How do you ensure your company’s hiring process run smoothly and ensure you’re employing the right candidates for your business? Through our experience in the industry, we’ve been able to identify what makes a company’s hiring process successful against those who miss out on some top candidates.
What happens when a top employee decides to pursue his own career growth, leaving a rather large hole in the team. Normally, you would contact a recruitment agency and speak to them about your vacancy, that’s the easy part, but it’s what comes next is the defining factor to your next successful hire.
We’ve spoken about working with recruiters for your job search, but understanding the relationship between a recruitment agency and the client needs to be explained:
Recruitment agencies work on a contingency basis, this means they don’t get paid until you (the client) have found the right employee. For any agency, there are a lot of risks involved when working with a new client, we are in the staffing industry and our main goal is to eliminate your staffing woes, but to our dismay, we are not miracle workers. The hiring process is a two-way street, essentially, what you put in is what you get out.
Before contacting a recruiter, there are a few things you should finalise before diving straight in:
- Do you have a realistic specification for the position?
- Have you assigned a budget to the role?
- Are you dedicated to finding the right candidates?
These three points are vital to the success of your hire.
The job specs:
Most Job Specs you see online are a wish list of the company’s ‘ideal’ employee. “We’re looking for a Rockstar Unicorn Ninja Full-Stack Developer with 15 years’ experience in Android development who is willing to earn R25,000pm on a 6-Month Fixed-Term Contact.” Umm, no, that person does not exist, sorry to burst that bubble.
Be realistic about the type of person you are looking for, are you looking to bring someone in with many years of experience (expensive but stable) who will hit the ground running or would you bring in a more junior employee and help them grow into the role (cheaper with slightly higher risk).
Have the hiring manager draw up a job description of what they think would be more suitable for the role, the trick is: the more realistic the requirement is, the better your chances of making a successful hire. It’s that simple.
The budget:
We get it, everyone wants to save a little money and there’s nothing wrong with that. One has to keep in mind, though, that if you want quality, you’re going to have to pay a little extra for it. Time and time again we have encountered budgets for positions which are far away from market related. Let’s say you’re looking to replace Steve, your Senior Team Lead who was earning R50,000pm. A like-for-like replacement might already be earning the same as Steve, he isn’t going to be interested in a lateral move for the same amount he’s currently earning, would you? Suddenly the budget for the position has gone up unless you decide to train someone to become the next Steve.
The dedication:
This is the most important factor of any hiring process your company is going through. Your dedication to finding the right candidate will, without a doubt, reflect in the person you hire. As I said before, Recruiters aren’t miracle workers, there is no point sending specs to an agency while you sit back and wait for the profiles to roll in.
Build a relationship with the consultants, tell them WHY the vacancy is available, use your recruiters’ network to find out more about the market to understand what would be realistic. Be honest with them, honesty builds trust. Are you a small company working out of a shared office? Let them know, the worst thing you can do is over-hype your company by saying you are the leading, bespoke company with the largest client base in Africa in your sector. When a candidate goes for an interview, the last thing they want is to feel like they’ve been lied to. It gives both your company and the agency a bad name.
FEEDBACK is the most important form of communication of any hiring process, even if there is no feedback at all! We have to tell the candidate something, we’ll understand if you need more time to review the applicants. If there is a long sign off process, keep us informed about when we can expect to receive feedback. There is nothing worse for a candidate to put themselves out there and not hear anything back. Again, this could affect your company’s reputation.
Let’s be real for a second, a recruitment provider is going to put their focus on a client who has qualified, realistic job specifications and has shown dedication towards providing feedback and hiring the right people. The risk is far less than a new client who isn’t sure what they are looking for.
Something to keep in mind: The performance of your recruitment provider is directly linked to your communication with them.
If you have a vacancy to fill or are looking to add more quality to your team and aren’t sure on what the market is like, give us a call and we will gladly provide realistic expectations and insights into the market.