How to recruit great employees
Finding the right employee is extremely important for your entire organization. A successful recruitment means not only a new employee, but also new skills, experience and ideas that can contribute to your company's development, growth and work culture.
In this article, we will explore the topic of recruitment and what you can do to ensure a successful recruitment process. We break down the recruitment process into six steps and guide you through what it takes to recruit great employees in a time when the competition for the best candidates is fierce.
Do you want the skills you need to recruit and retain great people?
LEAD's Recruitment and Retention in the Public Sector course provides you with the leadership skills and tools to engage and retain talented employees and achieve long-term success.
At LEAD, we work strategically with the concept of "The Attractive Workplace", where the organization as a whole is crucial to your success in recruiting and retaining the right employees. We help you analyze your own organization and identify the focus areas you need to optimize.
In this course, we have gathered a number of experts in public management and recruitment to rethink the way we as organizations and leaders look at and strategically target recruitment and retention of employees in a long-term, sustainable perspective. You'll gain inspiration and concrete tools to rethink and improve your practices for recruiting and retaining the right employees. And you'll have the opportunity to take a closer look at your own practices and get new inspiration for possible solutions.
Read more about LEAD's Recruitment and Retention course
Read more about LEAD's Recruitment and Retention course
1. identifying recruitment needs
The first step to successful recruitment is to identify your recruitment needs so you can plan when and how to recruit new employees for your business.
To uncover your recruitment needs, identify the following:
- Where is your business right now?
- Where do you see your business in the future?
- What will it take to get you there?
One of the best ways to answer these questions is to look at your needs in relation to your business goals and budget. What goals does your business ideally need to achieve in the next year - and do you have the resources to achieve them? When do you need your new employees to be self-sufficient in order to reach your goals? Questions like these can help you make the connection between your business goals, your budget and your recruitment needs.
2. Preparation of job postings and job descriptions
Once you've identified your recruitment needs, the next step in the recruitment process is to create a job posting and job description.
It's important to ensure that the job description provides a comprehensive overview of the position so that potential candidates can immediately see if it's a position that catches their interest. Just as importantly, the job posting should accurately summarize the qualifications - i.e. the skills, experience and competencies - that a candidate needs to have in order to fill the position.
In the vast majority of job postings, qualifications are listed briefly, precisely and in bullet points. Below you can see some examples of what such a list might contain:
Work experience
- Education and training
- Certificates
- Language skills
Hard skills / soft skills
In addition, it's a good idea to divide qualifications into "must-haves" and "need-to-haves". Sometimes it can be beneficial to hire an employee who doesn't meet all the requirements right away, but who can develop into a valuable asset.
3. Candidate selection and screening
Once the job posting and job description are created, the next step in the recruitment process is to source and screen candidates. You might get lucky and the right candidate stumbles across your job posting on LinkedIn. But in a time when companies are competing for workers, it's not enough to hope that job seekers will come to you - you need to come to them.
There are several strategies you can consider when sourcing candidates. Here we will highlight three in particular:
- Talent pipeline: A talent pipeline consists of talented candidates that you have previously screened and maintained a good relationship with, even if they didn't get the position. When sourcing candidates, it's a good idea to include both active and passive job seekers in your talent pipeline. This way, you can meet your recruitment needs faster.
- Employees: Leveraging your current employees and their networks can be very effective when hiring new employees. You can offer a bonus to current employees who find a qualified new employee. By doing so, you'll also strengthen your employees' loyalty to the company.
- Outreach: Personal outreach allows you to interact directly with potential candidates on, for example, LinkedIn. When contacting candidates, make it clear to them that you've gotten to know who they are and why they are potentially a good match for the position. Also, make sure to explain why the position could be attractive to them.
Once you've found the right candidates, it's time to screen them. Review their CVs and applications and invite the most promising candidates for a phone or video interview. Depending on the position, it may be beneficial to ask your selected candidates to solve a case study to get an idea of their skills and work approach.
