From how to recruit, what questions to ask and where to advertise for staff Vitality Editor, Becci Vallis, ticks off everything you need to know when it comes to curating your perfect team.
With vacancies in the UK currently standing at over 1.7 million (ONS, October 2021), employers are finding recruitment a very competitive marketplace to say the least. The attitude of job seekers has changed and there is a new generation of workers coming through the ranks with a newfound confidence and enviable ability to voice their needs and wants in the workplace.
For businesses still eager to grow however, the dwindling available workforce means recruiters have to work harder and offer better packages to secure the best employees. Skills shortages amongst the available workforce is a common complaint amongst employers, and the situation has been exacerbated by Covid, with a helping hand from Brexit. Not only do business need to be competitive, to find the best candidates they need to know how to recruit and think beyond traditional recruitment techniques. Here, HR Champions Ltd give us the low-down on each stage of the recruitment process to help you find the right employees in a creative and compliant way.
- Be realistic: Are you looking for a candidate who has oceans of experience, can hit the ground running, won’t require any training and will be the perfect cultural fit? So is everyone else and they probably don’t exist.
- Build a clear job role: Think of the job that needs fulfilling now and the skills required now. Can skills required for the future be trained later so that your current available talent pool is larger?
- Use plain language: Don’t advertise for a “Vision Technician” when you’re actually after a Window Cleaner. Think about what your potential and preferred candidates will actually search for.
- Sell your business and the role: Why is your job so good and why should people work for you as opposed to a competitor?
- Declare your universal appeal: Let candidates know that you’re an equal opportunities employer and advertise to more diverse markets and communities to extend your reach.
- Include your sustainability credentials: Having green and environmental policies is important to candidates, more so than ever. Especially if you’re looking for younger employees who are in tune with the environment.
- Consider transferable skills: Experience in some other fields or industries can cross-over much more readily than you might have realised. Think outside the box.
- Use application forms: CVs are good for some roles but they can be off-putting when candidates are unsure about how to lay them out. Application forms also mean everybody is asked the same information.
- Be specific: Remember to ask technical questions and questions that are specific to the role you’re recruiting for. Questions such as “give an example when…” are unlikely to really tell you if someone is right for the role and are too easy for people who are confident interviewees to talk their way through
- Take and keep professional notes from the interviews: These may be required in the future and will help you remember each candidate.
- Are you equipped to interview? It is a skill in itself and there are characteristics needed to get the most out of a candidate. Do you and your managers have this? Don’t be afraid to upskill in recruitment or practise your interviewing technique.
- Check them out: Ensure to take written references and conduct background checks and always ensure that you see original copies of all their relevant qualification certificates.
Where to find the right candidates:
When advertising your role it is worth researching if there are industry forums and newsletters for you to advertise on. Talk to local schools and colleges as well as using job boards and utilising social media although be selective with the latter - for some jobs it’s perfect, for others less so.
During the hiring process:
It is important to decide the format of your interviews early in the process so that all candidates have a fair and consistent interview. The interview could be a candidate’s first experience of your business and in a tight job market you need to make a good impression too - 58% of candidates turn down a job offer due to poor interview and recruitment process. Follow these quick pointers for ease…
- Offer professional courtesies such as phoning to invite a candidate to an interview. Follow up with an email detailing the date, time, who they’ll be meeting, directions, where to park and roughly what the interview will entail.
- Communicate how many stages there will be.
- What do you want the candidates to prepare?
- Ensure candidates have a copy of the job description.
- Structure your interviews.
- During the interviews actively listen, ask open questions and how an interest in your candidates. Don’t talk too much, interrogate or lead the candidate and be mindful of your tone of voice. Remember you are representing your company.
- If you are inviting the candidate to a second interview, does the structure of that interview need to change based on the outcome of the first interview?
- After the interview always follow-up with constructive and objective feedback regardless of whether they are progressing to the next stage or offering the position or if you are rejecting them. It is professional courtesy.
Questions to ask:
It goes without saying that asking the right questions and actively listening are crucial for successful interviews. It is important to think about any questions that are key to the role or the beauty industry before starting your interviews. If you are conducting second interviews, determine those questions on the outcome and responses from the first round. It is good to ask questions that are relevant to your industry and your business but below are some basic questions to consider:
- What can you tell me about the company?
- Why do you think you would be successful in this role?
- Why should we hire you?
- Name three of your strengths.
- Name three of your weaknesses.
- Tell me about a challenge or conflict you’ve faced at work, and how you dealt with It.
- Tell me about a time you failed.
- Why are you looking for a new role?
- If there are gaps in a CV, ask why.
- If a candidate is changing careers, why?
- If there are short periods of time in a role, why?
Legal considerations and things to remember:
There are legal considerations that you need to make when recruiting and under the Equality Act 2010 an individual does not need to be an employee to put a claim in against you and take you to a tribunal so it’s important to know what’s what.
- When using social media ensure that if there are algorithms being used by the site there is no criteria that could be deemed unfair.
- Consider and ask if candidates would like any reasonable adjustments made during the interview process.
- Follow a fair, open, and transparent process.
- Keep records.
- Ensure you know the protected characteristics. By this we mean the basis for discrimination – so age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. It’s important to know these because you don’t need to be employed to be able to enter a claim for discrimination and there is no upper limit on potential compensation payments. So, for example, advertising for a “young” person is effectively age discrimination. It would be sexual discrimination to refuse to interview a man, just because he’s a man, or of you discarded all male applicants because you only wanted to employ a female.
- Follow and record a fair ranking system when deciding a candidate is right or wrong for you
- Is your candidate legally allowed to work in the UK and have you seen physical, official evidence of this?
- Health questionnaires can only be used once a job offer has been made and accepted.
- References taken must be fair, accurate, true, and confidential - you can be challenged here.
- Remember a verbal job offer is a binding contract.
Recruitment is a complex task that can’t be rushed; processes need to be followed and there are legal aspects that must be considered. However, it is also a positive time for your business, and it is a process that should be enjoyed. Recruitment needs to happen because a company is growing, it is successful, or it is developing and there is a need for new skills. These are all good things and it’s important to not lose sight of that and to promote your business to attract the right people to secure future growth.