Recruiting the right people with the right talents and aptitude is crucial for any business to succeed, and a well-considered recruitment plan is essential to maximise your success. See our advice below to ensure that you’re best placed to add the best talent to your team.
- Define the purpose & requirements of the role
It sounds obvious, but it’s often overlooked. Before you commence the recruitment process it’s vital that that you have a clear understanding of exactly what the position is, how it will contribute to the business, and what is required for the job holder to be successful in the role. Consider;
Is there a clear need for the role? Why do you need to fill this position – is it a vacancy replacement or a new role to support business growth? Is it needed permanently or is it a temporary need? Do we need the additional head count to perform this function?
What are the responsibilities and scope of the role? Is there an existing job description outlining the tasks and responsibilities of the role? If there is, does it still accurately reflect the job role or does it need editing and updating?
Is the Person Specification appropriate? Consider what technical skills and personal behaviours are needed and reasonable – do you have an accurate understanding of what’s needed from the candidate or is it looking vague? Are the ‘essentials’ listed really essential, or can we offer training and support to an individual with the right experience and aptitude otherwise? What support will be available to them?
Are there progression opportunities? Could there be development and progression opportunities within the role and do you need to recruit for progression potential in the person you are looking to appoint?
- Internal coordination
It’s great practice for HR, the leadership team and the job roles hiring manager to discuss the role’s requirements and expectations in order to ensure that there is a consistent perception of what is required and full alignment within the business. Agreement here is essential to craft a detailed job description and person specification that accurately reflects what the company is looking for.
During these discussions, you should also agree on the logistics of the recruitment selection process – agreeing timeframes and availability, who will be involved with CV-sifting, who will conduct the interviews, and who will participate in the selection decision. At this stage, you might also want to consider whether any skills or psychometric testing should be included as part of the assessment.
It is important to also consider any specific equipment required to perform the role, such as a company car or IT peripherals, so that they are available and ready for a new starter to use on their first day of employment.
Coordination helps to avoid misunderstandings and expectation differences, making the recruitment selection process consistent and setting up the new hire to succeed rather than fail.
- Salary benchmarking
So - you have the approval to hire in principle, now you’ll need to agree internally the salary band for the role.
For market insight, conduct salary benchmarking to determine what salary range and package would likely be for the role, to be positioned to offer a competitive package that would be attractive for suitable and strong candidates Job boards are useful to directly search for similar role salaries locally and sector-specific recruitment agencies will be able to support with market salary data. Consider your existing job roles and salary bandings when determining the potential salary on offer for your vacant role.
Remember to also account for the total compensation for the role, including the base annual salary, employer pension contributions, National Insurance and additional benefits such as company car/travel allowances, mobile phone costs, IT costs and training allowances.
Once you’ve decided on the total compensation role, you should also calculate the recruitment costs for the actual process of hiring for it, discussed below. Submitting the compensation package and the recruitment costs of the role for approval at the same time will ensure there are no hold-ups when it comes time to make your offer further down the line.
- Determine your Recruitment Strategy
This will likely be influenced by a number of factors, including the job type and seniority level, the scarcity of the skills and experience you’re seeking, how quickly you’re looking to hire, your time capacity to dedicate to administering applications and interviewing - and whether you want a proactive search delivered to find for your ideal candidate.
Your recruitment options include:
Internal advertising - Determine whether to advertise the opportunity internally and if there might be any existing candidates willing and able to develop into the role before recruiting from outside of the business – your ideal candidate may be already working for you.
This approach will save the costs of external recruitment and the length of time it may take to fill and train someone external up for the role as your existing employees will already be familiar with your company culture, processes, and systems – leading to a smoother transition period. It also demonstrates to your employees that their experience, application, and loyalty are recognised and that their potential is valued. This is a vital in building a positive workplace culture.
If you do successfully promote internally then you will need to repeat this recruitment plan process in order to recruit for the previous position now vacated!
Recruit directly - Consider if the recruitment project is to be handled directly by an internal talent acquisition team or manager, or whether to engage external recruiters to manage and drive the recruitment project.
If you decide to recruit directly you will need to compose an advert for the role and post it on job boards, LinkedIn and other social media. The advantage of direct advertising is that your direct recruitment cost may be lower than other methods, however you should also consider;
- Speed – how quickly do you want to offer the role? Should the vacancy remain unfilled for an extended time this may apply additional stress and workload on your existing team, which if unchecked can create frustration and additional staff turnover issues.
- In-direct costs – in addition to the direct cost of advertising also consider the indirect cost of the time spent processing and replying to all applicants, arranging and conducting interviews, arranging skills testing if required and managing the overall process.
- Advertising only to active job seekers – advertising is passive in nature and relies on who sees the advert and takes the time to apply, rather than proactively approaching suitable candidates about the opportunity. The ideal candidate will likely not be looking at job boards and so won’t see the advert.
Partner with a specialist recruitment agency - External recruiters bring specialised knowledge of the market and extensive network of connections and candidates. Using an agency can give you access to a pool of high-calibre candidates who may not actively be looking for a new role but who may be open to being proactively approached regarding suitable career opportunities.
Working with a quality specialist agency can also save time by managing the more time-consuming aspects of recruitment such as initial screenings and performing interviews to only send you appropriate candidates. Your agency partner will also liaise with candidates, handle offers and support during the on-boarding process.
When it comes to senior or highly specialised roles, a quality agency will also deliver an executive search with direct headhunting to specific candidates who are qualified and suitable for your role. This approach is often more effective than traditional job advertising as these candidates will not be visible through common recruitment channels if they are not actively looking for a new role.
Working with a recruitment agency can also be particularly useful where confidentiality may be a paramount consideration, such as during a re-structure, replacing a senior position, or for strategic initiatives that you don’t want to be publicly disclosed until the right time.
A recruitment agency comes with a financial cost, either as a percentage of the annual salary for the role payable on the successful candidates first day of employment with you, or as an upfront retainer and staged payments.
This cost should be evaluated against the benefits of working with an agency with the cost of advertising the role directly and not recruiting the best candidate for the role and the unseen costs of lost productivity, the impact on an understaffed team and the customer impact of not having the employee in post performing the role.
- Gain Approval from Stakeholders
Now that you have a clear picture of the role requirements, the costs of the new hire to the business and your preferred recruitment strategy, it is absolutely essential to get the necessary formal sign off approvals in place before commencing your recruitment.
This will ensure that you are clear to proceed with making a job offer once you have found your ideal candidate.
Not having this in place up-front will delay the offer whilst internal approvals are being sought, and you will jeopardise losing your preferred candidate to other hiring companies who are slicker with making the job offer. It is important to realise that the optics of an extended delay with interviews and making a job offer will be perceived negatively by the candidate that you want to bring on board.
Best of luck with your recruitment!
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Want to discuss any of the above further, or interested in learning about your options with a quality fenestration sector specialist recruitment agency? Contact MacGregor Recruitment in confidence on 0115 7786535 or hello@macgregorrecruitment.co.uk