These are our top six considerations when launching your next recruitment campaign.
1. Why Recruitment is Important
Employees, especially in the service industries, are the most important resource of the business/organization. The employees are a direct reflection of the validity and professionalism of the business.
Recruitment should be cost and time effective. However, a recruitment mistake can be extremely costly to both the business and the employee.
2. Recruiting People with the Right Attitudes and Values
While we all need employees with the required skills, I believe that the first consideration should be “Does the applicant have the attitudes and values which are a good fit with the business?”
The business project of which I am most proud is one in which I managed the closure of an institution and replaced it with new services which met the social mores of the time.
Some of the staff who had worked for the business for many years, were afraid of change and tried to sabotage the project. It was important to acknowledge these fears, so we offered
- retraining to work in the new service models
- assistance to find positions in other institutional models.
The result was that we had happy and competent employees who embraced the changes and served the clients well.
I have worked with some great teams, one in particular, which was eventually destroyed by one member whose attitudes and values were in conflict with the other team members
3. Meeting Organisational Needs
Recruitment must serve the Organisational Development Plan. Some questions to ask are
- Is this recruitment in line with our goals/mission/vision?
- What are the trends in our sector?
- Are we meeting legislative and/or funding body standards?
- Will we continue to provide the same products/services?
- Do we want to relocate or expand – eg to rural areas?
4. Inclusion and Diversity
The world is changing. Valuing diversity and inclusion may assist with
- connection with a wider range of customers
- stimulation discussion and the promotion of new ideas
- considering placements
- The biggest concern of any organization should be when the most passionate people become quiet.
I know a person from Africa who visited a rural hospital. The Matron was tearing her hair out as two African nurses were constantly fighting. My friend suggested that the two employees should be housed apart and work different shifts. He explained that they had very different cultures as they came from different areas/tribes in Africa. The situation was resolved by understanding diversity.
5. Leadership
Leadership can be displayed at any level of an organization.
- Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front (Nelson Mandela)
- It is important to have leaders on the front line.
- Leaders who do not listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say
6. Recruitment in own’s own image
My management philosophy has always been that I needed people on my team who were smarter than I was in certain areas of the business. I have been a trainer in team building and personality profiling.
I particularly needed people with policy and procedure, financial and process skills of which I have little.
I remember a couple of situations in which the person who inherited my boss’ position was interested only in people of his/her own image. That stifled creativity and the development of new innovative services.
I believe the better my team performed the better I looked and for the team to perform we needed a diversity of skills and personalities.
If you need any advice or support through the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.
