ATTRACT.SELECT.RETAIN.

www.recruitloop.com.au

Paul Slezak

Recruitment secrets

EXPOSED!

Two decades of hands on recruitment experience packed into one book. A MUST READ for anyone

running a business and looking to build their team.

www.recruitloop.com.au

ATTRACT.SELECT.RETAIN.

Recruitment secrets EXPOSED!

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 any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

www.recruitloop.com.au

Table of Contents

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

Part 1 Talent Attraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 1 Job descriptions: You can’t not write one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 2 Performance profiles: Defining success from the get go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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

Part 2 Candidate Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 4 Screening candidates: keeping out the tyre kickers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 5 The interview: the essential do’s and don’ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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

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

Chapter 8 The job offer: you’re almost at the finish line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Part 3 Staff Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 9 Induction: your new team member’s first impressions on the job . . . . . . . 28

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

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

5

ForewordWhen you’re running a SME, it’s 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 first to feel the cracks is staffing. When you’re juggling budgets, existing clients, new business, IT issues, sales and marketing, PR, accounts, and people, it’s unfortunately inevitable that corners might be cut and crucial steps overlooked when it comes to hiring. Then to make matters worse, you may not be able to invest enough time inducting your new hires and ensuring they’re 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 first area to suffer.

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

It’s often hard just to get your head around the entire recruitment, selection and retention process let alone having enough time to see it all through. After all when you’ve got all the other balls in the air, who really has time to write a job description, performance profile or capabilities 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 even attract the right candidate? Should you do it yourself, or should you engage the services of a recruitment agency? Do you have time to do it alone? But then again do you have the budget to use a traditional recruiter? What do you look for in a recruiter? What do you look for in a CV? How do you sort through the pile of CVs when you are inundated with applications to find the diamond in the rough?

And to think that all these questions need to be answered before any interviewing even takes place.

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

6

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 great references and make your “superstar candidate” an offer, believe it or not it doesn’t mean they will 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 ensure they feel welcome and wanted? But more importantly how can you ensure they stay… beyond the probationary period? Just remember if they leave your business within the first twelve 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 filled with 10 essential tips for any SME undergoing a growth phase. It will help you work through the attraction, selection and retention processes methodically and ensure you have a team of high quality, satisfied staff.

That’s right… tips that will help you create performance profiles, write more powerful recruitment ads, create a more streamlined screening and interviewing process, not to mention 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 at every step of the way.

Part 1TalentAttraction

8

Chapter 1

Job descriptions: You can’t not write one.I can’t believe how many clients over the years briefed me on a new position and when I asked them for a job description said something along the lines of “you know what we’re looking for” or “I’ll shoot you an email with a few bullet points later”.

To be honest quite often I didn’t 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 didn’t know exactly what they were looking for either.

It’s not uncommon for an employer to know that they definitely need to bring somebody new into the business, but to not have carefully thought out exactly what it is that the new team member would be doing.

This is a dangerous way to start.

There is no question that every candidate expects to see a job description if they are even going to consider a career move. If a recruiter can’t provide one, that’s another issue. But if you are planning to recruit yourself, what sort of impression are you creating if you can’t even provide a potential new employee with a description of the job you are hoping they will do for you?

The all too common “We’re hoping to create the job around the best candidate depending on their previous experience” doesn’t really 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.

9

Talent Attraction Job Descriptions

Think about the following key points carefully:

The actual position title must accurately reflect what they will be doing in the role. Don’t make 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 define the reporting lines and working relationships. Specifically who they will be 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 expect them to dedicate to certain tasks. This will certainly help candidates better prepare to meet your expectations.

Sometimes it’s hard to separate the necessary skills required in the role from the core competencies 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. The competencies are more natural traits or attributes like “highly organised”, “team player”, “confident negotiator”, “someone who can multi-task” or even “someone who is hungry to win” – definitely a good trait for any sales person.

