attract select retain

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www.recruitloop.com.au

ATTRACT.SELECT.RETAIN.

Recruitment secretsEXPOSED!


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ATTRACT.SELECT.RETAIN.

Recruitment secrets EXPOSED!

Copyright RecruitLoop 2011First published November 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,without the prior written permission of the author.

www.recruitloop.com.au


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Table of Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Part 1 Talent Attraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Chapter 1 Job descriptions: You cant not write one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 2 Performance proles: Dening success from the get go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 3 Writing a job ad: How to improve your response rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Part 2 Candidate Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15Chapter 4 Screening candidates: keeping out the tyre kickers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 5 The interview: the essential dos and donts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Chapter 6 Benchmarking: determining who makes the nal cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 7 References: conducting your own background checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chapter 8 The job offer: youre almost at the nish line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Part 3 Staff Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27Chapter 9 Induction: your new team members rst impressions on the job . . . . . . . 28

Chapter 10 Performance appraisals: nobody wants any nasty surprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33


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5

ForewordWhen youre running a SME, its not always easy to keep on top of it all. You do everything

possible not to drop the ball but inevitably the area in the business that is often the rstto feel the cracks is staffing . When youre juggling budgets, existing clients, new business,IT issues, sales and marketing, PR, accounts, and people, its unfortunately inevitable thatcorners might be cut and crucial steps overlooked when it comes to hiring. Then to makematters worse, you may not be able to invest enough time inducting your new hires andensuring theyre doing OK.

One of the most overused phrases in business today is that our people are our greatest asset .However when it comes to SMEs in particular, staffing is often the rst area to suffer.

Candidate attraction and selection and staff retention are critical to the success of anybusiness and SMEs are no different.

Its often hard just to get your head around the entire recruitment, selection and retentionprocess let alone having enough time to see it all through. After all when youve got all theother balls in the air, who really has time to write a job description, performance prole orcapabilities statement for every role in the business? Not everyone is an expert copy writer,so how are you to know if the advertisement you plan to post on to a job board will evenattract the right candidate? Should you do it yourself, or should you engage the servicesof a recruitment agency? Do you have time to do it alone? But then again do you havethe budget to use a traditional recruiter? What do you look for in a recruiter? What do youlook for in a CV? How do you sort through the pile of CVs when you are inundated with

applications to nd the diamond in the rough?And to think that all these questions need to be answered before any interviewing even takesplace.

Of course you are an expert in what you do in your business. But when it comes torecruitment, all of a sudden you are expected to become an expert recruiter a specialistin personality assessment, organisational psychology, and behavioural analysis. How canyou really identify the ideal candidate? What should you really be looking for during aninterview? How can you really distinguish between the candidates skills and competencies?


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Your pulse rate and blood pressure are probably increasing just thinking about it.

Then of course just because you interview a high calibre applicant, conduct some greatreferences and make your superstar candidate an offer, believe it or not it doesnt mean theywill even accept the role.

Scary stuff.

Assuming you do successfully make an offer, how can you prepare to bring them on board?Will you have time to personally induct them and show them the love ? How can you ensurethey feel welcome and wanted? But more importantly how can you ensure they staybeyond the probationary period? Just remember if they leave your business within the rsttwelve months, it can actually cost you up to three times their salary!

Do you have an induction program? Do you have a performance review process in place?What about a staff recognition program?

More confronting questions.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel

The good news is that this EBook is lled with 10 essential tips for any SME undergoing agrowth phase. It will help you work through the attraction, selection and retention processesmethodically and ensure you have a team of high quality, satised staff.

Thats right tips that will help you create performance proles, write more powerfulrecruitment ads, create a more streamlined screening and interviewing process, not tomention helping you ensure a better rate of staff retention.

We hope you enjoy the read but just remember RecruitLoop is always here to help you atevery step of the way.


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Part 1

TalentAttraction


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8

Chapter 1

Job descriptions:You cant not write one.I cant believe how many clients over the years briefed me on a new position and when Iasked them for a job description said something along the lines of you know what werelooking for or Ill shoot you an email with a few bullet points later .

To be honest quite often I didnt know exactly what they were looking for. And I should point

out that a few bullet points does not a job description maketh!

What also became apparent was that more often than not, they didnt know exactly whatthey were looking for either.

Its not uncommon for an employer to know that they denitely need to bring somebodynew into the business, but to not have carefully thought out exactly what it is that the newteam member would be doing.

This is a dangerous way to start.

