How to attract and recruit top
talent ?
Making a bad recruitment decision is a costly business. Employing the wrong person for the job can disrupt a team and waste time and money.
Careers writer Daniell Morrisey provides a structure to running your recruitment and selection campaign. Here is his plan for attracting and hiring top talent.
Do you need to recruit?Recruitment is about finding a solution to a problem. The problem is that you have a vacancy, so it follows that the solution is to find someone to fill it. Therein lays a sense of urgency, a need for speed and the beginning of a
process that can often be ill judged.
Recruitment is a top-heavy process. Time spent planning your approach will help lead to better recruitment decisions later on.
So the first question is, why has the vacancy arisen? The answer might be:
one of your team has handed in their notice
you need extra support on a project
you need cover for an absent member of staff
your business is expandingThen ask whether your company has a recruitment strategy. Do you ''grow your own'' by recruiting at a junior-level and promoting people as they are trained and developed? Do you open all vacancies to the external market? Do you balance between offering internal opportunities for your staff to develop versus bringing new talent - and new ideas - into the business?
If you have an HR or recruitment team to support you, then engage with them at the earliest opportunity. If you do not, then these are questions to consider in developing a recruitment and talent strategy.
Next, think creatively:
Do you need to fill the vacancy at all?
Could other people in the team take on some of the
responsibilities?
Does the make-up of your team and the jobs within it reflect the values, priorities, strategy and current technology in the company?Often people will have made a job their own, or it will have started as one thing and developed into another.
I
Writing a Job SpecificationThink of the job specification as the most important document in the process. You are going to use it to put together any advertising, all the applicants will see it and you will need it to base your short listing criteria and interview questions on.
People often complain of being ''mis-sold'' a job. You need to be explicit in what you are looking for. The spec needs to honestly reflect the nature and level of the job. You
really want to interest people with the skills and experience you are seeking, but you also want to make it focused so that you are not inundated with lots of inappropriate applicants.
You may already have a job spec, but this is a chance to revisit it. Essentials include:
A short overview of the company, department and product or service. If you are seeking a journalist or designer, then say something about the publication or website’s readership and editorial style. It is not enough to rest on the reputation of your company alone to drive people to apply - you need to sell it
An overview of the job and where it sits organisationally. Who does it report to? Who do they manage?
List any other key relationships
A list of the main duties and responsibilities
Include any key figures, especially size of teams and budgetary responsibilities
A person specification listing the minimum skills and experience required for the job
Avoid jargon and company-specific phrasesThink creatively about how you can make it more interesting. You could write about a ''day in the life of'' and include web links.
More reviews about the The Sun