If you don’t want to commit to a fixed salary, then at least come up with a salary range – but do some research to ensure that the range is within market rate. It’s also a good idea to include any benefits 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 as to what’s on offer – even something like “a young, fun and creative team”.

No employer wants to hear a team member say, “sorry but that’s not in my job description”. Every manager wants staff happy to go beyond the call of duty. However “the call of duty” still needs to be documented in some way. Besides, how do you expect to write your ad or even assess applications or interview candidates without at least a basic framework outlining what you are looking for?

• Don’tmakethejobtitletoovague• Definereportinglinesandworkingrelationships

• Remembertoseparateskillsfromcompetencies

10

Chapter 2

Performance profiles: Defining success from the get goHere’s a question for you. When you are looking to bring somebody new into your business, what do you think is more important: the candidate’s ability to get the job or the candidate’s ability to do (and ideally excel) in the role?

There is no doubt that these are both important factors to consider. Having a well-written job description will certainly help you assess someone’s ability to actually get the job. You can easily match experience from a candidate’s CV with key points outlined in the job specification. However in order to determine whether a candidate will excel in the job (something which you will really only be able to ascertain during a face-to-face interview), you actually need to define your expectations of success in the role from the outset.

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

For example, will you be able to measure someone’s performance by positive customer feedback? Will you measure the success of a marketer by an increase in product awareness or 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 define the performance of

a new employee in terms of

the successes you hope they

will achieve.

11

Talent Attraction Performance Profiles

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 say the three, six, nine and 12-month mark. What new tasks will they be taking on? How many new products will they be responsible for? How many new customers will they have brought in? What revenue targets might they need to reach?

These are all measurable so you need to define your “success expectations” alongside the job description. These success measures will help you screen and interview candidates, they will definitely help you in the reference checking stage, but they will also help you benchmark your new employee’s success on the job (which can then help you better prepare for their performance reviews).

So if you are looking to employ someone who will “help improve customer satisfaction”, how will you measure this? Exactly how much new business are you expecting your next sales manager to bring in… and in what timeframe? How many clients will your new account manager be handling? If you plan to employ a web designer, when specifically do you need your new website to go live? Or exactly how many outstanding invoices will the new credit controller be expected to collect?

Whilst you might not think you can be compared to an Olympic coach, or whilst you might not think your new accounts payable officer can be likened to an elite athlete, you are running a business and your staff (both existing and new) are helping you reach your goals. No doubt you have expectations of your own (and your organisation’s) successes. So you also need to know what you want out of any new team members… well before the actual recruitment process even starts.

• Define“successexpectations”alongsidethejobdescription• Don’tbaseyourdecisiononsomeone’sabilitytogetthejob

• Thinkaboutwhethertheywillexcelintheroleinquestion

12

Chapter 3

Writing a job ad: How to improve your response rate.There’s nothing worse than writing an ad for a position you are hoping to fill, posting it online 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 first impression a candidate has of your organisation) that is really going to target the appropriate audience.

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

Your advertisement is like a funnel where initially you are casting the net out wide to a broad audience, but then as the readers make their way through your carefully crafted advertisement, they are either self-ejecting from the process or they are mentally ticking all the boxes because they can actually picture themselves in the role. In the end you really only want a handful of suitable candidates to apply.

The job title (headline) has to be very clear and should in no way deceive or mislead the reader. If you are looking to fill an Office Assistant or Accounts Clerk role, you probably shouldn’t have the heading “Job of a Lifetime”. Sometimes it’s best just to keep it simple. “Office Manager – 3 days/week. Ideal for a working Mum”.

On average four

times as many people

will read your short

description than actually

click through to the job ad

itself.

13

Writing a job ad

You should also try to incorporate three bullet points containing the “punchiest” (eye catching) benefits or incentives associated with the job. Salary (if it’s within or above market rate) is always a good one. Similarly whether there is on site parking available, the ability to work 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 don’t want the reader to get excited about the company and then not have any connection to the actual role. Remember it’s a job ad. Above all you want someone who wants to do the job in question. The fact that it’s for your company is an added bonus.

