
What do I need to do before recruitment?
To minimise surprises when recruitment starts, it is possible to make targeted preparations. The preparation for a recruitment project can be divided into 6 parts, all of which are of similar importance and missing one of them can ruin the whole recruitment project:
1.Establish a budget for the recruitment project
The recruitment project can be either internally driven, i.e. the recruitment can be carried out by the company’s in-house HR specialist, or a recruitment company can be used. In either case, the recruitment project must have a budget. Recruitment companies usually provide a full budget for the recruitment project, which can simply be included in the costs. If the recruitment is carried out by an in-house HR professional, the budget must be specified and detailed by the HR professional. The recruiter needs to anticipate the cost of his/her own time for the recruitment process, the cost of candidate databases (if purchased), the cost of public recruitment channels, the cost of testing candidates, the cost of external consultants (often, in the case of particularly technical positions, the recruitment process may require the assistance of consultants with technical expertise).
2.Specify the requirements for the position sought
The seemingly simple task of specifying the requirements for a candidate often becomes a kind of Achilles heel in recruitment. The problem is that sometimes the recruiter and the hiring manager have different perceptions of the requirements adopted by the recruiter, which can lead to the process not running smoothly. Before the recruitment process starts, both the recruiter and the hiring manager must coordinate the session between themselves and align their expectations of candidates. The role of the recruiter at this stage is to help the hiring manager understand when requirements are excessive and when, on the contrary, more requirements can be added.
The recruiter has extensive knowledge of the labour market and can advise when the requirements are too narrow and there simply will not be enough candidates, and when the requirements are too broad and it becomes unclear what the right candidate is at the final stage of the recruitment process.
3.Deciding who will do the recruitment
This decision depends on past experience with recruitment companies and the availability of internal resources, i.e. specialists who have a successful track record in recruitment rather than in the broad field of HR. Each route, whether recruitment based on internal resources or buying the services of a recruitment company, has its own advantages. The best way to decide in this situation is to compare the recruitment experience offered by the recruitment company with the experience of an in-house specialist and decide which experience will lead to better results.
4.Decide who will be the hiring manager for the recruitment
The hiring manager has the final say in the process of selecting the most suitable candidate. Sometimes it is easy to choose a hiring manager – when looking for a specialist in a particular department, the hiring manager is usually simply the head of that department. It is slightly more complicated when the search is for a manager who reports to the Board, in which case there may be more than one hiring manager in the selection process. This situation is also possible, but in such a scenario a vote of the board is most appropriate, without necessarily giving everyone an equal vote. In such a case, the recruitment process is considered to have a team of hiring managers rather than a hiring manager.
5.Anticipate the number of steps in the staff selection process
Before the recruitment process begins, it is necessary to anticipate the number of phases and the importance of each phase. It is important to have a procedure in place for when candidates will be tested during the recruitment project, when the familiarisation interviews will take place, when and what technical interviews (if necessary) will take place, when and by whom candidates’ references will be checked, etc. This phased planning of the recruitment process not only provides clarity for the recruiter, but also a sense of confidence for the candidates involved in the recruitment process. They know exactly how long the recruitment process will take and how they should prepare for it.
6.Setting a salary budget for the position sought
Setting a salary budget is also a crucial step in the recruitment process. Poor budgeting can result in either not getting the right candidates or overpaying the right candidates. Recruitment companies can help with salary budgeting, as they routinely collect salary statistics and can provide not only the median salary for a broadly specialised position, such as a sales manager, but also the salary for a specific position, such as a retail commercial director or a .NET programmer. With the right salary budget, it is possible to get the best candidates with the right motivation out of the labour market without overpaying them.