The ultimate guide to defining a successful recruitment strategy

The Ultimate Guide to Defining a Successful Recruitment Strategy

Everything you need to know to maximise your chances of compiling an excellent candidate short list for interview.

EXECUTIVE SEARCH & MANAGEMENT SELECTION

The more groundwork that is carried out before commencement, the easier it will be to identify, search for and attract an appropriate shortlist which will ultimately unearth the most fitting candidates for your requirements.

• How to get all decision makers on board, prior to commencement. • What criteria to consider when replacing existing personnel.

• What considerations to make when establishing a benefits package.

• The benefits of psychometric assessments, competency profiling & interviewing.

• What is the most appropriate recruitment strategy for your recruitment requirements?

‘The Ultimate Guide to Defining A Successful Recruitment Strategy’ explores every aspect of the recruitment process to allow it to run with maximum efficiency.

Falling At the First Hurdle – Avoiding the Worst of All Business MistakesWhy it is important to get all decision makers on board before commencing the recruitment process.

There is nothing more frustrating than investing time in something to be told that you have been on the wrong track, simply because you didn’t ask the right questions of the right people at the right time. For example in 2014 one of the worst business mistakes in history happened at French railway operator SNCF for this very reason. 2,000 new trains were ordered using measurements given to them by the rail operator RFF.

Unfortunately, the measurements were only for those stations built in the last 30 years. The trains were too wide for many of the older regional stations to go into use and $60 million of building work had to be carried out to make all the stations wide enough for the trains to pass through.

This same principle applies to the recruitment process. Although the repercussions probably aren’t going to be quite as costly, there can still be severe consequences by not involving all stake holders at the beginning of the hiring cycle. A bad hire can not only underperform in their own role but also cause discontentment throughout an organisation.


What needs to be considered?

When it comes to comprehensively sourcing talent there are a number of aspects that need to be considered, in order to ensure that all avenues are explored.

• What are we hoping to achieve by employing this person?

• Does a potential candidate exist within our organisation?

• What is the culture of our organisation and what behaviours are we seeking?

• Have we prepared a detailed job and person specification?

• What are the competencies that are critical to the role?



• In what time scales do we need the person to be employed?

• What is the individuals potential notice period going to be, if they are employed elsewhere?

• Is the opportunity confidential?

• Is it likely that an individual of the nature we require will be looking for a new career opportunity?

• Is it likely that our competitors or organisations of a similar nature employ individuals of a similar nature?

• Are we remunerating the role appropriately?



• What have we based the potential remuneration on?

• What is the most appropriate recruitment strategy to find the most relevant candidates?

• Who is going to decide which candidates are selected for interview?

• What is the interview process going to be and who is going to be involved?

• How will we ensure consistent selection criteria?

• How are the candidates going to be evaluated?

• What if we are unable to find an appropriate candidate?


How do you get all stakeholders to dedicate the appropriate amount of time and engage from the outset in order to avoid complications part way through the process?

Handling resistanceDemonstrating the time and investment required to carry out the hiring process and how much management resource will be wasted in the event that it fails should help to secure buy-in from all senior decision makers during the initial stages.

Also, demonstrating the value and impact that a successful hire will have and the net result that will have on them or their department will also be important.


Agreeing documentsEnsure that all decision makers are in agreement regarding the following (and it is documented):

• Job specification• Personal specification • Competency profile • Induction objectives• Interview questions and structure

Assessing candidatesBy identifying the essential and desirable criteria from the supporting documents and weighting them accordingly in terms of importance will allow you to score and compare candidates based on the required criteria and eliminate personal bias.

The final hurdleIt isn’t essential that all decision makers are present at every stage of the interview process, though it is important that they understand the role they have to play and when they may be required and the input expected from them.

Strategic objectives

When it comes to any new recruit it is important to understand how the role will contribute to the short, medium and long term strategic objectives of the business. The exiting manager may have initially been, and continued to be, effective in delivering the strategic objectives at the time of their appointment, but if these have changed then the job description and job advert needs to be amended to reflect this to attract a person the skill-set to achieve the new objectives.

Equally when hiring a new person you should consistently ask, what is we are hoping to achieve with this hire and how does this contribute to our overall business objective?

The wind of change

When a senior member of staff leaves it is a good opportunity to review the structure of the business. You may find that the needs of the department and organisation as a whole have changed significantly.

A resignation gives you the opportunity to contemplate whether the role is still fit for purpose or whether the additional resource would be better allocated elsewhere in the business to achieve strategic objectives.

What is an appropriate level of salary?

