HOW TO RECRUIT YOUR IDEAL CANDIDATE AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR RECRUITERS WWW.CRUNCHPOSTER.COM
'WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE... ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE' RICHARD BRANSON Whether you re recruiting your first employee or recruiting an additional member for an existing team, finding the right person for the role is critical if you want to avoid problems further down the line. Yet with so much at stake and so many ways to recruit it can be pretty daunting trying to find the right method for your organisation. This guide will help you to understand the recruitment process and provide you with some useful tips so you can recruit the best candidates without the stress of having to figure it out on your own. WHAT IS RECRUITMENT? Recruitment is the process of finding the right people, who are in the right location, have the right skills along with the right experience, who are available at the right time, and for the right cost. This can seem like quite a challenge, especially when the job market is strong and there is a lot of competition for candidates. However, this challenge can be minimised by ensuring you have a well thought out, robust recruitment strategy in place.
THE SEVEN STEPS OF RECRUITMENT No matter what type of role you are trying to fill and whether you are looking to fill a new role or recruit following a departure, the sevens steps below represent a robust methodology for approaching your recruitment needs: 1. Human resource planning a discussion about what staff are needed for the company and when. 2. Defining the need understanding what skills are needed and figuring out what type of person you are looking for. These should be summarised in an up-to-date job description and person specification. 3. Deciding the recruitment method the method you choose will vary according to the salary on offer, the type of role you are looking to fill, the urgency for having the role filled and your budget. The four main routes for recruitment are: Direct advertising on job boards Advertising through a flat-fee recruiter Recruitment agencies Appointing a headhunter Find out more about the pros and cons of each recruitment method - take a look at our comparison table, overleaf. 4. Attracting the candidates depending on the method of recruitment chosen the role will be advertised/promoted to encourage candidates to apply. 5. Pre-selection CVs are screened and compared to the job description and person specification before the best candidates are selected for assessment. 6. Assessing the candidates interviews are conducted, application forms are completed, assessment are done. 7. Selection decision this should be based on objective evidence provided throughout the process, which will include not only a review of the candidate s competence but also a consideration of their cultural fit within your existing team. Top tip: Ensure the person doing the recruitment follows a consistent method for evaluating potential candidates, both for deciding who to interview and then for the interview itself. Ask them to score each candidate based on at least 5 of the most important factors they are looking for. This will help to ensure a fair and meaningful process.
COMPARISON TABLE THE PROS AND CONS OF EACH RECRUITMENT METHOD RECRUITMENT AGENCIES JOB BOARD ADVERTISING FLAT FEE RECRUITMENT Most traditional form of recruitment Agencies work with both companies and candidates, and can access a pool of candidates in order to match them up to your position Most recruitment consultants will specialise in a certain industry Agencies can identify your ideal candidates and pre-interview them to establish an idea of their suitability However, can be pretty costly Tend to charge a commission fee of around 10-15% per candidate hired Job boards allow you to post a job advert directly to their site Candidates can submit their CV to you if they feel they are relevant Provide great exposure through aggregator boards working through major job boards, which are often related to either industry or location Post your position as either branded or unbranded Branded adverts attract more candidates and reduce interview drop out rates Unbranded adverts are cheaper and stop your competitors from seeing your adverts A combination of the best parts of recruitment agencies and job board advertising Your advert will be optimised, posted on multiple job boards, and applications will be screened Posting on multiple job boards will allow your advert to gain maximum exposure, while screened CVs mean you will only have to look at the best ones. Recruiters can also resource candidates, looking in talent pools, job boards, and social media Significantly cheaper than recruitment agencies - no commission fees
HOW TO WRITE A GREAT JOB ADVERT TO ATTRACT THE BEST CANDIDATES One of the most important parts of a good recruitment process is the crafting of an accurate, yet appealing job advert. An advert which is poorly presented, unprofessional, or fails to convey the benefits of working for an organisation is unlikely to attract the best candidates and, worse still, may attract the wrong candidates, which will result in wasted time, effort and money. The key elements to a great job advert are: Job description providing a job title, together with a summary of the core tasks and responsibilities of the role. Person specification a description of the essential and desirable attributes, experience and qualifications for the position Salary and bonus these do not need to be exact, but an indication of the package on offer will help potential candidates to decide whether or not to apply. Failing to be clear about this could waste the time of both the candidate and your recruiting team. Benefits these include commission, holiday entitlement, pension schemes, car allowance, equity and healthcare options. Organisation description candidates will often care as much about the type of organisation they will be working for as they will the financial benefits. It is therefore important to ensure the candidate has a clear understanding of the type of business they could be working for. Top tip: ensure job adverts are succinct and focus on the key must-haves for the role. Adverts which are too long and fail to distinguish the must-haves from the nice-to-haves are likely to result in poor quality applications.
