People are and always will be key to the success of your business.  So, it makes sense for recruitment to be fundamental to achieving success.  It is completely possible to hire someone after a bad recruitment process and them to be successful however the odds of that success are hugely increased when you follow a good process.  So, what does a good process look like?

1.      It’s planned

2.      It’s structured

3.      It’s fair

Planning

Firstly, what role do you need, right now in your business.  Next, what does that role look like (your job description).  The likelihood is when you go to market, you’re neither going to find nor want the person that ticks all the boxes.  Know what your ‘need to have’ requirements are and which ones can be developed on the job. 

Take those requirements and work out how you’re going to measure them during the recruitment process.  Is it an interview, a case study or psychometrics?  Or all of them?  Use the requirements to put in place questions that are going to ensure you can make a decision at the end of an interview as to whether the candidate is successful or not.    

Structure

Before you set out know what your process looks like, how many interviews there will be, who will be involved and the rough timelines.  This is important to hold you accountable but also so you can communicate to your candidates.    Your aim is to have the recruitment process feel the same to all candidates.

Fair and inclusive

It’s incredibly easy for all of us to make decisions based on our gut feeling.  But unfortunately, the majority of us make gut decisions that are impacted by unconscious bias.  A truly fair and successful recruitment process removes that bias as much as possible.    Here is just a selection of tips to help ensure your process is as fair as possible.

• Use inclusive language (research shows women are less likely to apply for a role that mentions ‘expert’ compared to words such as ‘highly competent’)

• Ensure you aren’t putting someone off before they even apply.  The job description requirements need to be reflective of what’s truly required.  Don’t ask for a degree in mechanical engineering if what you actually want is someone to be degree educated but have mechanical engineering experience.

• Consider using a recruitment platform that means CVs reach you anonymised

• Consider a telephone interview screening stage that doesn’t allow you to make judgements on appearance

• Stick to your interview questions – don’t get waylaid by someone because you have something in common

• Make sure everyone involved in interviewing has been trained on fair and inclusive recruitment

• Don’t ask for years of experience

• Have a diverse interview panel

Following these three steps will not only ensure you hire the best candidate but will also create the inclusive, diverse workforce that ultimately gives you the best results.