The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) defines recruitment as “attracting and selecting individuals into a job role.”

Attracting the right individuals for your organisation is crucial if you want to be successful and deliver your goals. It can be a challenge if you don’t have an effective recruitment strategy.

The good news for business owners is that the recruitment process can be broken down into seven simple steps:

#1 Narrow down the candidate you want

The key to getting what you want is knowing exactly what you need. Recruiting can be a timely and costly process, and you don’t want to waste your time interviewing people with the skills and experience you need.

Think about:

  • Why are you advertising a position?
    • To fill gaps in performance, proficiencies or skills
    • To help with a sudden increase in workload
    • To fill a gap made by another employee leaving

#2 Craft the job description and person specification

Once you have finished step one and understand the candidate you want, you need to craft the job description and person specification to attract that candidate.  This is a good point to first engage with a recruitment specialist to check availability and affordability.

Remember that this is probably the first introduction the candidate will have to your company, so it needs to focus on the type of person you want to attract and the key responsibilities the job role requires.

#3 Think about your recruitment strategy

This step is about narrowing down how you will approach the recruitment of your role to attract the right calibre of candidates.  This may be by handling it in-house, advertising your role on jobs sites, social media, or a specialist company such as Agile Recruit.

In the candidate short market we are operating, the benefit of working with us is that you get to draw on our years of experience in doing this.  We can tap into existing networks and take time to learn what you want from a candidate and what sort of person will fit into the existing team. We don’t just fill vacancies; we help you to build your team.

Irrespective of doing this directly or with a recruitment partner, it’s essential to know at this point; why a candidate would want this role.  This can include salary and benefits, but more important things like; career growth, role fulfilment etc.  If you are not able to have this clear in your mind, the candidate you want is likely to select an opportunity elsewhere

#4 Screen your applicants and shortlist them

Hopefully, your campaign has been successful, and you have lots of applicants. That brings us to the next crucial step, shortlisting those you want to speak to.

Many clients want to wait until they have a suitable number of people (often 3 or 4) before commencing interviews.  In an ideal world, interested applicants would be waiting for the call to interview from you and pushing all other options back.  In the real world, however, the fierce competition for Talent means losing good people.  Our advice is that if someone looks great on paper, move as quickly as possible.

#5 Interviewing

Once you have shortlisted your candidates, it’s time to get them in so you can establish fit for the role. This stage is a really important part of the whole candidate experience.

We won’t cover specific interview tips in this post, but we do have some relevant blog posts on our site that you may want to review beforehand, such as

#6 Deciding to offer the job

Once you have interviewed your shortlisted candidates, reviewed them with other team members, and decided against hiring, it’s time to offer and check references.

If everything checks out, you should create an employment contract containing working hours, responsibilities, salary and holidays.

However, you must remember that your preferred candidate may not accept the job offer, so you will need to consider the ramifications and options – is it feasible to offer it to the second or third on your list?  Having a recruitment partner such as Agile Recruit is extremely helpful at this point as they can hold an impartial role and offer advice and guidance through this

#7 Welcome your new employee

We all know what it’s like to be a new person, and we all know first impressions count, which is why it is so important to think about how you will onboard your new employee to give them the best impression as early as possible.

We have tried to break down the recruitment process into simple steps for you, but as you can see, it is not easy to undertake on your own. This is why partnering with Agile Recruit is such a good idea. You will have more time to concentrate on the more important aspects of your business and a supply of candidates that will fit your business and the role you are recruiting for.

For further support and guidance, seek out one of our cloud and data specialists here.

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