The #1 Thing To Do Before Recruiting

Is it hard to find great people? No. The real issue here is that it takes time and there are some corners you cannot afford to cut.?

Investing time in the initial steps of the recruitment process will help to ensure both the organisation and the new team member(s) are set up for success. A 2015 study found that just 19% of new hires were classified as an “unequivocal success,” and a staggering 46% were a failure. When you take into account the volume of time and resources an organisation invests in finding and training new recruits, it’s clear to see that the traditional means of recruiting staff could be categorised as a failure. So what steps are you skipping? We believe that organisations need to take the recruiting process more seriously, and think of it in a different light.

The #1 Thing To Do Before Recruiting?

Executive Discussion?

So you have a vacancy……. The executive team kicks off your new recruitment process with a frank conversation about the state of the business, the potential role being considered, and the potential challenges that they’ll face while vetting recruits and training a new employee. This discussion needs to focus on anticipating the organisation’s requirements as you move forward, and tackle the issues that are presenting themselves currently.?

Consider things like:?

• If the decision was made because someone has recently left their position? Talk about the reason why they left, and if it’s likely that history will repeat itself. If the decision to leave was promoted by tension in the workplace, perhaps the executive team should move to address internal issues before jumping into the recruiting process. Were they fired or did they resign??
• Perhaps someone left because of volumes of work, or difficult deadlines? If this was the case, did the previous employee lack the technical skills, or were they simply swamped with an unrealistic work expectation and eventually burnt out from the stress??
• Are those departing raising the same complaints? One mention should be a warning sign, but if you’ve had the same concern raised twice, it’s likely you’ve got either a threat or a weakness in your organisation that needs to be addressed. Hiring someone new simply won’t fix the underlying issue at hand.?
• Are your departing members of staff satisfied with the management team? Perhaps a lack of effective communication or leadership was taking its toll on employee morale.?

Keep in mind that if you want your organisation to stay as resilient as possible, you should make changes internally to address weaknesses, and not rely too heavily on a new recruit to fix the problem. As we’ve discussed, new hires can often buckle under pressure, and it’s likely they’ll feel overwhelmed if not adequately prepared for a role. If the organisation appears reliant on them to reverse a problem, they’re more likely to burn out prematurely in the absence of meaningful support in their role.

Team SWOT Analysis?

Once the executive team has come to a decision, it’s helpful to conduct a SWOT analysis across the board in your organisation, to identify strengths and shortfalls in your current lineup that a new addition to the team could potentially help address.

Typically, the organisation gains most when the executive team identifies a weakness, and the subsequent position description, interview and induction processes are designed to address a shortfall in your operations. This, in turn, helps to transform a weakness into either a strength or an opportunity for the company to capitalise on. Your choice of a recruit could consolidate your strengths, or directly address a weak-point; that plan of attack should be established in the first stage of the process, the executive discussion. Any weaknesses identified in the process could be addressed in either the position description, phone calls, face-to-face meetings as well as the induction process to determine whether or not the candidate is able to transform a weakness into a strength.

Keep learning,

Kobi Simmat

Originally published in my "Winning Formula To Recruitment" guide.

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