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Recruiting for Dummies

Written by: Michel Amour

Article Overview: When facing the challenge of recruiting personnel, most organizations out there believe that a job posting and some behavioral based interviews will suffice to hire the best candidates—this is true at some point if you are recruiting for some technical jobs such as machine lifter or tractor driver, not that there is anything wrong with these jobs, but the pool of candidates and degree of job functions and expertise will differ if you are hiring a white collar or top executive.

Recruiting for Dummies

For all companies out there hiring white collars and top executives, here are some things to look for when starting your process:

1– Your job posting should be clear and concise with the job Description, required skills and experience, salary and benefits and your organization's history, values and mission statement.
2– Your recruitment process should be devised into small steps that will allow you to measure the candidate with others (we recommend a phone interview, a face to face interview and a case scenario or problem solving case).
3– Your interview questions should measure some specific skills and competencies you are looking for in your candidates. In addition, they should measure the motivation fit factor—how motivated is this candidate to work for your organization and not your competitor? This will measure the loyalty factor.
4– Your interview questions should also measure past behaviors and determine future behaviors in similar situations.
5– Your problem solving and case scenario (if you are having one), should measure aptitudes and competencies that you are looking for in a candidate holding a similar position.
6– To create these competencies, avoid measuring those of your best or top current employees, rather your average employee that gets the job done—this should be a good threshold—aiming higher will only get you the cream of the crop (if any) and these folks will be bored in a short period of time if no bigger challenges are thrown at them. No need to explain why you shouldn’t aim lower!
7– Questions should be competencies based
8– To determine what competencies you will need to measure, mix in one pot the skills required for the job you are recruiting for, your organization’s mission statement and values and Voilà! You will end up with organization’s specific competencies!
9– When conducting interviews, ensure you are professional, presentable and speak clearly. Avoid heavy partying or drinking the night before, as the factors will show physically and this will be transparent to the candidate—talk about job fit!
10– During the interview, ensure you are taking enough notes that will help you determine the candidate’s success rate. Please do grade your interview AFTER the interview and NOT during this process!
11– During the interview, avoid saying “excellent”, “very good”, “great answer”, etc.. As these might give the candidate the impression he/she is doing great when in fact the end result could be an unsuccessful interview.
12– During the interview, avoid personal subjects, religion, skin color or health state (unless directly linked to the job itself—
(Such as a tractor driver or heavy machine lifter – for Health state ONLY).
13– Please read the Human Rights code of conduct for your respective province and ensure you respect it at all times.
14– Measure your candidates objectively and not subjectively.
Interviewing is not a scary process, however when misused, could end up with awful results and high employee turnover.
When used according to specific rules and guidelines measuring all of the required skills and specifically motivation, it can be the start of a great relationship!

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Article Tags: aptitudes, case scenario, competitor, conducting interviews, cream of the crop, interview questions, job description, loyalty, mission statement, motivation, partying, period of time, phone interview, pot, recruitment, salary, short period, small steps, threshold, top executives



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