4. Preparing for and conducting job interviews
Once you've decided which candidates have the most potential, the next step is to conduct job interviews. The goal of a job interview is not only to assess whether the candidate is suitable for the position, but also whether they are a good cultural fit for your company.
A good way to get to know each candidate better is to ask a mix of different types of questions during the interview. It's a good idea to include questions from these three categories:
Behavioral questions: These questions are based on situations the candidate has been in before, what the candidate chose to do and why. For example: "Tell me about a time in your current job when a disagreement arose between you and a colleague. How did you handle the situation?"
Competency-based questions: These questions give you a better understanding of the candidate's skills, knowledge and expertise. For example: "Which tools do you prefer to use in your work - and why?"
Hypothetical questions: These questions are about hypothetical challenges that the candidate hasn't necessarily experienced before and how the candidate would solve them. Example: "You're halfway through a project and you've just realized that you've made a big mistake that will affect the project. What do you do?"
Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong answer to these questions. The purpose of the questions is to give you a more complete picture of how the candidate acts in different situations and what type of employee they are.
Read more about how to ensure a successful job interview here.
5. Assessment and selection of candidates
After the interviews, it's time to assess the candidates and decide which of them should be your new employee.
When selecting a candidate, consider the following:
- Key criteria: First, identify your key criteria - i.e. the skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes and qualifications that the candidate must have to succeed in the role. Aim to select a candidate who meets as many of your key criteria as possible.
- Pros and cons: Each candidate has their pros and cons. It is therefore important that you compare the pros and cons of the candidates when making your choice. It's a good idea to ask your current employees for advice on what would be most important to them if they were to choose their future colleague.
- Duration of the partnership: As a starting point, it's always a good idea to choose a candidate who is likely to stay with the company for a long time. This way, you can ensure that the time and resources you invest in recruiting and onboarding the candidate are well spent. You can read more about employee retention here.
Once you've gone through these steps, you should have made a decision on which of the candidates is the best match for your business.
6. Preboarding and onboarding the new employee
Once your selected candidate has accepted the job offer, it's time for the final step in the recruitment process: preboarding and onboarding.
Preboarding is a term that covers all the activity that happens between the time the employee signs the contract and their first day at work. Onboarding covers all the practical, personal and relational activities that take place from the employee's first day of work onwards.
Successful preboarding and onboarding is crucial to making the employee feel welcome and properly connected to their new workplace. As a result, it also helps to ensure that the employee delivers positive results for the company faster.
In the preboarding phase, it's important that you build a good relationship with the new employee and maintain their motivation to start their new job. Therefore, it's a good idea to make a good impression before the first day of work. For example, you can invite the new employee to a tour of the workplace, lunch with the department or to attend the next Friday bar - even if they haven't started yet.
When it comes to onboarding, you should have a concrete strategy that is used every time your company hires a new employee. Here are five tips on how to put together a great onboarding program:
- Get everything technical, digital and practical sorted out before the first day of work. For example, if the employee will have their own computer, make sure it's ready to use before they start.
- Make sure colleagues are informed so they're ready to welcome the new employee. You may want to arrange a buddy system, where a specific employee is given a central social role in onboarding the new employee.
- Avoid overwhelming the new employee with information on the first day. Spread the boring, text-heavy information out over several days so the new employee has more opportunity to listen and learn.
- Make sure to hold follow-up interviews with the new employee. These are typically held after one month, three months and six months.
- Remember, onboarding is not a checklist, it's an employee journey. It's important that the new employee feels well taken care of - so make sure the process is structured and takes the time it needs to take.
Read more about LEAD's Recruitment and Retention course
Do you want to be better equipped to recruit, engage and retain great people?
LEAD's course in recruitment and retention of employees in the public sector will fill your toolbox with concrete tools to work strategically and purposefully to create an attractive workplace, attract qualified candidates and engage and retain talented employees.
