Creating a “best in class” recruitment process

And yet I still see businesses that haven’t changed their approach, or processes, when it comes to interviewing and appointing what could well be the colleagues that help them achieve their goals and financial targets.

Your interview and recruitment process should have two objectives.

Firstly, it should enable you to assess and appoint the best possible talent in the shortest and most efficient and effective way possible.

And secondly, you should create advocates. 

You won’t be able to hire every person you meet but you can ensure that your process is so positive they go out and tell their peers, friends and connections about your business. 

People who will recommend other people to apply for positions with your business and refer customers to you and even become a customer themselves.

Incredibly, many of the things you need to do to secure game-changing talent will require little or no financial investment.  

By using the following T.A.L.E.N.T. pneumonic you can create an effective, best in class recruitment process that will be the envy of your competitors and help you achieve your hiring objectives.

Treat your talent as a consumer. Most businesses spend a lot of time and effort thinking about how to acquire new customers. They create social media campaigns and marketing strategies to capture the imagination and show their products and services in the best light. Think about how you can do that for your company. Who are the personas you want or need in your business? What media channels do they use? What will appeal about your business will appeal to them? Utilise your HR and marketing resource to help you acquire new talent.

Assessment process. To achieve your first objective, you need to look at your processes. There are several parts to this stage including planning, dynamics, objectives, consistency, closing candidates, profiling, next steps, making the appointment happen. All of which are explained in our eBook. But for me, behavioural profiling is the most important. It’s estimated that skills and experiences account for just 20% of our performance which means 80% is geared towards attitudes and behaviours. So, you need to learn how to utilise and interpret behavioral profiling properly, and lots of businesses get it wrong, in order to assess and evaluate who is most likely to be a success and cultural fit.

Leverage your assets. You need to utilise what’s is great about your company already. Firstly, make sure that your hiring managers and leadership team have strong LinkedIn profiles. The first thing the best candidates ask me is who the role will report to. They want to see inspirational leaders that inspire them that they can learn from. Secondly, ensure that your line managers can sell the vision, mission, values and milestones of the business and the opportunity. This message needs to be slick, well-rehearsed and consistent if you want to hire the best people.

Employee Value Proposition. Now, more than ever people are willing to work for smaller, lesser-known, even start-up businesses if, and it’s a big if the value proposition is strong. Many large, multinational, corporate businesses often struggle to turn EVP into reality. You have to give your employees a strong purpose, tell them how your companies values will benefit their careers and working life and think about what benefits you can offer potential colleagues that will appeal to them. Testimonials from your current team are important and it is worthwhile looking at sites like glassdoor to ensure you are represented in the very best light. You wouldn’t eat or stay at a hotel with poor trip advisor reviews and you wouldn’t join a business if people didn’t have anything good to say about it.

Nurture what you have. In your quest to grow and develop your business don’t overlook what you already have. Nurturing your current talent, promoting them and making them visible is the best way to attract new talent. They will help you build your employee brand and values proposition.

Take time. As a business leader, it’s essential that you invest time in your talent pipeline. Most executives work in excess of fifty hours a week. If you invested just 2%, one lunch or coffee a week meeting potential employees you will reduce your time to hire, create advocacy and referrals and market intelligence.

If your business depends on hiring the best talent, then you have to have the best hiring process.

For more information about improving your hiring process, you can attend our complimentary workshop on Friday 3rd April at 08:00 Hrs at Heads HQ, Southampton. Just click on the link below to register or email info@executiveheads.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ex-military engineer, Craig Elvin has more than 15 years’ experience working with clients and placing leaders in a range of sectors across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Craig works with growing and ambitious businesses to attract, assess and nurture the best talent for critical leadership and senior managerial positions.

Click here to connect with Craig on LinkedIn.