Effective Recruitment starts way before you think about promoting a vacancy! If you are possibly thinking of recruiting this year, here are 11 checklist points to start on now to help get you better prepared. Just like any other function like sales or marketing, effective recruitment requires the same type of thinking and preparation if you want the best result. You need to start to develop your own ‘Recruitment Tool Kit’ so that you are ready!

1.  Are you able to articulate clearly what your company does, how it measures success?

TIP – Put a 1 pager together (in writing) on your Company covering Mission, Vision, Purpose, Values/Non-negotiables and Company key measures of success for the year. You will be surprised how many times you will use this once you do it up. PS It is also a great team exercise to onboard your team.

2. Are you clear on what the position, status of role (ie casual, PT, FT or salary) attributes and skills are that you need (and are likely to need in the future).

TIP – If you can do this ahead of time, you can actively be keeping an eye out all the time.

TIP – You must be clear on what terms you are prepared to engage the person under (ie is there an underpinning Award/ do you have an Enterprise Agreement, what type of salary etc). Note – this is not always straight forward and you should definitely seek advice if you are not sure.

TIP – think about what you need to return to pay for that position. Traditionally, the rule of 3 to 1 can be applied as a general rule (1/3 to salary, 1/3rd to on-costs/rent etc and 1/3 reinvestment to the business or profit.

3. What are your non-negotiables as an employer?

TIP – Think about what the 5-10 things of a successful recruit are?

4. How can people express interest in working for your Company?

TIP – Is it only via a job advertisement or do you have the ability for people to express interest in working for you via your website, do you have a ‘sign up’ either in your location/s or via social media that you are hiring?

TIP – If you have a location that people drop off resumes, restrict people who can collect them and train them to do a mini-interview on the spot.

TIP – If you have quiet periods of time (ie weeks/months of the year), consider using that period as an active recruitment period.

5. Do you have a process in place to communicate vacancies to staff (ie a referral program)?

TIP – Consider having an external referral program in place that you might also extend to your close external partners/suppliers and/or other people who know your business and your culture well?

6. Do you constantly ask about who the top people (and/or up and coming people) are in your business / industry?

TIP – Recruitment should be ongoing – when you are shopping, out at BBQ’s, listening to colleagues stories of success or dealing with unsuccessful candidates. Open your radar up to quickly identify people who have your ‘non-negotiables’ identified in 3 and keep them on your radar.

7. Are you connecting with like-minded people/ positions via LinkedIN and/or other social media relevant to your industry?

TIP – make sure your Company Summary on all your social media/website also covers what it is like working for your Company.

8. What selling points can you offer to attract the right candidate?

TIP – consider getting ‘internal testimonials’ of people who may currently be and/or have worked for you before, and use that in your future advertising for positions about what people say about working for your business.

TIP – think about articulating the answer to the question ‘why should people join your business’. If you cant answer it, it is unlikely strong potential candidates will be able to either. Note – small companies can also have very attractive value propositions so do not be scared off by this.

9. How are you going to advertise?

TIP – What is your process going to be? Do you know how to do that? How can you make sure that you get to see a variety of people to ensure choice of the best person?

10. What is your process going to be?

TIP – Are you likely to recruit more than one of these positions within the year? Is it possible to do a wider recruitment process so you can potentially start a database of people to stay connected with.

TIP – Generally use the rule of 3, 3, 3, 3. Interview at least 3 potential candidates, 3 different times, with 3 different people involved (if you can) in 3 different locations.

11. When recruiting, what paperwork do you need to have organised?

TIP – Useful things to have ready are:-

a clear job description (which is used as a basis of developing an ad),

1 page overview on company,

Application Form

Interview questions to help consistency

Contract of employment

Fair Work Statement (which needs to be provided with all contracts of employment)

Personal Details form

Induction Overview

Employee Handbook

Do you need help with any of the above forms or with your Recruitment? Don’t worry, we can help! Please do not hesitate to think of how BespokeHR may be able to support you!

Best Wishes