Do you have a recruitment strategy?

A person holds a colorful tangram puzzle each piece features a person symbol one piece being lifted off the main structure

There are a few questions I ask my clients, especially when we are meeting for the first time. Two key questions are “How do you recruit new people into your business?” and “What recruitment challenges do you have?”. I find that most clients will have the same challenges no matter what industry they are in.

  • We can’t seem to find people quickly enough.
  • There is a shortage of skilled and experienced people.
  • It’s costing us too much money to recruit people.


I then ask what their recruitment strategy is. Most businesses will not have one. They will have a business plan, a plan for growth and a plan for expansion yet rarely a plan for recruitment.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you have a recruitment strategy in place. The methods of attracting the ‘right’ people to your business have changed exponentially in the past few years.  People are not just looking for a job; they want a career with a company that they believe in.  They want longevity (that’s at least 3-5 years nowadays!) and they want a work/life balance.  It isn’t always about the salary (but they still want to be paid a competitive remuneration package).

How do you put a recruitment strategy in place? If possible, do this with your HR manager or preferred recruiter. They do this on a daily basis and know the industry and, most importantly, they know your business.

Research

This is the first step in creating a successful recruitment strategy.

  • Historical: Create a report of your current recruitment function including the cost and time associated with it. List the past ten hires (at least) – how long each recruitment process took, the calibre of the successful candidate, the total direct and indirect cost and what sourcing method(s) was/were used. From this review draw conclusions about what’s working and what’s not working as well as you would like?
  • Talent pool: Who is in it? How large is it? Where is it? What are their motivators (money, work/life, new location, etc.  …)?
  • Attraction: What are you doing now? What’s working? What’s not working as well? What else can you do to attract employees? What is your retention rate? Are you an employer of choice?  Do you have an Employee Value Proposition?


Future planning

Plan out where you want to be in a year. Is expansion on the cards? Include the following:

  • Pipeline: Do you need to start mapping out potential new employees?
  • Advertising: How are you going to attract these people?
  • Internal: Do you have people internally that are trained and ready to move into these new roles?
  • Competitors: What are they doing or what might they do to impact the market for the same candidates you are seeking to hire?

Measurables

Finally, you need to cost out this strategy and what benefits you expect to be delivered during this period.  For example:

  • The cost per hire.
  • Are there savings you can make?
  • How quickly do you wish to engage people?
  • What size and type of talent you wish to see in your talent pools?


Companies that are reactive rather than proactive will recruit in a hurry and frequently will employ the wrong person because they are desperate to just ‘fill the job’. I graciously refuse to work with clients who need a new employee ‘yesterday’. I will, however, work with them to map their talent pool and attract the right people into their business. If you want any success in your recruitment process, you must have a recruitment strategy in place. It will save you money and improve the quality of the people you employ, trust me.

At Elite Executive, my team and I only work with a select number of clients so that we can truly understand each client’s business. This enables us to provide each client with honest feedback and be in the best position to endorse that business to future employees. If you, as an employer, are serious about putting a recruitment strategy in place, contact me today for a confidential conversation on how you should proceed. We look forward to speaking with you!

Eva Grabner
Managing Director
Elite Executive Pty Ltd
www.eliteexecutive.com.au
Cairns | Brisbane

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