End To End Management Of A Recruitment Process—A Guide

Understand the incumbent’s motivation for leaving. It may be a cry for attention.
Resignations can sometimes be avoided. Regular dialogue, appraisal, and ensuring your packages are market standard, are just some of the tactics you can employ to counter this. If more businesses focused on retention, they would spend less time on recruitment!

Manage resignation and notice period.
Move quickly and with urgency. On the whole, good permanent candidates are on 4 weeks’ notice and an interview process can often drag on and take up 2 weeks + Get sign off and liaise with any internal functions that are required (E.g. board, senior management, HR). This will avoid issues with red tape later in the process that can damage your credibility and a candidate’s commitment.

Be neutral
No matter how upset you may be with the resignation you have to try your best to be impartial and objective. You still have to work with that person for at least 4 weeks, and it pays to part on as best of terms as possible. Who knows, you may end up working together again in some capacity!!

Size the job and write the spec
Is there an opportunity to restructure and improve your department? Is there an opportunity to promote from within? Provide us with a detailed job description, as most candidates will request this and it will present a professional image of you company. This will help people prepare for interview and also help us generate more interest when briefing possible / target candidates. Select your recruitment company and agree timescales/advertise directly (direct advertising
tends to extend the timeframes of appointing and starting an incumbent by around 40-50%.

Map out the process with timescales and dates
Talk to us about timescales, when you are available for interview and when you need the position filled by. Candidates will need a few days’ notice to make themselves available and if they know when to expect feedback this will help us maintain their interest. A structured process is always more easy to work with. The longer a candidate waits for an update the colder they get.

Decide on your interview strategy and approach
Will it be 2 stages. How many people do you intend to interview. Will the interview be biographical or competency, or both. Who will sit in the interview? You may decide to include testing?

Sell the opportunity
An interview is a 2 way process and they need to buy into the job, the company, and most importantly – you (the interviewer)! The best candidates will often have more than one opportunity to choose from, therefore to ensure that yours is their favored role let’s make sure the process runs as smooth as possible and leaves a great impression of your business.

Be thorough in reference checking
Wherever possible, references should be recent and from the candidates direct boss. Do not accept a peer reference as they tend not offer the insight you need. 1-2 references should normally suffice. If you are not taking the reference yourself ensure you follow up on the reference to ensure you have transparency in that process. You may want to ask one or 2 additional questions. Never be frightened to tailor a reference to your interview notes. This cam often help give a more rounded view of the candidate.

Conduct a thorough exit interview before the person leaves, and be open about feedback however constructive
Resignations can sometimes have a domino effect on departmental attrition. If the incumbent leaving this role feels a certain way about something (or someone). There may be others . This is your opportunity to have transparency and part company on the best of terms . Who knows, you may end up work g together again in some capacity!!

Prepare and plan for the ‘soon to be’ employees arrival.

• Bring them in for a coffee or a drink before employment
• Ensure they have a desk and computer on arrival
• Assign them a buddy who can offer on the on training
• Ensure regular catch-up throughout the 1st 2-3 months . Minor issues cam sometimes
• feels major when not discussed openly
• Remember. A new job is one of the biggest changes an individual makes top there life
• and people cope with this in different ways
• Statistically, a new employee takes a minimum of 3 months to get to a reasonable
• standard of productivity and efficiency so be patient wherever possible