Making the Right Hiring Choices for Your Business

What measures can you take to maximize the effectiveness of your recruitment process, minimize the time involved and ensure you get the right candidate from the start? 

One of your key employees has given notice that he or she is leaving so you need to hire a replacement. It shouldn’t be too hard – write a quick ad, read through some resumes, interview a few candidates and select the best one, right?

It sounds easy, but the more you look at it, the more daunting and time consuming the task becomes. And, if you don’t give recruitment the time and attention it deserves you are unlikely to hire the right person for your business.

Recruitment and selection mistakes can prove very costly – it is estimated that turnover in a position can cost an organization 1.7 to 2 times that position’s base annual salary. When you take into account re-advertising costs, screening and interview time, training, lost productivity, dissatisfied customers, reduced morale due to hiring a candidate who is the wrong fit for your team, the costs to your business can be far more than financial.

There are also the legal implications and exposure that come with hiring. Over recent years, a number of new workplace laws have been implemented in Australia to prevent unfairness and discrimination in the workplace. This legislation has a definite impact on the way you advertise the position and the types of questions you can and cannot ask a candidate during an interview.

To help you make the right hiring choices, we suggest you research and consider the following questions:

Preparation:

1. Do you know what the role entails?
2. Do you still need the position to be filled, or can you reorganize the work to make your business more efficient and profitable?
3. Do you have a position description for the role?

Advertising:

1. Do you know the most effective advertising options available to your particular business?
2. Do you know how to write an effective job ad?

Headhunting:

6. Are there any places you can go or databases you can access to target candidates with the right skills for your role?

Screening:

1. Are there any screening questions you can build into your ad to ensure you only get the most appropriate applicants applying and save you time?
2. Do you have a consistent and objective approach in place for screening candidates?

The Interview:

1. Have you set aside enough time to effectively interview candidates?
2. Do you have interview questions prepared?
3. Are you familiar with behaviour-based interview questions?

Testing:

1. Do you have access to additional personality or skills testing to complement the recruitment process and assist in the selection process?

Reference Checks:

1. Do you know the questions to ask when carrying out reference checks?

Employment Commencement:

1. Do you have a letter of offer prepared prior to the new employee commencing work?
2. Do you have an orientation/induction process in place for new employees?
3. Do you have a probationary review process to ensure the employee performs to your expectations during the probationary period?

By taking a considered approach to these aspects of the recruitment process you can increase your chances of getting the right person for the job and ensure potential candidates get the best possible first impression of your business.

If you would like help with any of the above, Allan Hall HR has a dedicated recruitment team with a number of years’ experience in helping Allan Hall clients to recruit the best possible employees from non-qualified positions to graduates to managers and directors, across a wide range of roles in a number of different industries, and with significant savings to our clients. Contact us directly on 8978 3752 or email [email protected] for more information.