Guide to the recruitment process

Friday 27 January, 2012

By Duncan Heaney - duncan@consumerchoices.co.uk

We take you through the recruitment process and offer some top tips to help you hire the best people.

Finding new employees is a challenging process. Finding people that will fit into your company well, can be easier said than done, and you’ll be faced with difficult decisions every step of the way.

This guide will take you through some the key steps of the recruitment process. The first difficult choice you have to make is whether to give the job to somebody that already works for you, or advertise for an external candidate.

Should I hire internally or externally?

The good thing about hiring internally is that it’s significantly cheaper and easier than searching for an outside candidate. Internal hiring rewards staff for their hard work, and gives them identifiable career progression. It also improves morale - employees have something tangible to aim for, and will often be pleased to celebrate each other’s success.

That’s assuming everybody’s happy to see their colleagues succeed of course. The danger of internal hiring is that often people will be competing for the same job. That may cause infighting in the ranks, and if someone is passed over for a role they may harbour resentment or become demotivated in their existing job.

Hiring internally also means you’ll have to invest time and effort into training and developing your employees so they have the skills and knowledge to step into other roles, rather than hiring people already equipped with the right skill-set into the business. And there’s always a risk that the employee is ‘too close’ to the business, relying on existing skills, experience and a “this is how it’s done here” approach rather than being able to give the company a fresh perspective on things.

An outside perspective is one of the biggest advantages of hiring from outside the company. External employees can bring with them new ideas and new skills that can help the business grow. If you hire someone with the right experience, you can minimise the need for training too. And sometimes external hiring is essential - If you’re looking to replace a departing worker, or need someone to plug a skills gap.

There are disadvantages to external hiring, of course. Finding employees costs an estimated £5000 per post so your recruitment costs will shoot up. It’s also a risk because, unlike internal hiring, you’re dealing with unknown quantities, so there’s a greater chance of candidates not being suitable for their jobs.

Finding applicants

There are many ways to advertise for potential employees, including magazines, newspapers, recruitment websites and job centres. Whichever you choose, you need to create an advert that provides people with enough information to make a decision about applying.

To that end, the advert must state:

• The skills and experience desired
• Where the job is located
• The pay range and starting salary if there is no flexibility on it
• A summary of what the job entails
• How the candidate should apply (eg physical or online application form, sending a CV)
• The deadline for applications (if there is one)

When you’ve written your advert, you have to get it in front of potential candidates. When deciding where to place adverts, you should think hard about who you want to see it, how long you want it to run for, and how much you’re willing to spend. Research your options before making a plan, and consider factors that could have an impact on the number of applications, such as advertising during Christmas or school holidays.

An alternative approach is to hire a recruitment agency to conduct a search for you.

Writing a job description

A job description is tremendously helpful during the recruitment process. It helps you define the requirements of the role, and can be given to applicants along with a physical or online application form. The quality of the job specification you write can have a direct impact on the number and quality of applicants, and areas it should cover include:

• The official job title
• The main duties of the role
• The location of the job
• Information about your company and what it does

Pros and cons of using recruitment agencies

There are many compelling reasons to find potential employees through a recruitment agency. One major advantage is that working alongside a specialist recruiter takes a huge amount of work off your plate, freeing your time up for other, equally important, tasks. You don’t have to spend hours placing advertisements, and picking your way through a big pile of applications - the recruiter should filter out less than ideal candidates and time wasters, and leave you with a smaller, but higher quality selection of applicants to look at.

The quality of applicants is important, and picking an appropriate agency can be extremely helpful for finding the best people. A recruiter that specialises in your specific market will have a good idea of what your needs are, and help you find employees that meet those needs.

It will also do so discreetly if desired. If you want to keep your search for employees low key, you can. A reputable recruitment company will also perform the necessary background checks on potential employees, such as checking work histories and contacting references.

Of course, there are cons to using the pros, not least of which is the financial impact. The costs of using an agent will vary from company to company, but you could have to pay the equivalent of more than 30% of the employee’s annual salary as a finder’s fee.

You’re also handing over control to a third party, which some people find difficult. It can be especially galling if the agency is slow to return calls or unresponsive when you want information on how their search is going.

It’s also important to remember that recruiters make their money by “selling” you potential employees. It’s possible that, to make a sale, some recruiters will try to push employees that don’t quite fit the specifications of the offered role. It shouldn’t be a problem with most recruiters, but be aware that it can happen.