The information you include in the actual description of the job and the profile of the ideal candidate should come very easily to you… assuming you have written a proper job description and prepared a performance profile for the role. Select the key skills, core competencies 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 qualifications, desirable skills, 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” or “the ideal applicant” since this will make even the most suitable candidate question whether they’re right for the role. Rather say something along the lines of “In this exciting role you will be working with…” or “Coming from a strong sales background, you will be expected to…”. Talk to the reader. Use the word “you”.

Given that you probably have enough on your plate and don’t want to have to send personal rejection emails to those who don’t make the grade, here’s some suggested wording that you can always include at the end of the ad as a bit of a disclaimer: “Only applicants meeting the strict criteria outlined above will be contacted as part of the short-listing process”.

And finally, when it comes to online recruitment ads in particular, you should be aware that on average four times as many people read the short description than actually click through to the job ad itself. So put some effort into what you write… even if you only have 140 characters in which to say it. After all you don’t just want people reading the snapshot. You actually want people to read your entire advertisement… and of course you then want the best candidates to press “Apply Now”.

• Highlightthebenefitsorincentivesassociatedwiththejob•Describeyourorganisation…butnotintoomuchdetail

•Talkdirectlytothereader…usetheword“you”

Part 2Candidate Selection

16

Chapter 4

Screening candidates: keeping out the tyre kickers.Here’s a typical scenario: You are desperate to fill an urgent role in your business. You’ve received a few applications to the advertisement you posted. You’ve had a quick glance at the CVs and you ask your office manager to book in four candidates to see you. Three of the interviews are a total waste of your time (the candidates are completely wrong for the job or wouldn’t suit your culture at all). One of them is perfect but in order to find the one you still wasted 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 first 10 minutes 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 by having a more thorough applicant screening process in place.

It’s all well and good to have a close read through someone’s covering letter or to flick through a CV but this is still only helping you formulate your opinion based on a candidate’s ability to get the job. You can see qualifications, past experience (roles, employers etc) and other general information such as software proficiency from their CV. But you really still don’t know anything at all about them as people. You can’t assess someone’s ability to 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 first 10 minutes

of the interview but you

still went ahead with the

interview anyway.

17

Screening candidates

You need to pick up the phone and speak to (that’s right… actually have a conversation with) the applicants. Not every single one – just those that you feel inclined to bring in for interview.

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

• “What specifically 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 candidate’s goals and motivations. You will also get a good feel for their communication skills and also whether they have even thought about your specific role, or whether your position just happened to be one of 25 jobs that they applied for overnight because the job title matched an automated keyword search.

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

It’s far more efficient to spend 10-15 minutes on the phone with three applicants who you then decide not to bring in for interview than to bring in all three, spend at least 45 minutes with each of them, realise they’re tyre kickers, and find yourself extremely frustrated and right back where you started having wasted half a day away from your core responsibilities.

Think of the fly screen door on your balcony at home. The fresh air and sunlight can still come in, but the mozzies are kept away. The phone screen has the same objective. It will help you let the good candidates in for interview, while keeping out those that will do nothing more than waste your time.

• Pickupthephoneandspeaktotheapplicantsthatyouthinkareinterviewworthy•Youneedtoaskthemafewin-depthquestionsevenduringatelephonescreen

•Keepoutthecandidatesthatwillwasteyourtime

18

Chapter 5

The interview: the essential dos and don’ts.Any guide designed for candidates reinforces the fact that a job interview is really their one chance to make a lasting first impression. It’s just as important for any employer to appreciate that the interview is their opportunity to create a lasting first impression too.

The war for talent is fierce. So if you are lucky enough to have identified that ‘diamond in the rough’, 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 party’s time.

Over the years I have been on the receiving end of some pretty strange interview questions…

• “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, in no way do they help you accurately assess a candidate’s past behaviour, core competencies or ability to in fact do the job in question. Gone are the days of just asking about strengths and weaknesses. And hypothetical questions are a thing of the past. 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.

