1. Know what you are looking for
Nothing can be a bigger waste of time than getting half way through the recruitment process only to realise you really aren’t sure exactly what you want and need from the person you are looking for. Knowing what you are looking for in the person and the role is vital to a successful, pain free recruitment process. This may include:
- Reviewing what the previous incumbent was doing and assess whether changes are needed to improve efficiency and outcomes from the role.
- Discuss the role with the rest of the team, or the core leadership group. Getting their feedback and commitment to the direction of the role at the outset ensures everyone is on the same page.
2. Write a great PD
Having a through, accurate and detailed Position Description (PD) before you start recruiting goes one step further to knowing exactly what you are looking for. Your position description helps you clarify the parameters for the role and determine the qualifications, skills and experience which are essential and desirable from the successful new incumbent.
3. Write the right ad
One of the key reasons clients come to us to seek assistance in the recruitment process is because they simply don’t have time to wade through the seemingly endless number of applications they receive. Writing an ad that attracts the right sort of candidates, and lets readers know what are the essential components for the role will save you time by ensuring your applicant pool is generally better suited to what you are looking for. To get the best people for your role you will need to sell the role, and the company to the reader, and make it clear what you are seeking in regards to their skills, experience and qualifications.
4. Act fast
The best applicants tend to be the quickest to find new work, so if you take weeks to go through your ad response, chances are you will lose the best candidate for your position.
5. Know your screening criteria
Before you start looking at any applications or resumes, set your criteria by which you will screen all applications. To do this, decide what are the most vital – non negotiable – criteria for the role. Then have a secondary list of desirable criteria, things that you would like the applicant to have, but which are non essential. When you start screening quickly look over the resumes, those that meet all of your essential criteria plus some or all of your desirable criteria place in a ‘yes’ file or folder, those who meet most of the essential and none or some of the desirable place in a ‘maybe’ file or folder, and those that don’t meet the essential criteria go in a ‘no thanks’ file or folder.
6. Schedule Your Time
If you go through each application as it hits your inbox you will feel like you are constantly reading resumes and that it is taking up all of your time. Schedule time in your day and week to complete the screening and assessing process and stick to this time.
7. Conduct Structured Interviews
By conducting interviews where there are a number of questions which are set and asked standard to all applicants you will have a common set of responses by which to assess and compare them by after the interviews. You should also allow time for free talk, discussion and questions within each interview to help you understand those non tangible factors such as team fit and personality style. Set a timeframe for your interviews and stick to it, one hour per interview is ample.
8. Reflect on your interviews straight after each one
Immediately after each interview, review the respondent’s answers and reflect on your first impressions. A great way to do this is to have a standard form which you can use after each interview, this way when you get to the decision making you won’t waste time trying to remember who was who.
9. Seek help from experts
The single best way to save time recruiting is to get someone else to help. Engaging the services of a skilled, experienced and knowledgeable recruiter will save you time, stress and ultimately money.
10. Share the decision
Being the sole decision maker in a recruitment process can sometimes be difficult as you spend time thinking over your decision trying to make the right choice. By sharing the decision making process with other team members, managers or even external advisors cuts the time spent doubting yourself and ensures your decision are the best one for you and your team.
