You will come upon a bulk of articles on how to cut costs by hiring the right person and which recruitment mistakes to avoid, but the theory doesn’t always match the reality. Here we will guide you through some of the most common causes for recruitment failure, but we will also keep in mind that your business may not be a global company, but rather a smaller local one.
And this is why our advice differ somewhat from the common knowledge you can find on the internet. We keep in mind your recruitment resources may be very limited.
Employee planning – recruitment basics
Whether you are a brand new company or a long-term player you should invest some of your time in employee planning. Obviously, planning the future of your company is essential to your success, but often managers and owners neglect employee planning.
Employees are individuals with personal lives, who may have family or personal issues, or who may just need vacation every once in a while. It is a common mistake to expect from our employees to be as dedicated to the business as we – the owners and managers – are. This is simply impossible, because our motivation is being boosted not only by financial gain, but also by the opportunity for success, while employees usually don’t work for fame.
For that reason, more often than not seemingly unexpected for us, we remain shorthanded because someone is sick or even has found a new job and is leaving the company. This unpleasant situation can be avoided by thinking way ahead, expecting everything and preparing for the eventuality of hiring a new employee in an emergency situation.
Employee planning – opening a new position on time
It is unrealistic to expect that the perfect candidate for your newly opened position is just waiting for you and will be the first to apply. It takes quite a long time to find a good fit, so advertising a new position should be well thought.
You may even prefer to have a new position open at all times and when you are in need – to choose from the resumes you’ve already collected. This may be a good advice for a big company, which hires often and can offer more benefits than most – in such a case, a potential candidate even if not exactly waiting for you, may be willing to change their job.
But for the smaller companies advertising constantly and collecting CV would rather prove a waste of time, because candidates from a few months ago would most likely be already hired elsewhere and if they are not, perhaps there is a good reason why.
So what do you do if you are a smaller company?
Create open and honest relationships with your employees. If you manage to inspire trust in them, then they wouldn’t fear salary cut offs and premature contract termination in case they advertise their plans to leave your company. The sooner you have the information, the sooner you can react and fill up the place. For that reason you must ensure you, the manager or your HR has the time to intensively seek candidates, if needed.
Keep in mind which level employees are you hiring
It is most definitely not the same situation if you are seeking for a low level executive, an expert, a team leader, a project manager or a general manager. Make sure you are fully aware what your expectation from the new employee are and how will those expectations change.
Usually, in a big company you are looking for the most qualified applicant, because the opportunity for growth is present, but in a smaller company often you are looking for a person to fill up a low level position and you know you won’t be able to offer growth.
In such a case, you should carefully choose an applicant, who isn’t interested so much in career progress as in stability. Such candidates are usually more mature persons, with more working experience and a good grasp on the employment reality and working conditions.
What to rely on – Resumes, Interviews, Tests or else?
Many recruiters rely on resumes and interviews to choose the appropriate applicants, but sometimes this proves to be inefficient.
Then what should you do? Implement personality tests or even give some job-related tasks to see how the applicant will actually do?
You could use all of the approaches above or none. Depending on the qualifications needed for your open job position, you may be able to tell which applicants are appropriate and which aren’t just by conducting a short interview.
Also, it is very important to keep track of your new hires – to have an idea which personal profile does the best in the working environment you provide – who stays and who leaves, who is satisfied and who is in constant search of a better opportunity. This way you will be able in time to create a list of criteria according to your company’s needs and conditions.