There is no question that every candidate expects to see a jobdescription if they are even going to consider a career move.If a recruiter cant provide one, thats another issue. But if youare planning to recruit yourself, what sort of impression are youcreating if you cant even provide a potential new employeewith a description of the job you are hoping they will do for you?

The all too common Were hoping to create the job around thebest candidate depending on their previous experience doesntreally cut it either.

There is no question

that every candidate

expects to see a job

description if they are

even going to consider a

career move.


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9

Talent Attraction Job Descriptions

Think about the following key points carefully:

The actual position title must accurately reect what they will be doing in the role. Dontmake it too vague or creative. You will just confuse people or perhaps even put them off.Internally you might decide to call your receptionist the Director of First Impressions, but on a job description it should just say Receptionist .

You need to dene the reporting lines and working relationships. Specically who they willbe reporting to, and who they will be working closely with.

Most important is the list of duties in the role and what percentage of time you expectthem to dedicate to certain tasks. This will certainly help candidates better prepare to meetyour expectations.

Sometimes its hard to separate the necessary skills required in the role from the corecompetencies required in the successful candidate. To make it easier here, think of the skills

as something that a candidate may have learnt such as a particular software package. Thecompetencies are more natural traits or attributes like highly organised, team player,condent negotiator, someone who can multi-task or even someone who is hungry towin denitely a good trait for any sales person.

If you dont want to commit to a xed salary, then at leastcome up with a salary range but do some research toensure that the range is within market rate. Its also a goodidea to include any benets that you offer your staff.

A job description should be no more than one A4 page that

includes a brief company overview (including location),the points outlined above, and also a brief explanation asto whats on offer even something like a young, fun andcreative team .

No employer wants to hear a team member say, sorrybut thats not in my job description . Every manager wantsstaff happy to go beyond the call of duty. However thecall of duty still needs to be documented in some way.Besides, how do you expect to write your ad or even assessapplications or interview candidates without at least a basic

framework outlining what you are looking for?

D on t mak e t he j ob t l e t oo v ag ue D e ne r epor ng l i nes and w or k i ng r e l a onshi ps

Remember t o separ at e sk i l l s f r om c ompet enc i es


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10

Chapter 2

Performance proles:Dening success fromthe get goHeres a question for you. When you are looking to bring somebody new into your business,what do you think is more important: the candidates ability to get the job or the candidatesability to do (and ideally excel) in the role?

There is no doubt that these are both important factorsto consider. Having a well-written job description willcertainly help you assess someones ability to actuallyget the job. You can easily match experience from acandidates CV with key points outlined in the jobspecication. However in order to determine whethera candidate will excel in the job (something which youwill really only be able to ascertain during a face-to-faceinterview), you actually need to dene your expectationsof success in the role from the outset.

In the same way that an Olympic coach would denethe performance of an elite athlete in terms of wins, record race times or prize money, as anemployer looking to hire somebody new, even before they come on board you should beable to dene their performance in terms of the successes you hope they will achieve. Andsuccesses can apply to every single role in the business.

For example, will you be able to measure someones performance by positive customerfeedback? Will you measure the success of a marketer by an increase in product awarenessor new campaigns? And as for the new IT support consultant? They can be measured by the

Even before they come

on board, you should be able

to dene the performance of

a new employee in terms of

the successes you hope they

will achieve.


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Talent Attraction Performance Proles

speed with which problems are resolved or better yet prevented.

You need to ask yourself what you expect from them (in terms of their performance) at saythe three, six, nine and 12-month mark. What new tasks will they be taking on? How manynew products will they be responsible for? How many new customers will they have broughtin? What revenue targets might they need to reach?

These are all measurable so you need to dene your success expectations alongside the jobdescription. These success measures will help you screen and interview candidates, they willdenitely help you in the reference checking stage, but they will also help you benchmarkyour new employees success on the job (which can then help you better prepare for theirperformance reviews).

So if you are looking to employ someone who will help improve customer satisfaction , howwill you measure this? Exactly how much new business are you expecting your next salesmanager to bring in and in what timeframe? How many clients will your new accountmanager be handling? If you plan to employ a web designer, when specically do you needyour new website to go live? Or exactly how many outstanding invoices will the new creditcontroller be expected to collect?

Whilst you might not think you can be compared to anOlympic coach, or whilst you might not think your newaccounts payable officer can be likened to an elite athlete,you are running a business and your staff (both existingand new) are helping you reach your goals. No doubt youhave expectations of your own (and your organisations)successes. So you also need to know what you wantout of any new team members well before the actualrecruitment process even starts.