Before you meet with any candidate, you need to go back to your job description and performance profile and decide which skills, competencies and key success measures are most 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.

19

The interview

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

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

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

• Time management / planning: “Please describe a situation that required you to do a number of 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 candidate to talk about their past experiences. And in order to assess the quality of their responses, just think about the word STAR.

• S – situation• T – task• A – action• R – result

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

Don’t let your emotions take over. Don’t hire in your own image. And don’t make a decision based on non-job related criteria such as where a candidate lives, where they went to school, what they’re wearing etc.

Spend at least half an hour taking your candidate through the set of specific competency related questions. Once you are satisfied with the responses you can then ask certain questions around salary expectations, availability, and of course whether they have any questions prepared for you.

A decent interview should take you approximately one hour. But during that time, please remember that you have two ears and one mouth. This means that you should listen twice as much as you talk. Don’t oversell your organisation or the role. Make sure you make the candidate feel comfortable but don’t just spend an hour chatting. You want to make the right hire. So make sure run a professional and effective interview.

Oh… and just in case you’re interested… the modern pop song that I relate to most is “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Why? Because it questions whether this is the real life, or if it’s just fantasy!

• Hypotheticalquestionsarea thingofthepast•Thequestionsyouaskmustpromptthecandidatetotalkabouttheirpastexperiences

•Don’tmakeadecisionbasedonnon-jobrelatedcriteria

20

Chapter 6

Benchmarking: determining who makes the final cut.This particular section will really only apply to those fortunate enough to have received a large number of high quality applications and after having interviewed the cream of the crop still can’t quite decide who to hire.

It’s 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 will still overflow with a plethora of fairly decent applications. For more specific roles such as a business development manager, SEO specialist or PHP developer, you may only receive a handful of quality applications.

The filtering of these applications starts with the screening process outlined above. The actual assessing then occurs during the interview process. But often it’s during the benchmarking (or short listing) process where if you are not careful you can in fact make some pretty serious hiring errors.

If you are lucky enough to have selected more than one candidate to invite in for interview, you must ensure that you have some structure around your interviewing process. There is no point asking the first candidate a series of behavioural- or competency-based questions and then asking the other candidate(s) an entirely different set of questions. Each candidate being interviewed for the same position must be asked exactly the same set of questions. And then, like a teacher marking a set of essays, you then need to decide what in your opinion constitutes a very good response, a mediocre response and a

It’s during the

benchmarking process

where if you are not careful

you can make some pretty

serious hiring errors.

21

Benchmarking

mediocre or insufficient response. Once again having a well-defined performance profile will certainly help you here.

Without wanting to seem overly neurotic, you might even want to create a spreadsheet with the candidates’ names down one side and the key selection criteria, competencies and essential skills along the top. Then you can actually rank each response based on an even scoring process. You will also need to establish a rating scale. One easy way to do this is based on the “S.T.A.R” technique outlined above where you can rate each of the candidates’ responses out of a possible four points. For example if the candidate describes the task they were faced with and then what they did to try to solve the problem, they would score 2 out of 4. If they then talked about the actual outcome, this would be 3 out of 4. If they had also explained specifically where they were at the time (the situation) then this would equate to a 4 out of 4. It’s 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 flight attendants; a bank putting on a new shift in their call centre; or a new hotel opening up that will need an entire team of front desk staff. The dedicated recruitment team will interview dozens (if not hundreds) of candidates for these roles and each candidate will be asked exactly the same set of questions.

You will more than likely be looking for just one new team member at a time. Assuming you are not an airline, bank or hotel chain, even though you might not be looking to hire a group of people, you still need to ensure you have a fair assessment and benchmarking process in place so that ultimately you end up hiring the candidate who literally ticks all the boxes.

