10 tips to a more organised and successful, recruitment project
When I meet with clients who typically manage their recruitment processes in house, there is typically one common factor which affects their ability to manage a successful and efficient recruitment project – organisation. As managers in business, you are busy! In small business in particular, you are often wearing many ‘hats’ simultaneously and are consistently time-poor. So when you decide to recruit in house, you figure you’ll somehow ‘squeeze it in’ to your already overloaded calendar. Getting organised before you start can help make sure you manage your ‘recruitment time’ more effectively, don’t find yourself drowning in applications and get the right result – faster! Here are my top 10 tips to getting organised for a successful recruitment project:
1. Know what you want
Spend some time getting a job description together, reflecting on where this person fits into your existing team and what experience you need them to have. Having clarity about exactly what you are looking for and which aspects of this you are willing to be flexible on, creates decisiveness and focus.
2. Check your calendar
Don’t run an ad when you know you won’t be able to look at applications for 3 weeks – by the time you get to them, all the good applicants will be taken and you’ll have to start again. Make sure you will have time to screen and interview applicants in the few weeks following the running of the ad.
3. Targeted campaigns
Unless you want to be bombarded with applications who are on the large part unsuitable, make sure you advertise in the right place for where your applicants will be looking. Do your research, check the publications and talk to colleagues and associates to ensure you’re hitting your target market.
4. Clear, specific and realistic advertising
If the ad you place is vague, general and leaves too much to the imagination, you run two risks: firstly, your ideal applicant may not apply or secondly, everyone applies and you find yourself wading through potentially hundreds of unsuitable applications.
5. Have dedicated application procedures
Know how you want to receive applications and make it clear in the ad that this is what applicants need to do. If they can’t follow the procedure you set out in the ad, they probably aren’t your perfect employee anyway. For example, you may like to have applicants forward resumes and questions to a dedicated careers@ e-mail address – that way you aren’t constantly interrupted by applications arriving.
6. Schedule time
Set aside time in your diary each day to reviewing applications – and stick to it. If you don’t have any applications to review that day, not a problem: you now have a spare 30 minutes on your hands.
7. Checklists
Using pre-prepared checklists is a great way to organise your processes prior to starting a recruitment exercise. You can tick off each step as you go.
8. Standardised Forms
Having standard phone screening forms, interview questions and application forms ready to go before you start means you have a consistent approach across all candidates and you aren’t going back and forward because you have forgotten to ask something.
9. Auto E-Mails and Letters
A few days after making applications, candidates will start calling and e-mailing wanting progress updates. By having systems in place, such as an auto reply e-mail saying, ‘we have your application, thank you, we will be in touch in XX timeframe’ will avoid the constant disruption of calls and e-mails.
10. Enlist Help
If you know you are not going to have time to run the project properly, get help. Even from within your team, you may be able to ‘share the load’ a little with things such as responding to candidates questions. By having this system set up, and knowing who’s doing what, will take the pressure off your time throughout the process.