D e ne suc c ess ex pec t a ons al ong si d e t he j ob d esc r i p on

D on t base y our d ec i si on on someone s abi l i t y t o g e t t he j ob

T hi nk about w het her t hey w i l l ex c e l i n t he r ol e i n ques on


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Chapter 3

Writing a job ad: How toimprove your response rate. Theres nothing worse than writing an ad for a position you are hoping to ll, posting itonline or even running it in a local paper and then either not receiving any responses at all,or perhaps worse still, being inundated with applications from people who are completely

not suitable for the role.Improving the quality (as opposed to quantity) of your response starts by having a well-written advertisement (often the rst impression a candidate has of your organisation) that isreally going to target the appropriate audience.

Exactly who is your target audience? Where are they now? What steps are they taking to lookfor a new opportunity? Your ad needs to speak directly to them.

Your advertisement is like a funnel where initially you are castingthe net out wide to a broad audience, but then as the readersmake their way through your carefully crafted advertisement,

they are either self-ejecting from the process or they are mentallyticking all the boxes because they can actually picture themselvesin the role. In the end you really only want a handful of suitablecandidates to apply.

The job title (headline) has to be very clear and should in no waydeceive or mislead the reader. If you are looking to ll an OfficeAssistant or Accounts Clerk role, you probably shouldnt havethe heading Job of a Lifetime. Sometimes its best just to keep itsimple. Office Manager 3 days/week. Ideal for a working Mum .

On average four

times as many peoplewill read your short

description than actually

click through to the job ad

itself.


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Writing a job ad

You should also try to incorporate three bullet points containing the punchiest (eyecatching) benets or incentives associated with the job. Salary (if its within or above marketrate) is always a good one. Similarly whether there is on site parking available, the ability towork from home, or proximity to public transport will also grab the readers attention. You

might even include something along the lines of modern office with stunning harbour views .Next you need to describe the company but not in too much detail. You dont want thereader to get excited about the company and then not have any connection to the actualrole. Remember its a job ad. Above all you want someone who wants to do the job inquestion. The fact that its for your company is an added bonus.

The information you include in the actual description of the job and the prole of theideal candidate should come very easily to you assuming you have written a proper job description and prepared a performance prole for the role. Select the key skills, corecompetencies and most relevant performance or success measures and include them. This is

where you will eliminate those applicants who are not suitable for the role.You also need to clearly articulate whether there are any essential qualications, desirableskills, or any other nice to haves in terms of previous experience required in the role.

When you are writing your advertisement, avoid phrases like the successful candidate orthe ideal applicant since this will make even the most suitable candidate question whethertheyre right for the role. Rather say something along the lines of In this exciting role you willbe working with or Coming from a strong sales background, you will be expected to . Talkto the reader. Use the word you.

Given that you probably have enough on your plate anddont want to have to send personal rejection emails tothose who dont make the grade, heres some suggestedwording that you can always include at the end of the adas a bit of a disclaimer: Only applicants meeting the strictcriteria outlined above will be contacted as part of the short-listing process .

And nally, when it comes to online recruitment ads inparticular, you should be aware that on average four timesas many people read the short description than actuallyclick through to the job ad itself. So put some effort intowhat you write even if you only have 140 characters inwhich to say it. After all you dont just want people readingthe snapshot. You actually want people to read your entireadvertisement and of course you then want the bestcandidates to press Apply Now .

Hi g hl i g ht t he bene t s or i nc en v es assoc i at ed w i t h t he j ob

D esc r i be y our or g ani sa on but not i n t oo muc h d et ai l

T al k d i r ec t l y t o t he r ead er use t he w or d y o u


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Chapter 4

Screening candidates: keepingout the tyre kickers.Heres a typical scenario: You are desperate to ll an urgent role in your business. Youvereceived a few applications to the advertisement you posted. Youve had a quick glance atthe CVs and you ask your office manager to book in four candidates to see you. Three of theinterviews are a total waste of your time (the candidates are completely wrong for the job orwouldnt suit your culture at all). One of them is perfect but in order to nd the one you stillwasted at least three hours of your valuable time.

Sound familiar?

The problem is that you probably realised they were a waste of your time in the rst 10minutes of the interview. But you still went ahead with the interview anyway.

The good news is that there is a way to prevent these time wasting interviews simply byhaving a more thorough applicant screening process in place.

