Best practices for hiring new employees

If you are often tasked with hiring new staff members, you will understand what a great responsibility this is. You may, however, not know how expensive it could be if you don't do it right. An article in HR Review reported that the average cost of recruiting new talent is over £5000 per person. So, if you get it wrong it can be a costly mistake. But, if you get it right it can be very good news for the business. Research done by Oracle, the human capital management company, shows there is the potential for businesses to earn back between 10 and 100 times the salary of an employee when they choose the right candidate.

All of this points to the importance of some best practices for hiring new talent, and here are some suggestions for you to consider:

Have a plan in place

Once it has been decided your business needs new talent, the management of the team or department that is hiring should specify exactly what they require. Do they need the new employee(s) to work full or part time? What level of experience should a candidate have? What qualifications are required and what experience are they looking for? Last but certainly not least, what salary is available to the candidate?

This plan will form the back-bone of the hiring strategy. It is imperative that this is decided before you start advertising for the role, if not it could be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Communicate clearly with jobseekers

A well-written job advert is the most important first step in hiring new talent. It needs to clearly state what the job title is, the number of hours to be worked (full or part time) and where the job is located.

This needs to be followed by the job description. The job description can be laid out as written paragraphs or simplified into bullet points, but try to keep it as short as possible so candidates can quickly see what is expected of them. A good idea to ensure that the description is accurate is to ask someone already working in that role to check it.

The final part of the advert should detail the key skills or qualifications that are needed by the candidate in order for them to do the job.

A clearly laid out job advert is not only helpful for potential job candidates but it will also help you by reducing the number of unsuitable applications that you may receive.  

Turn to technology to attract the best talent

Job searching and recruitment is increasingly done online today, particularly using mobile technology. In fact, research shows that 77% of job seekers use mobile technology to find roles.

When placing your job advert, take time to think about how best it can reach the right audience? If you plan on using an online website, be sure to find out who is using the app or site, and keep on top of how many views or interactions your advert gets so you don't just post your position and then find out later that it wasn't being viewed by the right people. Again, this is another reason to write a strong job advert and description so that suitable candidates will find your advert when they search using relevant keywords.

Advertise on your own website

If your website doesn’t have a careers page already, ask for one to be made so that you don't miss out on those already keen enough to work for you that they're actively searching your website.

If you are competing to get the very best talent through your door, then consider sharing incentives to work at your company on this page too. For example, you could make a ‘Day in the life’ video using somebody from the relevant department to show what it is they do, or you could share testimonial stories from staff on why they like working there.

Involve your staff in the hiring process

Your staff could be the best source of finding new talent. Encourage staff to recommend friends or family for roles by involving them in the recruitment process or by setting up a referral programme.

As well, as getting staff to recommend people, consider involving them in the interview process. At the end of the day, these are people who will be working closely with the new staff member and it’s important that they feel they will be able to get on with them.

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