How smart are you at Recruitment?

Recruitment Guru Ian Doyle is a former business consultant who now provides fixed low cost recruitment solutions to industry throughout the UK. He is evangelical about saving the industry money!

In this short article he provides some timely advice and unbiased opinions on the options and best channels to recruit new personnel.

Recruitment is one of the most important activities in any business and, yet, it is not always done particularly well. That said, everybody would agree that bringing the right calibre of people into a team is fundamental to the successful running of a business.

Company managers find recruitment a singularly unrewarding task; it is time-consuming, it can be tedious and it is difficult to get right. So what are the choices for the Recruiter, Human Resources or Department Manager when it comes to finding new recruits; Ian Doyle an experienced recruitment guru with many years experience takes a brief look at the options.

It is critical that those in a position of responsibility for recruitment matters have a thorough and clear understanding of the requirements of the job itself; Understand the position even if it is within another department, is it a new post or replacement position, is it time critical, what is the available budget for this position and for other potential positions throughout the rest of the coming year?

Always consider all the options be prepared to shop around, having been in recruitment for many years I am always amazed that some companies appear happy to pay premium rates year after year to the same companies for what at best could be described as mediocre levels of service, simply because nobody can be bothered tendering for new rates or asking for a loyalty discount.

Most companies have in recent years cut back on staff levels in recruitment departments leaving the hard-pressed H.R manager or in some cases department Manager delegated to consider the best method to recruit staff single handedily, it has to be efficient, cost effective and reasonably quick, but clearly with limited resources it must not be burdensome in terms of paperwork.

There are number of choices; if you decide to advertise ensure that you direct your advert at the correct target audience, rather than simply placing a small advert in a local regional paper as some companies do, it may be worth the additional expense of advertising in those specific periodicals or membership journals that are likely to be read by your potential candidate audience. This will ensure that you do not sink under masses of speculative CVs from willing but clearly unsuitable candidates. The right choice here really depends on the level of seniority that comes with the job, harvesting processing staff may be one thing attracting a single person with specialist skills is quite another and may require an altogether different approach.

Ensure that you have sufficient manpower in place to meet the response to your advert, be prepared, you may be overwhelmed with CVs many of which will require thorough evaluation, acknowledgement, and notification. Do you have sufficient resource in place to cope with large volumes of traffic and do check the hidden cost of this process for consideration next time ?

If the position is for example for simple data entry what about contacting your local job centre, in recent years the quality of service they provide has changed dramatically, many staff are very proactive and will be happy to advise on assisting you with your search and its free of charge.

Are you able to handle a large volume of CVs by advertising or would you prefer to receive a smaller number of more relevant applications? Many companies today use recruitment agencies however costs can be outrageous with some agencies charging up to 25% of a successful applicants first year salary, but that is not all, it will also almost certainly include additional charges for commission or bonus plus any perks like a company car. Shop around the choice of agency can be bewildering. A good agency will however minimise paperwork and should provide you with significant number of suitably qualified experienced candidates depending on the brief.

If you do choose an agency ensure that the one you choose specialises in the specific area of expertise for the vacancy that you are trying to fill. Some will simply have to wide a remit. Do provide a full job specification detailing job description plus features and benefits of working for the company A compromise in terms of limited information may lead to unsuitable candidates being presented for interview, which may ultimately lead to time wasted, embarrassment at interview and additional unnecessary phone calls.

When screening an agency ensure that they have a proven track record in their particular field, are they willing to provide references of good service, how comprehensive are their test procedures, another important consideration is to check where they source. Some agencies will headhunt but be aware that it is free market, if you follow this route donít be surprised if you lose staff by the same method yourself ! Strike a deal with your agency when you sign up with them that they will not headhunt YOUR staff, it may not be enforceable but it will make them think twice next time they consider it.

Shop around, if you have a recruitment budget ensure that you negotiate the best, and most cost-effective price, never be afraid to challenge prices.

Do not be afraid to ask what they will do for you, how will they advertise, do you have to make a contribution to this advertising, do they check references or do they leave this to you, do they provide discounts for volume assignments or single agency status, in essence know the rules of the game, always ask for a detailed copy of terms and conditions.

And finally ensure that you get value for money, some agencies will invoice with indecent haste before a candidate even starts, many impose clawbacks basically this means that even if a candidate leaves within a short space of time, the agency will still want proportion of the original fee, always check the small print !

Payment terms can be equally harsh, some companies will invoice BEFORE a candidate has even started, 14 days from invoice date is sometimes the norm but always renegotiate, if you have 30 day terms with other service suppliers quote this to them, ensure that you have safeguards if the candidate turns out to be not quite what they seemed, keep second choice candidate on file just in case, always ensure that you have other options.