Its all well and good to have a close read throughsomeones covering letter or to ick through a CV butthis is still only helping you formulate your opinionbased on a candidates ability to get the job. You can seequalications, past experience (roles, employers etc) andother general information such as software prociencyfrom their CV. But you really still dont know anything at allabout them as people. You cant assess someones abilityto actually do the job in question (and ideally do it well)from looking at three or four typed A4 pages.

You probably realised

the candidate was a waste of

time in the rst 10 minutes

of the interview but you

still went ahead with the

interview anyway.


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Screening candidates

You need to pick up the phone and speak to (thats right actually have a conversationwith) the applicants. Not every single one just those that you feel inclined to bring in forinterview.

But its not just a matter of asking them where they live, what salary they are on, and whenthey might be able to start (most of which is probably included either in the covering letteror CV itself anyway). You need to ask them a few more in-depth questions. Here are a fewquestions that have really helped me lter out candidates in the past:

What speci cally was it about my advertisement that attracted your attention? What are you ideally looking for in your next role? What has been your greatest career related achievement to date? What type of work environment have you enjoyed working in the most?

Not only will the actual answers to these questions tell you a lot about the candidates goalsand motivations. You will also get a good feel for their communication skills and also whetherthey have even thought about your specic role, or whether your position just happenedto be one of 25 jobs that they applied for overnight because the job title matched anautomated keyword search.

By asking these questions not only will you get a far better feel for whether they would beright for your business, but they will also get a good feel for whether your job is right forthem potentially saving everyone a lot of wasted energy and frustration.

Its far more efficient to spend 10-15 minutes on the phonewith three applicants who you then decide not to bringin for interview than to bring in all three, spend at least 45minutes with each of them, realise theyre tyre kickers, andnd yourself extremely frustrated and right back whereyou started having wasted half a day away from your coreresponsibilities.

Think of the y screen door on your balcony at home. Thefresh air and sunlight can still come in, but the mozzies arekept away. The phone screen has the same objective. It willhelp you let the good candidates in for interview, whilekeeping out those that will do nothing more than wasteyour time.

P i c k up t he phone and speak t o t he appl i c ant s t hat y ou t hi nk ar e i nt e r v i ew w or t hy

Y ou need t o ask t hem a f ew i n-d ept h ques ons ev en d ur i ng a t e l ephone sc r een

K eep out t he c and i d at es t hat w i l l w ast e y our me


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Chapter 5

The interview: the essential dosand donts.Any guide designed for candidates reinforces the fact that a job interview is really their onechance to make a lasting rst impression. Its just as important for any employer to appreciatethat the interview is their opportunity to create a lasting rst impression too.

The war for talent is erce. So if you are lucky enough to have identied that diamond in therough, and you have them sitting right there in front of you, then you need to ensure you

make the most of the situation and not waste either partys time.Over the years I have been on the receiving end of some pretty strange interviewquestions

What modern pop song can you relate to most, and why? If you were stuck on an island, what three possessions would you want to have with you?

Ineffective. Pointless. Futile.

Whilst the answers to these questions may be interesting, inno way do they help you accurately assess a candidates past

behaviour, core competencies or ability to in fact do the job inquestion. Gone are the days of just asking about strengths andweaknesses. And hypothetical questions are a thing of the past. The only way to determine how a candidate will perform in arole, is to ask questions around how they performed a similartask in the past.

Before you meet with any candidate, you need to go backto your job description and performance prole and decidewhich skills, competencies and key success measures aremost important and then create a series of competency- or

behavioural-based questions around these.

The only way to

determine how a candidate

will perform in a role, is to

ask questions around how

they performed a similar

task in the past .


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The interview

Here are a few common core competencies and questions that you could ask to determine acandidates suitability:

Strong communicator: When have you ever had to sell an idea to a co-worker? How did youdo it?

Decision making: Can you give me an example of a time when you had to be quick in comingto a decision. What obstacles did you face? What did you do?

Time management / planning: Please describe a situation that required you to do a numberof things at the same time. How did you handle it? What was the result?

Hopefully you are seeing a pattern here. The questions you ask must prompt the candidateto talk about their past experiences. And in order to assess the quality of their responses, justthink about the word STAR.

S situation

T task A action R result

The best responses to behavioural- or competency-based interview questions will reveal thespecic situation that the candidate had found themselves in, the task they were faced with, theaction or steps they took to solve the problem and then the outcome whether good or bad.

