Recruiting and selecting staff

There is a tremendous amount of effort that goes into recruiting new staff. However, many organisations pay too little attention to this critical task. Tom Peters sums it up in his book The Little Big Things when he says that 'development can help great people become even better - but if I had a dollar to spend, I'd spend ...70 cents....getting the right person in the door.'

Tom goes on to say 'hiring is probably the most important thing you do....it must become an obsession.'

The costs of poor recritment are evident in a number of organisations: high attrition, training costs incurred in inducting staff who don't stay and the impact on the morale of other staff who see colleagues come and go.

It is therefore essential that organisations pay great attention to recruiting and selecting the best staff - and spend the time and resource to do this properly.

There are a number of steps to think about when recruiting staff.

Initially, job descriptions and person specifications for the vacant role should be developed if these are not already available. Most companies have standard fomats for these documents. If this is not the case, the Human Resources Department will be able to assist in drawing them up.

The job description and person specification documents identify the key responsibilities of the role and who the roleholder will report to. In addition, they outline the skills, qualifications and experience that candidates should have. They are very useful documents if an outside recruitment agency is being employed to source candidates.

Sometimes there is a job grading policy in place in the company. If the role is a new one, it should be assessed against the criteria in the job grading policy as this will determine the role banding, salary and benefits.

Some companies employ staff initially on a temporary basis. The idea is that this gives the parties time to see if things are working on both sides. A decision therefore needs to be taken on whether the role is temporary or permanent.

Finally it should be decided how candidates are going to be sourced. There are a range of options, including the use of recruitment agencies, press advertising, internal advertising and staff referral schemes. The choice will depend on the nature and urgency of the appointment and the budget available. In any event, the company should keep data on which is the best option and how much each one costs.

If things go well, the company will receive a number of candidates for the role. There are a range of methods that can then be used to select the right candidate for the role.

The first step is generally to review all the candidate's CVs or resumes. There should be criteria, which match the skills and experience required for the role, against which these reviews are done.

Some companies use application forms. These provide additional information to the CV or resume and can be designed so that candidates have to identify how they match the key criteria for the role.

Many companies also like to conduct initial telephone interviews to draw up a short list of candidates.

Once a short list has been drawn up the key objective for the selection process is to test the candidates against all of the requirements for the role as defined in the job description and person specification. The most popular way to do this is by face-to-face interviews. In these cases, the interviewer should be accredited to do the task and the questions used in the interview must test the candiadtes' suitability against the criteria for the role.

Other methods of selection include asking the candidates to do presentations, assessment centres, group exercises and psychometric tests.

Whatever selection process is used there should be a review by a Senior Manager or Human Resource Manager to ensure that there has been consistency, fairness and adherence to the selection processes.

Finally, once the successful candidate has been selected references should be sought and any checks that are appropriate to the role completed. Feedback should also be given to those applicants who were unsuccessful.

Some things companies do to add value to the recruitment and selection process include involving immediate team leaders of the new member of staff to ensure they have a say in the final decision.

Companies should complete a cost analysis on how much it actually costs to recruit the successful candidate and retain this for future reference. This means that different kinds of recruitment and selection methods can be compared to see which is most cost effective.

With larger campaigns, a member of an agency or recruitment company can be asked to work on-site if this route to source candidates is taken. This can be beneficial in developing the agency's understanding of what the roles consist of and the culture of the company and department.

For more on this topic by Geoff Hardy see - http://www.helium.com/items/1555928-recruitment-process