Recruitment is much more complicated than you may think it is: it is not just about hiring the best applicant. First, the HR department needs to select the best candidates and defend their selection in front of the management. After the decision has been made, the right candidate needs to be officially hired. Once the new employee has joined the team, it is essential to retain the recruit in the company.
Employing the right candidate will help an organization to spend less while achieving better results. Experts estimate that the cost of a bad hiring decision can amount to anywhere from 20% to 200% of an annual salary. In the case of a wrong hiring decision, the new recruit will be unproductive, and the employer will have to pay to fire that person and to hire and train yet another worker. Therefore, much is at stake. Here are some tips for the hiring process on how to find and select the right kind of candidates.
Talent Management: A Focus on Excellence, by Patrick Merlevede; available at bookboon.com.
The hiring process in 7 steps: issues and recommendations
- Knowing what type of person is suited for the job. We recommend formulating a model of excellence in order to map out the job requirements in terms of critical attitude patterns, values and skills.
- Getting the right candidates. This includes writing a job advert which manages to attract the right candidates.
- Knowing which Résumé to select. Rather than just looking at the Résumé or Curriculum Vitae (CV) the candidate sends, we recommend you develop a candidate or profile template which can be matched to the job requirements defined by the modeling, in addition to the candidate's CV.
- Recognizing the best match. To do this objectively, use the template you developed in response to issue #3 in combination with a scoring mechanism. Candidates who fall too far from the requirements can be notified immediately that you won't take it further.
- Minimizing Cycle time: Make sure you reply fast enough. Even if legislation gives you a month before you answer, today's candidates expect to receive feedback within a couple of days at most. If you can't answer them within this time period, candidates might expect that you are not hiring them. A consequence might be that you lose top talent to the competition. Worse, your organization's reputation may suffer because people will presume that you don't really care about candidates. If applicants start complaining to their friends, your reputation may deteriorate rapidly. We recommend integrating and automating the process as much as possible.
- Motivating to join. Knowing the job requirements, as well as the motivational patterns of a given candidate, enables you to explain the job in terms of this candidate's motivational patterns and to indicate to them to what extent they match the job requirements.
- Being able to retain. Even if you manage to convince a matching candidate to join your organization, there is no guarantee that this person will remain a part of your organization for a reasonable amount of time. For instance, problems may arise when management doesn't live up to promises made.
If you would like to get more tips on the recruitment process then download the eBook Talent Management: A Focus on Excellence, by Patrick Merlevede; available at bookboon.com.