Dont let your emotions take over. Dont hire in your own image. And dont make a decisionbased on non-job related criteria such as where a candidate lives, where they went to school,what theyre wearing etc.

Spend at least half an hour taking your candidate throughthe set of specic competency related questions. Once youare satised with the responses you can then ask certainquestions around salary expectations, availability, and ofcourse whether they have any questions prepared for you.

A decent interview should take you approximately onehour. But during that time, please remember that youhave two ears and one mouth. This means that youshould listen twice as much as you talk. Dont oversellyour organisation or the role. Make sure you make thecandidate feel comfortable but dont just spend an hourchatting. You want to make the right hire. So make surerun a professional and effective interview.

Oh and just in case youre interested the modernpop song that I relate to most is Bohemian Rhapsody .Why? Because it questions whether this is the real life, orif its just fantasy!

Hy pot he c al ques ons ar e a t hi ng of t he past T he ques ons

y ou ask must pr ompt t he c and i d at e t o t al k about t he i r past ex per i enc es D on t mak e a d ec i si on based on non- j ob r e l at ed c r i t e

r i a


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Chapter 6

Benchmarking: determiningwho makes the nal cut. This particular section will really only apply to those fortunate enough to have received alarge number of high quality applications and after having interviewed the cream of the cropstill cant quite decide who to hire.

Its true that there is a shortage of good candidates out there at the moment, but even so,

if you advertise for a receptionist, office manager or marketing assistant, your inbox willstill overow with a plethora of fairly decent applications. For more specic roles such as abusiness development manager, SEO specialist or PHP developer, you may only receive ahandful of quality applications.

The ltering of these applications starts with the screening process outlined above. The actualassessing then occurs during the interview process. But often its during the benchmarking (orshort listing) process where if you are not careful you can in fact make some pretty serioushiring errors.

If you are lucky enough to have selected more than one

candidate to invite in for interview, you must ensurethat you have some structure around your interviewingprocess. There is no point asking the rst candidate aseries of behavioural- or competency-based questions andthen asking the other candidate(s) an entirely differentset of questions. Each candidate being interviewed forthe same position must be asked exactly the same set ofquestions. And then, like a teacher marking a set of essays,you then need to decide what in your opinion constitutesa very good response, a mediocre response and a

Its during the

benchmarking process

where if you are not careful

you can make some pretty

serious hiring errors.


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Benchmarking

mediocre or insufficient response. Once again having a well-dened performance prole willcertainly help you here.

Without wanting to seem overly neurotic, you might even want to create a spreadsheetwith the candidates names down one side and the key selection criteria, competencies andessential skills along the top. Then you can actually rank each response based on an evenscoring process. You will also need to establish a rating scale. One easy way to do this isbased on the S.T.A.R technique outlined above where you can rate each of the candidatesresponses out of a possible four points. For example if the candidate describes the task theywere faced with and then what they did to try to solve the problem, they would score 2 outof 4. If they then talked about the actual outcome, this would be 3 out of 4. If they had alsoexplained specically where they were at the time (the situation) then this would equate to a4 out of 4. Its fairly straightforward.

Think of an organisation that may be required to hire a large group of people who will do

exactly the same task. For example an airline hiring a new team of ight attendants; a bankputting on a new shift in their call centre; or a new hotel opening up that will need anentire team of front desk staff. The dedicated recruitment team will interview dozens (if nothundreds ) of candidates for these roles and each candidate will be asked exactly the same setof questions.

You will more than likely be looking for just one newteam member at a time. Assuming you are not anairline, bank or hotel chain, even though you might notbe looking to hire a group of people, you still need toensure you have a fair assessment and benchmarking

process in place so that ultimately you end up hiringthe candidate who literally ticks all the boxes.

E ac h c and i d at e bei ng i nt e r v i ew ed f or t he same posi on must be ask ed ex ac t l y t he same set of ques ons. Y ou w i l l al so need t o est abl i sh a r a ng sc al e E nsur e y ou hav e a

f ai r assessment and benc hmar k i ng pr oc ess


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References

But when you are speaking to a candidates former supervisor, please dont just ask themquestions like was she a good sta member? , how many sick days did she have? or on ascale of 1 - 5 how would you describe his integrity?. Youre really not going to learn thatmuch.

You need to think back to the core skills (the job description) as well as the corecompetencies and key success measures (the performance prole) that you had createdfor the job. Then if during your interview you asked the candidate questions aroundcommunication, decision making and time management, you should then ask the referee(ideally the candidates former boss) exactly the same questions.

