There’s not a one-size fits all model for recruitment. How you source and attract applicants to your job vacancies will depend on a variety of factors including your industry, role type, network, vacancy volume, in-house resources, and budget.
Recruitment is time intensive and it's easy to make expensive mistakes. Business owners and in-house recruiters are concerned that skills shortages, rising salary rates and working from home can make the recruitment process even harder.
The good news is that whether you are recruiting in person, recruiting from a distance, or recruiting for remote workers the key to success is the same: begin with solid recruitment planning.
Why?
Consider carefully why you need to add headcount to your business, this will be incredibly helpful when it comes to writing the job description. Is it a permanent need? Is the requirement a result of an upturn in business or to support an overwhelmed team? Is it a new role, the result of a reorganisation or because you are ready to delegate some of your workload?
What?
What work do you need to get done? What is the actual job?
Be specific and honest when writing your job description as this is the information that candidates will use to decide whether they should apply for the role. It is also what you'll refer to throughout the selection process. You'll never hire the right person if you can't accurately describe the job. Remember that it is not just about recruiting the best person for the role, but also retaining them in your business for the future. If their expectations are based on an unrealistic job description it's never going to work out well and you'll be back recruiting for the position before you know it.
Save yourself dozens of questions about salary, benefits and company culture by including this information in the job description and be very clear about the nature of the remote working too, including the hours of work, flexible working pattern and the time that’s required to be spent in an office environment.
If you are looking for guidance on offering a role appropriate rate of pay take a moment to download our salary guide.
Who?
Think about what success looks like in your organisation and the type of person your business needs. Make it clear who should apply based on the behaviour traits, skills and experience you are looking for. Are you looking for skills to complement your current team for a specific project? Perhaps you need someone who is great at sharing their knowledge because you are adopting a new process or technology and, in addition to "getting the job done", you need someone with an aptitude for team development. Create a list of essential and preferred hard skills but don't forget that successful team work increasingly depends on effective people skills, often described as soft skills. They’re actually crucial skills including emotional intelligence, communication, motivation, listening and many more!
Where?
Advertise where your target candidates are. There's a myriad of online resources available to employers and job seekers, too many to mention them all but an overview includes:
- Recruitment agencies (of course I’m placing this at the top of the list!)
- Freelance & temp labour sites
- Industry specific job sites
How?
How you promote your organisation matters.
Consider how you compare to your competitors and how appealing your business looks online – one of the first things a job seeker will do is "Google" you. Jobs seekers are interested to know about your culture, what values are important to you, how your product or service makes a difference and whether you are a fair employer. When you are recruiting the “About Us” page is possibly the most viewed page on your website.
User experience really matters too. Make the process of applying for your jobs simple – with as few steps as possible in the initial screening stages.
Be transparent about what’s required of the applicants, the deadline for applying and what they should expect from your hiring process.
This visibility is the best way to manage expectations and reduces the amount of time you’ll spend answering the same questions repeatedly.
If you’re serious about inclusion then tell people you are by including a statement on all your job ads and reiterating the message throughout the recruitment process.