• Eachcandidatebeinginterviewedforthesamepositionmustbeaskedexactlythesamesetofquestions.•Youwillalsoneedtoestablisharatingscale•Ensureyouhaveafairassessmentandbenchmarkingprocess

22

Chapter 7

References: conducting your own background checks.It’s frightening to think how many small business owners in particular will bring someone on board without carrying out any reference checks only to be let down or perhaps even badly burnt after only 3 - 6 months of the new employee being in the job.

This might be a good time to remind you that the cost of a poor hire (someone who leaves because they feel the job isn’t for them or who you need to let go because they’re just not up to scratch) can be as high as three times their salary.

A very costly exercise indeed.

There are candidates out there who look great on paper but who perform poorly during interview. But there are also candidates who perform very well during interview but once they are on the job it’s a different story altogether. CVs can be embellished, and it’s even possible to become a ‘master interviewee’ with a bit of coaching or plenty of practice.

The good news is that there is a way for you to ensure that the person you initially discovered on paper and the person you then thought performed strongly at interview is actually who they say they are, and more importantly will perform as well as (if not better than) you hope they will on the job.

Before you bring anybody new into your team you should really carry out two verbal reference checks. After all, don’t you think it’s worth another 15 - 20 minutes of your time to speak to someone that has actually managed the person you want to hire? It’s the perfect way for you to understand how they really perform on the job (the good and perhaps even the not so good) before you find out… perhaps the hard way.

The cost of a poor

hire can be as high as three

times that person’s salary

23

References

But when you are speaking to a candidate’s former supervisor, please don’t just ask them questions like “was she a good staff member?”, “how many sick days did she have?” or “on a scale of 1 - 5 how would you describe his integrity?”. You’re really not going to learn that much.

You need to think back to the core skills (the job description) as well as the core competencies and key success measures (the performance profile) that you had created for the job. Then if during your interview you asked the candidate questions around communication, decision making and time management, you should then ask the referee (ideally the candidate’s 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. What obstacles did he face? What did he do? “

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

Once again hopefully you are seeing a pattern here. The questions you ask should prompt the candidate’s former supervisor to talk about the candidate’s actual past experiences and behaviour. The responses to these questions will certainly tell you more than whether someone was punctual, had a good attendance record or was proficient in Excel.

One question you might also want to consider asking at the very end of the conversation is something along the lines 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 question in the entire recruitment process), but the answer to this question can speak volumes.

After all, there is a huge difference between “Um… yeah… I guess so”, “Yes… yes I would”, and “I’d have him back tomorrow”.

• Beforeyoumakeahire,youshouldreallycarryouttwoverbal referencechecks•Thequestionsyouaskshouldprompttherefereetotalkaboutthecandidate’sactualpastexperiences

24

Chapter 8

The job offer: you’re almost at the finish line.We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s not over until the fat lady sings”. And this couldn’t be truer of the hiring process. Just because you think you have identified the perfect candidate, it doesn’t 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 doesn’t mean your star candidate is going to accept your offer. So many things can go wrong at this point, and as an employer you need to be aware of these and also be aware of what you can do to prevent your recruitment process from going pear shaped at such a critical stage.

The candidate may have another offer in the wings, their current boss might decide to throw more money at them when the try to resign, he or she might just get cold feet, perhaps a husband, wife, partner, child, or good friend will try to influence them against the decision, or maybe at the last minute the candidate will decide that things really aren’t 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 first interview.

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

Just because you

think you have identified

the perfect candidate, it

doesn’t necessarily mean

that the candidate thinks

they have found the

perfect job.

25

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 offer 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 that your candidate can’t (or won’t) refuse, you need to know the answer to these questions right from the start. If a candidate turns your offer down and says they have accepted another job, their husband isn’t comfortable with them working so far from home, or they have accepted a counter offer from their current employer, unfortunately it’s your fault for not having raised these 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 dotted line.

Every time you speak to your candidate throughout the hiring process you should be asking them something along the lines of “So has anything changed since we last spoke”? If you don’t ask, they won’t tell you about other jobs they’ve applied for, other interviews they’ve been to, a promotion they’re really hoping to get internally, or perhaps even the fact they’ve just found out they are pregnant! And if you don’t ask you might just be let down at the last minute.