When did Nick ever have to sell an idea to a co-worker? How did he do it?

Can you give me an example of a time when Ken had to be quick in coming to a decision. Whatobstacles did he face? What did he do?

Please describe a situation that required Narelle to do a number of things at the same time. Howdid she handle it? What was the result?

Once again hopefully you are seeing a pattern here. The questions you ask should promptthe candidates former supervisor to talk about the candidates actual past experiencesand behaviour. The responses to these questions will certainly tell you more than whethersomeone was punctual, had a good attendance record or was procient in Excel.

One question you might also want to consider asking atthe very end of the conversation is something along thelines of So would you ever re-employ Phillip ? This should

be the only hypothetical question in the entire discussion(in fact it should really be the only hypothetical questionin the entire recruitment process), but the answer to thisquestion can speak volumes.

After all, there is a huge difference between Um yeah I guess so , Yes yes I would , and Id have himback tomorrow .

Bef or e y ou mak e a hi r e , y ou shoul d r eal l y c ar r y out t w o v e r b a l r ef er enc e c hec k s T he que

s ons y ou ask shoul d pr ompt t he r ef e r ee t o t al k about t he c and i d at e s ac t ual past ex per i enc es


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Chapter 8

The job offer: youre almost atthe nish line.Weve all heard the phrase Its not over until the fat lady sings . And this couldnt be truerof the hiring process. Just because you think you have identied the perfect candidate, itdoesnt necessarily mean that the candidate thinks they have found the perfect job.

You may have interviewed them a few times, you may have even brought them in to meet

the rest of the team, and the reference checks might have been glowing. This still doesntmean your star candidate is going to accept your offer. So many things can go wrong at thispoint, and as an employer you need to be aware of these and also be aware of what you cando to prevent your recruitment process from going pear shaped at such a critical stage.

The candidate may have another offer in the wings, theircurrent boss might decide to throw more money at themwhen the try to resign, he or she might just get cold feet,perhaps a husband, wife, partner, child, or good friend willtry to inuence them against the decision, or maybe at thelast minute the candidate will decide that things really arent

too bad at their current place of work.

In order to prevent such last minute unexpected surprises,you need to be on your game right from the very rstinterview.

So here are a few additional questions you must get intothe habit of asking your candidates during your interview once you have gone through the competency- andbehavioural-based questions.

Just because you

think you have identied

the perfect candidate, it

doesnt necessarily mean

that the candidate thinks

they have found the

perfect job.


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The job offer

Where are you up to in your job search?

What other interviews have you been to either through recruiters or directly?

Who else is really involved in your decision making process?

What will your boss say when you hand in your resignation?

What will you do if they o er you more money to stay?

What are you really looking for in your next job?

Whilst this chapter is indeed about the offer , in order to ensure that you have an offer thatyour candidate cant (or wont ) refuse, you need to know the answer to these questions rightfrom the start. If a candidate turns your offer down and says they have accepted another job,their husband isnt comfortable with them working so far from home, or they have accepteda counter offer from their current employer, unfortunately its your fault for not having raisedthese questions at the outset.

By the time you get the stage where you are ready to put together an employment contract,you should have no doubt at all in your mind that the candidate will not sign on the dottedline.

Every time you speak to your candidate throughout thehiring process you should be asking them somethingalong the lines of So has anything changed since we lastspoke ? If you dont ask, they wont tell you about other jobs theyve applied for, other interviews theyve beento, a promotion theyre really hoping to get internally,or perhaps even the fact theyve just found out theyare pregnant! And if you dont ask you might just belet down at the last minute.

When you are ready to go ahead with an offer, itsalways a good idea to make a verbal offer rst. Call the candidate, sound excited for them, let themknow how keen you are to have them come onboard. Talk through the role and core responsibilitiesagain, be clear on the salary you would like to offerthem and when youd like them to start. You willcertainly get a good feel for what theyre thinking. Then if for some reason your candidate does turnit down, you havent wasted any time puttingtogether a formal employment contract. But if theydo verbally accept, there is nothing wrong withtelling the candidate they will receive an officialletter of offer within 24 hours.