Before you hire an employment agency, it’s important to clearly define the terms of the arrangement. That includes fees, including any advertising costs, and refunds payable should employees leave within specified time frames. That way, you know how much you’re spending and you won’t get surprised by any additional expense.

Setting up the interview

When applications start arriving, you’ll need to sort through them and pick the ones you want to interview. This is where the job description comes into its own - by matching applicants against the job specification you can often weed out the applicants that aren’t suitable.

Of course, if you receive a lot of applications (and in the current job market that’s very possible), selecting the applicants to talk to can be a daunting task. With that in mind, here are some best practice tips to make the job a little easier.

• Create a table that lists candidates against the core requirements of the role. This is an easy way to see who’s suitable.
• Decide how many applicants you want to interview, and stick to that number. If you only have time for a couple of interviews a day over the course of a week, for example, your shortlist should reflect that.
• Give yourself a day before scheduling interviews to prepare, and when you’ve interviewed all candidates, give yourself another day to mull things over.
• When you’re selecting candidates, look at skills only. Be careful not to discriminate against anyone based on things like sex, race, age, disability, sexuality, religion, marital status or gender reassignment.
• Get a colleague to create shortlist too. These should match yours or be very similar highlighting the most appropriate candidates and eliminating any possible bias.

Inviting applicants to interview

When you have selected your applicants, you need to invite them in for interview. When you get in touch with them, by phone, email, or letter, you should pass on all the information they’ll need to know. This includes:

• The location of the interview
• The time of the interview
• Approximately how long you expect the interview to last
• Who will be interviewing the candidate
• Who the candidate should ask for when he or she arrives
• Whether or not there will be a test or presentation

Preparing for the interview

Before you start interviewing a candidate, you need to do some homework. Make sure you’ve read through the candidate’s CV or application and already have an idea of their job history. It’s unprofessional if a candidate turns up without having researched your company, but it’s also unprofessional to conduct an interview blind yourself.

It can be tempting to look up candidates on the internet. It’s a morally grey area - many believe it’s an invasion of privacy. We recommend that if you want to do this, you should only do so after the first interview, and you should let the candidate know your intentions first. Bear in mind that what you find might tell you something about them as a person, but a great deal will have no bearing on their ability to do the job - even the smartest, most talented person can be tagged in an embarrassing photo on Facebook.

It’s also important to plan your questions. Choose topics that give candidates an opportunity to talk about themselves and their experience, rather than just give a yes or no answer. Common examples of interview questions include:

• Why are you interested in the role?
• Why do you want to leave your current job (if applicable)?
• What were your previous responsibilities?
• What challenges have you faced over your career and how did you overcome them?
• Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Of course, these are pretty standard questions, so it’s good to come up with something a little more original so candidates have to think a bit more.

Conducting the interview

If you’re interviewing someone, it’s your job to keep the discussion moving and on track. The first thing you need to do is introduce yourself, and any others present. Put the candidate at ease (as much as possible) by explaining how the upcoming session will work.

There’s no “correct” way to conduct an interview, but keep things professional and always be aware of the time. Here are some top tips to help you get the most out of the process:

• Be patient - Always give the candidate time to think and speak when you ask them a question.
• Be flexible - Don’t feel you’re locked into sticking purely to your prepared questions - if a candidate says something you want more information about, ask them about it. However, do make sure all candidates are asked the same basic set of questions, so you can accurately compare them later.
• Try to stay open-minded - Personality and first impressions count for a lot. But if a candidate doesn’t immediately impress, don’t make a snap judgement. Give them the interview to win you back over - sometimes candidates reveal their talents as the interview progresses.
• Make notes - Keep notes about the interview, but focus only on what was said. Do not record your thoughts or opinions on candidates - you want to be able to look at the pure data later.
• Ask the candidate if they have any questions for you - At the end of the interview, take the time to answer any queries the applicant might have, these can often tell you as much as your own set of questions.

After you’ve completed the interview, you should let candidates know what the next steps are (for example, will there be a second interview), and when they can expect to hear back from you.

When you’ve selected someone for the job, make sure you get in touch with all the other candidates you interviewed to let them know they were unsuccessful. If they request feedback, let them know – being as constructive as possible - why you didn’t select them.

Resources

Recruitment can be a long, expensive road, but hopefully this guide has provided some useful advice on how to efficiently approach the process. A more comprehensive guide to the recruitment process, and the many complexities of employment law, can be found on the government’s business link website.