When you are ready to go ahead with an offer, it’s always a good idea to make a verbal offer first. Call the candidate, sound excited for them, let them know how keen you are to have them come on board. Talk through the role and core responsibilities again, be clear on the salary you would like to offer them and when you’d like them to start. You will certainly get a good feel for what they’re thinking. Then if for some reason your candidate does turn it down, you haven’t wasted any time putting together a formal employment contract. But if they do verbally accept, there is nothing wrong with telling the candidate they will receive an official letter of offer within 24 hours.

• Askwheretheyareuptointheirjobsearchinthefirstinterview•Askwhatotherinterviewstheyhavebeentoeitherthroughrecruitersordirectly

•Askwhoelseisreally involvedintheirdecisionmakingprocessfromtheoutset

Part 3Staff Retention

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Chapter 9

Induction: your new team member’s first impressions on the job.Many years ago I remember walking into my first day in a new job and most of the people had no idea who I was. Even my manager hadn’t 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 first day at another job and everyone in the office welcomed me by name. My desk, computer, phone, stationery etc had all been set up and my new business cards were already waiting for me. Oh and a team lunch had also been arranged.

I stayed with that company for nearly seven years.

Everybody remembers his or her first day at a new job. You want your new team member to remember their first day in your organisation for all the right reasons. And having a well-documented or well thought-out induction or orientation program for anyone new coming into your business is essential… at least for the first week or so.

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

For example:

Everybody

remembers his or her first

day at a new job. You want

your new team member to

remember their first day in

your organisation for all

the right reasons.

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Induction

Day 1: 8:45am – 9:15am General office tour / orientation [Kate] 9:30am – 12:30pm Database / systems training [Andrew] 12:30pm – 1:30pm Team Lunch [@ Café 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 your new employee is being looked after and made to feel welcome, but it also gives your new employee 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 or three full days – perhaps even the first full week. This will allow your new team member to meet with all the relevant parts of the business and to also get to know ‘who’s who in the zoo’.

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

Formal (job specific) training is separate to any induction or orientation program. While every new 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 haven’t got the time or the budget to take all the team to lunch, then at least consider having drinks in the office at the end of their first week just so the rest of the team can get to know the new kid on the block. It’s a great way to ensure that Paul “the new guy” can meet Sofia “the HR lady”, Roberto “from I.T” and Leonie “from payroll” in a more social setting.

For anyone recruiting a new person into their team, one of the most important things you can do at least during their first week is to ensure you are around, visible and available. Aside from the complete lack of preparation and chaotic work environment, one of the reasons I lasted less than three months in the scenario outlined at the beginning of this chapter was that my boss (the guy I was meant to work for (or “with”), learn from, and be mentored by spent my first week either in his office (with the door closed), or out of the office at meetings. I later discovered that five other people had started in my position during the previous year.

Go figure.

• Havingawell-documentedinductionprogramforanyonenewcomingintoyourbusinessisessential•Makesureyouarearound,visibleandavailableforanynewteammemberduringtheirfirstweek

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Chapter 10

Performance appraisals: nobody wants any nasty surprises.Employees crave feedback. Any decent employee wants to know how they’re tracking on a fairly regular basis, not only to be praised for any successes but also to discuss any particular areas of improvement.

Some large companies have a team of people dedicated purely to employee engagement. They work full time on writing surveys, assessing employee satisfaction, co-ordinating 360º feedback, interpreting performance appraisals, and working closely with the management team to ensure they are implementing the sought after changes.

In smaller organisations employee engagement and staff satisfaction (key measures of staff retention) are often left to fall by the wayside. Not only do regular one-to-one catch ups often get left out of the calendar entirely, but what should really be formal probationary reviews or annual performance appraisals often become a quick impromptu catch up over a sandwich at a nearby café, a 15 minute chat in a taxi on the way back from a client meeting, or worse still a two-line email along the lines of “It’s great to have you on board. You’re doing a terrific job. Keep up the good work”.