Ask w her e t hey ar e up t o i n t hei r j ob sear c h i n t he r st i nt e r v i ew

Ask w hat ot her i nt e r v i ew s t hey hav e been t o e i t her t hr oug h r ec r ui t er s or d i r ec t l y

Ask w ho e l se i s r e a l l y i nv ol v ed i n t he i r d ec i si on mak i ng pr oc ess f r om t he out set


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Part 3

StaffRetention


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Chapter 9

Induction: your new teammembers rst impressions onthe job.Many years ago I remember walking into my rst day in a new job and most of the peoplehad no idea who I was. Even my manager hadnt thought about where I was going to sit,there was no phone at the only spare desk in the office and I was there to do a sales job.

Less than three months later I was gone.

A few years later I walked into my rst day at another job and everyone in the officewelcomed me by name. My desk, computer, phone, stationery etc had all been set up andmy new business cards were already waiting for me. Oh and a team lunch had also beenarranged.

I stayed with that company for nearly seven years.

Everybody remembers his or her rst day at a new job. You

want your new team member to remember their rst day inyour organisation for all the right reasons. And having a well-documented or well thought-out induction or orientationprogram for anyone new coming into your business isessential at least for the rst week or so.

Again without wanting to sound neurotic, you might want toput an agenda together containing a list of the staff membersyour new employee will be sitting with and the times they willbe spending together.

For example:

Everybodyremembers his or her rst

day at a new job. You want

your new team member to

remember their rst day in

your organisation for all

the right reasons.


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Induction

Day 1: 8:45am 9:15am General o ce tour / orientation [Kate] 9:30am 12:30pm Database / systems training [Andrew] 12:30pm 1:30pm Team Lunch [@ Caf B2B] 1:30pm 2:30pm Sitting in accounts [Carmen]

2:30pm 3:30pm Sitting in sales [Marcus] 3:30pm 4:30pm OH&S overview and company induction [Chris] 4:30pm 5:30pm Read through policies and procedures [intranet] 5:30pm End of day 1

Having a clearly documented program will not only give you peace of mind that yournew employee is being looked after and made to feel welcome, but it also gives your newemployee an idea that some effort has been put into ensuring the transition into their new job is smooth.

You will know how detailed the program needs to be depending on the size and nature of

your business. However you should consider having the program incorporate at least two orthree full days perhaps even the rst full week. This will allow your new team member tomeet with all the relevant parts of the business and to also get to know whos who in the zoo.

Naturally as their manager you would check in with them from time to time during their rstfew days to ensure theyre OK and to see if they have any questions at all.

Formal (job specic) training is separate to any induction or orientation program. While everynew employee will be eager to prove themselves on the job, throwing someone in the deep end(a case of sink or swim) is probably not the best way to induct somebody new into the business.

If you havent got the time or the budget to take all the team tolunch, then at least consider having drinks in the office at theend of their rst week just so the rest of the team can get toknow the new kid on the block. Its a great way to ensure thatPaul the new guy can meet Soa the HR lady, Roberto fromI.T and Leonie from payroll in a more social setting.

For anyone recruiting a new person into their team, oneof the most important things you can do at least duringtheir rst week is to ensure you are around, visible andavailable. Aside from the complete lack of preparation

and chaotic work environment, one of the reasons Ilasted less than three months in the scenario outlinedat the beginning of this chapter was that my boss (theguy I was meant to work for (or with), learn from, andbe mentored by spent my rst week either in his office(with the door closed), or out of the office at meetings.I later discovered that ve other people had started inmy position during the previous year.

Go gure.

Hav i ng a w e l l -d oc ument ed i nd uc on pr og r am f or any one new c omi ng i nt o y our busi ness i s essen al

Mak e sur e y ou ar e ar ound , v i si bl e and av ai l abl e f or any new t eam member d ur i ng t he i r r st w eek


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Performance appraisals

(and de nitely not just in a caf or taxi!). I remember once my boss did my annual review athis home. We spent nearly four hours (in a setting well away from the office) reviewing theprevious six months and setting my objectives for the next six months.

Incidentally this was the same company I referred to earlier where I worked for nearly sevenyears.

A performance appraisal is a two-way street. No employee wants to turn up and be suddenlytold about something they did wrong ve months earlier, or just to have a so how are yougoing? informal chat. Similarly no manager wants to turn up to a review only to be told byan employee out of the blue that, Im really not enjoying this job anymore . Preparation (from both parties) is key.

Reviews need to be booked into the calendar well inadvance. About two weeks prior to the scheduledreview time, the employee should be sent a pre-appraisal questionnaire containing a series of severalquestions including:

What do you consider to be your key accomplishmentsin the last six months?

In relation to time management, what have you donethat has made a difference to your effectiveness in yourrole?

