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Are you fit to Recruit?

about 4 years ago by Sare Simeonov

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Recruiting new talent to your organisation is often the most time and cost consuming task you will face. Add COVID to the mix and it is critical that you get talent acquisition and recruitment right in your business.  

Getting it right is important to reduce the time and financial burden on your business. Considering your value to your business it is easy for the cost to run into many thousands of dollars just in your time alone. When you factor in the potential loss in revenue or operational efficiencies you deliver in your role, taking time out on recruiting, getting it wrong and having to do it again can cost your business greatly.  

Having a robust, adaptable, reliable and potentially virtual recruitment process is essential. Being able to identify skills, have them demonstrated, tested and ensuring the correct culture fit are critical. These aside, if you are going to invest time and money in recruiting the best people you must also consider many factors to ensure you are reaching the best talent and ideally identifying a number of qualified and experienced candidates who want to work for you. This helps with giving you the choice of who will fit best with your culture and team instead of feeling you need to take someone because you have a spot to fill. Building your own collateral to sell your business and position to candidates is essential.  

Those that do it well have: 

  • An identifiable brand and clear engaging vision for their business which is easily understood by customers and potential employees 

  • Social media presence that tells the story and confirms this vision is alive and well 

  • A website that is up to date, functional and great at demonstrating what you do, helping to demonstrate why people should work for a business like you 

  • If you have a careers portal, explain the benefits and perks of working for your business, do you offer flexible working hours, additional leave days, wellbeing programs, team events etc 

Now you’ve attracted them, it’s time to sell your organisation and the role to them..(we’ve seen businesses work hard on attracting talent only to focus too much on expecting candidates to sell themselves and forgetting that you also need to sell your business) 

OR 

If you have managed this process well and attracted quality candidates, it is important that meeting with them is not a one-sided conversation where you interview them and they have no opportunity to better understand your culture and the opportunities they may have in the future. Quality candidates are increasingly more concerned with culture and other non-salary benefits such as flexibility and WFH arrangements as part of their decision making 

Some key points often overlooked by employers in interview include: 

  • Your branding and vision from social media platforms match with your delivery in interview as does the environment where you are conducting the interview which could be via a technology platform  

  • Being comfortable to talk about any challenges that the business faces, be honest, particularly if they relate to the role the person will be doing, limiting surprises when they commence helps to reduce the likelihood of a resignation in the early stages 

  • Telling the story about your team, how they work together, your leadership style and what you do to celebrate goals or targets being met. 

  • Demonstrating that you have a clear plan for onboarding a new employee – this will give comfort that the new starter will not be left to find their own feet and build confidence that moving to a new role and business will be a collaborative and supported process, especially if they are onboarding remotely  

  • Remembering that while you might think they are the perfect candidate for the role, it is just as important that they feel you are the right employer for them. 

Getting the recruitment process right is more important now than ever. The job market is strong, candidates have choices and often the best are more focused on the bigger picture of their next role than taking any position offered to them. Find and engage with these candidates and you are on to a winning formula that can change your business!