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO SUPPORT YOUR RECRUITMENT STRATEGY Social Media is often overlooked by organisations looking to recruit, yet this can be a great way to attract candidates, not only for little or no cost, but also to attract candidates who are already interested in your organisation/brand. This is particularly valuable when you are looking for candidates who are aligned with your brand s values. The two methods for using social media to promote your vacancy are: Earned/free this approach involves using business/personal profiles to share the advert with existing connections. While this is free and can get your message in front of potential candidates who are already familiar with your organisation, it is also unlikely to be seen by large numbers of people. Paid the social media platforms generally make a lot of their money from paid advertising on their platform. While this does come at a cost, it also provides the opportunity to target based on a variety of targeting factors, including demographics and interests. It also provides an opportunity to reach large numbers of potential candidates. AT THE TIME OF WRITING, THERE ARE THREE MAIN SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS THAT ARE SUITED TO RECRUITMENT: FACEBOOK With more than 30 million users in the UK alone, Facebook presents an obvious opportunity to get your role in front of large numbers of users. A specialist position will be harder to fill through a general broad-appeal site like Facebook, but for jobs in social media or marketing it can be a great option. Also, there will be pages on the site where you can advertise your position, and some external recruiters (like flat fee recruiters) will post your job on social media as a part of their service.
INSTAGRAM Instagram is a favourite among Millennials, meaning that you can find fresh talent who may be interested in working for you. Understanding that 95% of profiles belong to people under the age of 35, and 80% of users follow brands on Instagram, means that there is a good chunk of young people to work with on the site. Two of the best ways to use Instagram to recruit is to establish your brand and nail leverage hashtags, using stories to give an insight into how your company works and hashtags to stay on trend. Figuring out how to recruit using Instagram will be much easier for jobs in media, fashion, PR, marketing or art so if you are looking for creative people then it s worth a try. LINKEDIN LinkedIn is less social and more professional than other social media sites, and therefore it is probably the most helpful when it comes to actively sourcing potential candidates. Joining groups of people with the skills or experience you are searching for gives you the best chance of finding candidates who are relevant for your company, and (like Facebook) you can search for these skills across all of the available profiles on the site. You can also post job adverts on LinkedIn, and while this costs money, the site claims that they combine listings, candidate searches, trusted referrals and networks in order to give you the best possible results. Top tip: Add a Work for us page to your website. You can then promote any vacancies you have, free-of-charge. You can also create a data capture form and ask prospective candidates to register their interest in working for you as/when vacancies arise.
'IF YOU GET THE RIGHT MIX OF PEOPLE WORKING FOR YOUR COMPANY, IT WILL HAVE A FAR GREATER CHANCE OF SUCCESS.' RICHARD BRANSON The recruitment approach you opt for is likely to vary according to the type of candidate you are searching for and any particular challenges you are facing (normally these are related to budget restrictions and/or urgency for filling the role). Either way, we hope that this guide has provided you with a useful insight to the challenges you are likely to face during a recruitment process, and how best to address them. If you are new to recruiting, or you are looking for a convenient, fixed-fee and low cost recruiting solution, the team at CrunchPoster will be happy to help. As a CrunchPoster client you can look forward to: A range of solutions to suit your budget A simple, no-nonsense way to gain maxium exposure Access to premium job boards and over 1000 free job boards Advice and support throughout your journey CALL US: 01634 757 897 WEBSITE: WWW.CRUNCHPOSTER.CO.UK EMAIL: INFO@CRUNCHPOSTER.CO.UK