What are your top four priorities for the next six

months?

What further training would you like?

Overall why are you a better employee now than youwere six months ago?

As a manager you really need to get thisquestionnaire back with enough time to thenprepare for the review. You cant just get it backon the morning of the appraisal. You thenneed sufficient time to prepare your thoughtsand comments. It now shouldnt come as asurprise that the topics you cover off in theappraisal relate directly to the core skills (the jobdescription) as well as the core competenciesand key success measures (the performanceprole) that you had originally created for the job.

A performance review should be in partreective (looking back over the previous six

Employ ee s cr av e f e edback F or t he bene t of bot h t he or g anisa on and em ploy ee , pe r f or m ance a

ppr a isals should be conduct ed on a f air ly r eg ular basis Pe r f or m ance appr a isa l is a t w o-w ay st r e e t

Pe r f or m ance r ev iew s should be in par t r e ec v e , but should also be a chance f or t a r g e t s, g oals or ob jec v e s t o be se t


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months), but should also be a chance for targets, goals or objectives to be set for the nexthalf of the year. But if you expect these goals to be reached or objectives met, you also needto appreciate that your staff member is expecting you to follow through on anything youmight commit to for example from a training or professional developmental perspective.

So dont just put the review documentation into their le and lock it away for another sixmonths.

If you treat the performance review process seriously, then your staff will also take itseriously. They will feel more looked after and appreciated, and you will have a more constantnger on the pulse of what people are feeling like in your business.


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ConclusionIts a pretty major realisation when you nd yourself facing the task of recruiting somebodynew into your team. For anyone who feels totally overwhelmed or daunted by what canoften feel like an insurmountable challenge, you are not alone.

In putting this e-book together, our mission was simple. To help take the stress, confusion,panic, angst, and fear out of the recuitment process and to make it as smooth, calm, andbelieve it or not, even enjoyable as possible. In terms of a guide, we broke it down into threemain sections:

Talent attraction to help you create job descriptions performance proles and recruitmentadvertisements to kick start the recruitment process;

Candidate selection to help prevent time wasting activities and ensure you ultimately bringsomebody into your team based on their ability to do the job, as opposed to just get the job;and

Staff retention to ensure that your new team members have a positive recollection of theirintroduction into your organisation.

How you choose to make the most of this guide moving forward is entirely up to you. Youmay already have your job specs prepared and ads written, so you may only want to focuson the screening and interviewing sections. You have have identied a star candidate butneed help with references or performance reviews. Maybe you will come back and use all 10chapters!

Or you might just want to come back to the list of handy hints at the end of each chapter, forexample when you are writing your job description, preparing for an interview, or having toput together an induction program.

Weve covered everything you need to know to ensure you are armed and ready to tackle therecruitment and selection process head on. By getting this far you should now know exactly

what to do, which means theres really only one thing left to do.

But if you are still feeling overwhelmed but dread the idea of being hit with an exorbitantfee from a traditional recruitment agency, you can always get in touch with RecruitLoop andwell provide you with stress-free and exible recruitment support, the opportunity to pay anexperienced recruiter only for the hours they put into your project, as well as the chance toview candidates on line through high quality recorded video interviews.

Its what we call recruitment reinvented.

Happy hiring!


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About the authorPaul Slezak has built market-leading businessesin the highly competitive recruitment andadvertising sectors. His success stems from hisability to inuence and motivate key decisionmakers, executive management, clients,colleagues and team members alike.

With nearly 20 years in the recruitmentindustry and having worked for both aninternational publicly listed group as well asa global niche recruitment business, Paul hasbeen a hands-on recruiter, manager, trainer,

coach, mentor, and speaker across Australia,Asia, Europe and North America.

Paul holds Bachelor of Economics from theUniversity of Sydney and a Masters of Arts fromMacquarie University. He is the co-author of 21things to do to get a new job NOW!

OK so now the boring blurb is out of theway heres the real deal.

Paul grew up in Sydney as a somewhatoverprotected rst-born child. When he didntquite get into Law, his parents suggestedhe study Economics so he did. Then theysuggested that he study some more so hedid. Then like so many others who couldntnd their dream, he fell into recruitment. Butthen unlike so many others he has stayed inrecruitment for a long time. For nearly two

decades he has been an active ambassadorfor the recruitment industry and now as theRecruitment Guru at RecruitLoop, the chanceto now break away from the traditionalrecruitment model and really shake things upis very exciting.

attract select retain

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