| Careful planning and preparation is required when recruiting a new member of staff. Following these tips should help your confidence and success in choosing the most effective person for the job.
1. Perform a job analysis
This may sound scientific but it is basic common sense. You need to find out everything the job entails: these include the key tasks, whom the jobholder reports to, who reports to them and what knowledge, skills and experience are needed to perform effectively. Common methods of job analysis are interviewing and questionnaires.
Your analysis should also clarify what the culture of the organisation is: e.g. formal/informal, structured/unstructured, team focused/individual focused, bureaucratic/dynamic, fast paced/slow paced etc. Use the vision, mission, values and any competency framework to help you here.
2. Write the job description and person specification
The job description includes the tasks a person does, has a departmental/organisation chart which shows where the post fits in and states the purpose for the job.
The person specification breaks the essential knowledge, skills and experience required to perform effectively in the job into essential and desirable criteria.
Essentials are criteria the job could not be performed without (e.g. speaking fluent French if applying for a Senior Lecturer post in a French Department).
Desirables are not essential to perform in the post but could be useful (e.g. shorthand or speed writing for a secretarial position).
To further help you at later stages of the process, list the essentials and desirables in the order of importance for the job.
3. Decide on selection methods
At this stage, choose which method(s) you will use to select the candidate for the job. There are a number of methods to choose from: interviewing, personality profiling, skills testing, work testing (e.g. a typing test), assessment centre and ability testing (e.g. mathematical competence) to name a few.
Ensure the selection methods are relevant to the job: e.g. why ask a person to do a presentation in front of a group if they will not be required to do this as part of their job?
| Do check with your HR or legal helpline service that your method complies with the laws affecting recruitment. Some self-designed tests have been found to be discriminatory |
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4. Decide on the advertising method
This could be newspaper, magazine, journal or job agency to name a few.
Provide key details from the Job Description such as job title and the main duties and responsibilities. State the essentials and some desirables and use the expression ‘the position would suit’ rather than ‘the ideal candidate’, so as to ensure you do not close down any potentially suitable applicants from applying.
Clearly state when the closing date for applications is and when interviews will be held if you have diarised this.
It is a good idea to include telephone contact details and/or email address and invite queries so that people can check if they are suited to the job or the organisation. This will save time and money in the long term.
Send the job description, person specification and any relevant organisational information to each candidate who applies if you send out application forms.
5. Shortlisting
Do not view CV’s or application forms until all together and after the due date. Sift according to the criteria you have chosen into 3 piles: those unsuitable, those who meet some essentials and those who meet a number of the essentials.
Write thank you but no letters to those unsuitable and re-sift the next two piles taking more time to fully assess each candidate against the criteria. Select those suitable for the selection process and invite them to the next stage. If you have previously ranked the criteria in order of importance, it will help you at this stage.
Write to those selected and inform them of the selection method(s) you intend to use. There should be no surprises on the day.
6. Prepare chosen selection method(s)
Interviewing is the most popular method of testing in the UK so I will focus on this one. The best practice method of questioning is behavioural (also known as competency based) interviewing. You ask a candidate to describe a specific event and probe them on what they did or said. It is based on the theory that our behaviour in a past situation is a good indicator for future performance.
e.g. You want to test out their experience in dealing with a difficult customer situation.
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Ask ‘Talk me through a time when you were right and the customer was wrong’ |
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Obtain the specific incident (i.e. ‘I had a call from a customer last week who said…’) |
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Probe with questions such as ‘What did you say?’, ‘Describe who was there.’, ‘Talk me through what happened next.’, ‘What was your role in this?’ |
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Write extensive notes as they talk through each event |
Tailor each series of questions to each candidate’s life experience: e.g. ‘Talk me through a time at college/school/ you have had recently when you were right and the other person was wrong about an issue’ so as to remain as unbiased in your questioning.
Tell every candidate when the decision will be made and diarise in ample time for the selection process.
7. Selection
Take one set of notes at a time and compare the evidence (what was said) to your pre-selected criteria. Choose whether it was evidence of behaviour as:
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Suitable for the position (+) |
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Not suitable for the position (-) |
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No evidence obtained (0) |
Using this method, you compare each candidate against the job and not each candidate against each other. You may be surprised at your final choice as this method does remove some of the subjectivity involved; such as selecting the person on their interview performance, not on the evidence they gave.
8. Acceptance
Confirm the job offer to the chosen candidate.
If the campaign has failed to provide the ‘right’ person, go back through each stage and analyse where it could have failed. E.g.: the person specification may be unrealistic in listing too many essentials, the chosen advertising method may have put off potential candidates or not reached a wide enough population. Start a new campaign.
| At all stages, check the current legislation affecting recruitment and selection |
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©Copyright Kay Buckby.
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