When recruiting most companies will base the salaries they pay on internal factors, rather than on what the market dictates. Circumstances and markets change, there may actually be less demand in the market place for the type of candidate you are looking for so a lower salary may be acceptable.

Or there could be a scarcity of talent meaning salaries are higher than expected. Also, priorities of employees change and therefore the benefits package as a whole needs to be considered. A lower salary may be acceptable or even preferred in exchange for additional benefits such as private healthcare, remote working and flexible hours.

5 Alternatives to Salary When Benchmarking Your Company

Whether the aim of your organisation is to attract new talent or to retain valuable members of staff, it is essential to have a good understanding of the attractiveness of your business to employees in comparison to similar organisations within your sector.

It truly is a guessing game as to whether your company has the right strategy in place to appeal to appropriate candidates without an awareness of where your company sits within the market place. Studying your competitors and similar industries is essential, but money isn’t the only thing to consider. Here are five alternatives to salary which can equally be important in order to attract future employees.

Flexible working Long gone are the days when one member of the family was typically the bread winner and one member looked after the home and children, so the flexibility to juggling both work and family life is increasingly important in today’s society. Also, technology has made it much easier for employees to work from any location. Tablets, laptops and cloud based networks allow the capability of working remotely and video platforms such as Facetime and Skype enables face-to-face communications.

Giving employees the freedom and tools to allow them to juggle their home and work life more easily can be a big draw to an organisation.


TrainingSelf-development is extremely important to people who want to progress during their career, so if a company can offer a clear training and development plan then this may be more important to someone with a long term career plan that a larger salary in the short term. This is particularly applicable to candidates who are wanting to change industry as the training is an essential part to allow them to get their foot in the door.

How much training your company is willing to provide will depend on resource and the needs of the company in terms of whether there is time for a new employee to grow into a role or whether there is need for them to hit the ground running.


Benefits

A good benefits package can also improve productivity and staff retention, but it also has tax implications and will add to the paperwork. It is also important to make sure any benefit is truly what your employees and the market wants before implementation or there is a danger that it could create a great deal of work for very little return.

There are many alternative benefits to salary which a company can provide to attract talented individuals. Pensions, healthcare, car allowances, bike schemes, childcare vouchers, an office gym, a free canteen are all benefits which may reduce the living costs of individual employees, but may be more cost effective for a company to provide that a higher level of salary.


SMEs can have a big advantage over large corporations in this area as a more supportive, progressive, collaborative culture is much easier to implement in a smaller organisation than within a large business. The difficulty is demonstrating this company culture to potential employees without them experiencing it for themselves. Your website, blogs, tweets, LinkedIn posts and PR are just a few external communication channels where your company culture can be demonstrated..


It is more important to work in a pleasant working environment rather than earn a big salary to a lot of people. An environment where individuals can feel valued, trusted and empowered to achieve in the jobs that they have been employed to do can be far more desirable than more money.

Company Culture

Prestige Your company profile will have an effect on the salary and benefits package that will be required to attract the relevant type of person. If you have a strong, recognisable brand some candidates will sacrifice salary, benefits and will even put up with poor employee engagement and a less than perfect company culture in order to have your brand on their CV.

However, the opposite of this is also true. If a company isn’t particularly high profile then it may need to compensate more in terms of salary, benefits and company culture in order to attract people to work for the organisation.

For instance, in the drinks industry it will be more desirable to work for Coca Cola rather than Dalston Cola for some no matter what they think about the quality of the products or the benefits package that is presented to them.


How Do I Access the Talent I Need to Achieve Our Business Objectives? Executive Search Executive Search utilises a range of modern and traditional search techniques such as ‘headhunting’ and social recruiting, to proactively identifies, approach and delivers exceptional candidates who fit the profile of your business requirements.

It is the best approach for confidential appointments, identifying high performing individuals, specialist in demand skills and senior positions.

Management Selection/ Advertised Selection Management Selection, sometimes referred to as advertised selection, targets candidates who are actively seeking new career opportunities. There is a wide range of potential channels for placing adverts that can be utilised from traditional methods like hard copy print in national, regional and specialist publications as well as online job boards and modern communications such as social media.

Search and SelectionRelying purely on a Management Selection will leave a whole section of the market untapped and therefore a combination of Executive Search and Management Selection techniques is recommended. However, there are some instances when placing an advert may be the most cost effective and appropriate route to market, this will be driven by the nature and level of the requirement.

Our guides outlining both proactive and reactive recruitment techniques can be downloaded here.

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Newman Stewart is a market leading Executive Search and Management Selection company headquartered in Wetherby with additional offices in Leeds and London.

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Recruiting & HR

The ultimate guide to defining a successful recruitment strategy