A 2003 study revealed that, on average, it costs a business about $30,000 a hire, including the time taken to interview and select a candidate, down-time for training, lost productivity and opportunity costs.
That’s why it’s critical to develop a recruiting system so that you don’t find yourself repeating the process too often.
Great teams attract great team members; people want to join and be part of a winning business.
Take the time to evaluate where your business is heading. Are you expecting growth, looking at adding new projects, or adding a new team member to an existing group? All of these scenarios will help frame your recruitment process.
Make sure you know exactly who you are looking for before you begin. Write down at least 10 attributes a person should have for that position.
Don’t rush through recruitment.
You may be under great pressure — you’re busting at the seams with work, or the last person that moved on left a hole in your operations. Too often the temptation is to just take anyone with a pulse that even remotely looks like they might fit the bill.
Develop a clearly defined job description for the role. This simple document ensures that both the employee and employer won’t end up disappointed and disillusioned.
If there are no clear guidelines, it’s that much harder to do the job correctly and to meet expectations.
You may receive dozens of applications, but you need to see as many candidates as possible. There are good candidates out there, and you need every resource available to get them in front of you.
Take the necessary time to develop a solid process in order to get lots of the “right” prospective candidates applying.
Will the job attract the right candidates? The workplace environment must support good employees so that they could develop and grow and contribute to something worthwhile.
It’s proven that most good people are looking for a more than just a job. The workplace culture and opportunities for growth will excite the prospect of working for you and with you.
Recruitment is almost like a courtship. Everyone puts on their best behaviour. Once the honeymoon is over, the real personalities appear.
It’s important to get a sense of the individual’s attitudes, skills and expectations up front. Make sure you communicate your culture and the long-term opportunities up front. Let them know what it’s going to be like and what they can expect 12 months and two years from now.
Create a system of key activities and questions that will test your candidate’s knowledge and their abilities. Systemize this process so you can deliver it consistently and accurately to be sure you’re comparing candidates equally.
Provide more that enough information to challenge potential candidates to “de-select” themselves. And always check references.
Do you have clearly defined key performance indicators? Tracking relevant individual and team indicators is equally important.
Team members can self-monitor and recognize if they’re doing the job, if you provide meaningful data. You also need to know if the team is delivering profitable and productive results.
Remember, if you can measure it, you can improve it!
It’s important to understand why people leave soon after starting a job. One of the common reasons is that the job described, and the actual expectations and work environment, do not match. Or the job might be clear, but the cultural environment is not a good fit for them.
One statistic indicates that over 60 per cent will leave your business because of perceived indifference of them and their contributions.
Besides the casual chat, it’s important to have a regularly structured review process where you and they can discuss details objectively — their role and their performance. This process will make them feel connected to you and your company. This will also help you to spot any potential problems sooner rather than later, or worst still, too late!
ActionCoach is written by John MacKenzie of ActionCoach, which helps small- to medium-sized businesses and other organizations. He can be contacted at johnmackenzie@actioncoach.com or by phone at 403-340-0880.