For the benefit of both the organisation and employee, performance appraisals should be conducted on a fairly regular basis – definitely towards the end of the probationary period and then ideally every six months

A performance

appraisal is a two-way

street. No employee wants

to be told about something

they did wrong five months

earlier, or to just to have a

“so how are you going?”

informal chat.

31

Performance appraisals

(and definitely not just in a café or taxi!). I remember once my boss did my annual review at his home. We spent nearly four hours (in a setting well away from the office) reviewing the previous 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 seven years.

A performance appraisal is a two-way street. No employee wants to turn up and be suddenly told about something they did wrong five months earlier, or just to have a “so how are you going?” informal chat. Similarly no manager wants to turn up to a review only to be told by an employee out of the blue that, “I’m really not enjoying this job any more”. Preparation (from both parties) is key.

Reviews need to be booked into the calendar well in advance. About two weeks prior to the scheduled review time, the employee should be sent a “pre-appraisal questionnaire” containing a series of several questions including:

“What do you consider to be your key accomplishments in the last six months?”

“In relation to time management, what have you done that has made a difference to your effectiveness in your role?”

“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 you were six months ago?”

As a manager you really need to get this questionnaire back with enough time to then prepare for the review. You can’t just get it back on the morning of the appraisal. You then need sufficient time to prepare your thoughts and comments. It now shouldn’t come as a surprise that the topics you cover off in the appraisal relate directly to the core skills (the job description) as well as the core competencies and key success measures (the performance profile) that you had originally created for the job.

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

• Employeescravefeedback•Forthebenefitofboththeorganisationandemployee,performanceappraisalsshouldbeconductedonafairlyregularbasis

•Performanceappraisalisatwo-waystreet•Performancereviewsshouldbeinpartreflective,butshouldalsobeachancefortargets,goalsorobjectivestobeset

32

months), but should also be a chance for targets, goals or objectives to be set for the next half of the year. But if you expect these goals to be reached or objectives met, you also need to appreciate that your staff member is expecting you to follow through on anything you might commit to – for example from a training or professional developmental perspective. So don’t just put the review documentation into their file and lock it away for another six months.

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

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ConclusionIt’s a pretty major realisation when you find yourself facing the task of recruiting somebody new into your team. For anyone who feels totally overwhelmed or daunted by what can often 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, and believe it or not, even enjoyable as possible. In terms of a guide, we broke it down into three main sections:

Talent attraction – to help you create job descriptions performance profiles and recruitment advertisements to kick start the recruitment process;

Candidate selection – to help prevent time wasting activities and ensure you ultimately bring somebody 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 their introduction into your organisation.

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

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

We’ve covered everything you need to know to ensure you are armed and ready to tackle the recruitment and selection process head on. By getting this far you should now know exactly what to do, which means there’s really only one thing left to do.

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

It’s what we call recruitment reinvented.

Happy hiring!

www.recruitloop.com.au

About the authorPaul Slezak has built market-leading businesses in the highly competitive recruitment and advertising sectors. His success stems from his ability to influence and motivate key decision makers, executive management, clients, colleagues and team members alike.

With nearly 20 years in the recruitment industry and having worked for both an international publicly listed group as well as a global niche recruitment business, Paul has been a hands-on recruiter, manager, trainer, coach, mentor, and speaker across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

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

OK – so now the boring blurb is out of the way… here’s the real deal.

Paul grew up in Sydney as a somewhat overprotected first-born child. When he didn’t quite get into Law, his parents ‘suggested’ he study Economics – so he did. Then they ‘suggested’ that he study some more – so he did. Then like so many others who couldn’t find their dream, he fell into recruitment. But then unlike so many others he has stayed in recruitment… for a long time. For nearly two decades he has been an active ambassador for the recruitment industry and now as the ‘Recruitment Guru’ at RecruitLoop, the chance to now break away from the traditional recruitment model and really shake things up is very exciting.