so that instead of recruiting, you can focus on the daily running of the business.  Watch the webinar recording, on demand