You want to hire a new member of staff, what do you do next?
What you do next is the most important part of the recruitment process. You need to develop a strategy, a master plan.
Whether you chose to include a recruitment agency or go it alone you need to be thinking about the following.
How attractive and marketable is our business to the outside world?
If you chose to go it alone and manage the recruitment process yourself ensure that you are able to and can confidently answer that question?
Alternatively, if you’re working with a recruitment agency, are they able to answer the same question about your business?
The recruitment market is very candidate driven at present.
With over 5.5m business’s in the UK to choose from why should they pick yours?
So how do you stand out in the market place with that much choice?
These are my top 3 tips to ensure you stand out in the job market and secure your new employee.
Who are you?
When you are planning a recruitment campaign you need to create a brand, one that stands out and peaks the interest of potential new employees.
Are you XYZ ltd who install and service pumps?
Or
Are you XYZ ltd who are a leading specialist in pumping solutions who work with major Blue-chip organisations across the globe providing the very best service in the market with a team of highly skilled and time served Engineers ready to solve your technical needs?
I know who I’d rather work for.
What makes you different?
When you decide to go out to market for that shiny new employee you are doing battle with other local business and sometimes you biggest competitors.
What makes you any better that ABC ltd, your major competitor, who are also recruiting for the same kind of Engineer that you are?
Again, if your choosing to work alone on your campaign or working with an agency you need to be
shouting from the rooftops why your business is so much better that anyone else’s.
A good example of this, bear with me, is the Godfather!
The Godfather is about family and loyalty ( if you take the guns and mob boss’s out of it)
Remember your values – or you could end up sleeping with the fishes
Have standards and values you can recruit against – hand pick from the available candidate that come in for interview with your personality traits, DNA of your staff and your company ethos.
Family – Personality fit
- People leave their boss’s not their companies – around 50% ( 1 in 2 ) of employees leave their company to get away from their current bosses.
- The working world has changed, there are lots of option out there for candidates.
- What are you like to work for?
- Do you provide guidance and training
- Promote a hard working yet open door policy
Make them an offer they can’t refuse
Don’t offer under market value and then follow it up with a list of dated and irrelevant benefits ( standard pension that will leave the employee eating tins of bean when they retire also a ridiculous OTE that you have to jump through hoops to achieve ) offer things like childcare, gym memberships, incentives. Things that people actually can use and “benefit” from.
Who’s interviewing Who?
When you have found a shortlist of potential candidates that you are interested in meeting, next up is arranging interviews.
You are interviewing them, right?
Wrong.
If you’re the sort of hiring manager who takes the Sargent major approach to interviews and drills the candidate for 30 mins, with some abrupt questions thrown in and the kicks them out of the room to find their own way out.
Stop doing that!!!
An interview is the first impression that a candidate gets when they come to your business. If they have made the effort to do research, dress appropriately to make them as employable as possible. You should be doing the same.
When the candidates come to your building, think about what they are greeted with. Do you have a reception or receptionist? Do you have visitors parking? What does your reception area look like?
All things to think about, even before you meet them.
When they meet you, are they greeted with a grubby handshake from someone in dirty overhauls and scruffy hair? Or are the greeted by a friendly face that looks like a professional that really wants to meet them?
During the interview, what are you saying? If all your questions are about whether they can do the job or not.
You’re doing it wrong.
Correct you should be asking those questions but you should also be telling them how amazing your company is and what the employees are like, some key achievements that the business has done.
Basically, why should they come and work for you.
After the interview walk them to the door, make sure they leave the building ok.
There is a lot of competition out there, if a candidate leaves with a positive attitude when it comes to an offer they should be biting your hand off.
Written by Louis Bye – Boost Recruitment