Recruitment for an SME

[Steve Sherlock]

Hi all,

Recruitment is something which we like many small businesses, consider carefully, particularly in the current climate.

The people we employ are considered an essential part of our business strategy, so we strive to bring the best on board. Finding the time however to root around and seek out suitable candidates not only for the role but who will also fit in and complement the energy of the team; can be an uphill struggle. Mind you, the expense of working with recruitment agencies can negate the time saved...

What are your thoughts on the subject? How have you gone about hunting down the right people for the job? What have been your experiences of working with external recruiters? Does classified advertising generate comparable results?

Recruitment for us has been successful so far, but we’re keen to hear new ideas particularly as we intend to expand our team in the New Year.

Thanks!

Steve

 

[Employment Law Services]

Hi Steve

Developing both a person and role specification is key in recruiting the right person.

Once you've done that you should be able to write a clear and concise ad that will attract the right sort of candidates. Thereafter, its a case of effectively managing the responses to ensure you end up with the strongest possbiel short list.

The staff selection process itslef should, to an extent, be determined by a combination of the type of role you're looking to fill and the number of roles available. In most cases individual interviews will suffice but sometimes assessment centres are an effective way to handle multiple / complex roles.

When conducting individual interviews its important that you use a series of competency based questions, the answers to which will provide evidence of a person's ability to deliver against the core competencies of the role you identified at the outset.

By using a simple scoring matrix during interviews you will then be able to effectively score all candidates you've interviiewed to identify the strongest person for the role.

The full force of uk employment law apply as much to recruitment as they do to your business once you employ staff. A muslim woman was recently awarded £4000 by an employment tribunal for 'injuty to feelings' because a salon owner refused to employ her because she wore a headscarf.

Several 'experts' suggest the average cost of employing someone is between 40% and 100% of their actual salary so getting it right first time is essential in ensuring you get a postivie return on your investment as quickly as possible.

Of course once you've recruited a new staff member you are legally obliged to provide them with, at the very least, a statement of terms outlining their working hours, salary, place fo work etc. which should all be under-pinned with up to date HR policies to ensure yo udon't fall fould of the current legislation.

If in doubt speak to the HR Services experts - it'll ensure you avoid any legal pitfalls AND help you get a qucker ROI in the end.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

I'm not a big fan of recruitment agencies but would concede they do have their place. I've had some good and bad experiences with them.

My own experience is typically with finance based recruitment and you sometimes find that recruitment agencies aren't technical enough to really understand if a person has done what they have said they have done on their CV etc. However it's very easy to weed this out during initial interviews etc.

Whilst the technical aspects are very important I actually think the people fit is as important if not more. When you get a few people that tick the box technically then the next thing I would always look at is are they likely to fit into the current environment and be able to work as part of that team. Alot of the time the answer to that is no.

Locally in Scotland I have had some success with advertising direct in portals like S1jobs and the higher end newspapers like The Scotsman and The Herald. I do agree with Gary though that you need to take the time to get the spec right if you want to attract the right calibre of candidate.