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Keep to budget
All larger SMEs should have a budget per year for staff numbers which is in line with the company cost base. Remember if the new employee costs you a salary of £30K what will they need to generate in gross profit to make you net profit!
My first rule of thumb for big businesses is keep to budget otherwise over recruiting will have a direct impact on your net profit. If you are down on staff numbers recruit away! If not, can you justify new additions and forecast what impact this person will have on the bottom line?
Review and use a Job Description
The bigger the business the more watered down job descriptions can get. I would encourage you to review your job descriptions on an annual basis to ensure they are relevant. A good job description can make or break performance. If you don’t have written guidelines and explain these to an employee, how are they meant to know and what are you going to manage them against.
Choose the interviewers wisely
Set the structure
You must have a structure for the interview otherwise you will never get consistency of calibre in a big company. I have listed below a simple structure:
Using every tool - Psychometric testing
Larger companies who have the affordability should use every possible tool to help them get the right staff. Psychometric testing can be used by testing the employees who you would like to replicate and then benchmark each candidate against their scores. It measures personality traits as well as decision making so it is well worth doing but only invest in this once a candidate is through to the 2nd interview.
Sanity check in work
If a candidate passes both the first and second interviews, I always look to road test them where possible. It is really important for me that an employee can fit in quickly. I test this by sitting them in the team they are likely to work in for a few hours and get a good member of staff to spend time with them. This allows me to gather more opinions, see how they gel with people and for them to see what the working environment and atmosphere is like. Doing this will lead to a more informed decision for both parties. One of the key points to remember about a recruitment process is it’s a short time span to really road test a potential employee.
Onboard well and they will perform
Remember, the job is not finished once your new employee starts! It’s just begun!
How you treat a new member of staff within their first few weeks will make or break their attitude towards you and the company. If you don’t give them an induction, training, a desk equipped for what they need and they will walk and you will have to start again! You MUST provide a company induction and at least a two-week plan for them to follow. They will need to understand what you do, how you do it and how you want the job done. I would suggest you use a buddy system which works really well. If you have departments, make them spend time with each in line with the process their job will follow. Ensure their job description is explained in full and they understand what is expected of them within their probationary period.
Ensure they don’t disappear
New staff have more opportunity to go under the radar in a medium to large company so don’t let this happen! It is your job to ensure they are managed and they achieve their 3 month objectives. If they don’t why would you keep them on? If you set the expectations from Day 1, ensure you set a 3-month diary date to review how they have got on. Let it roll on and it gets harder to address!
RBC is not a recruitment consultant but what we do provide is complete recruitment process and training. This training ensures your whole in house team have a robust, legal and productive recruitment process that covers Recruit, Train and Retain!
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