Are you recruiting the best people for your growing business?

• how do I attract the best people to my company when I can’t offer big company salaries or perks?
• which is key - skills, knowledge or attitude?
• how will I chose the right person? 
• what is it going to cost me if I get it wrong?

Attracting the best

Small companies often have trouble attracting candidates with the necessary skills and experience as salaries and benefits may not be in line with large companies.  It is therefore important to play to your strengths as a small company and realise that you are offering potential employees a valuable opportunity to work in an expanding business.

Despite the popular myth to the contrary, not everyone is motivated by money and perks!  Many employees are keen to get involved in a growing company as it can offer them benefits such as a more challenging role, greater job satisfaction and a feeling of getting in at the beginning of something new and exciting.

Emphasise these elements in your job advertising and at interview to show candidates that your company wants employees who will be fully involved in the future growth and direction of the company. 

Skills, Knowledge or Attitude?

Most textbooks on recruitment and selection will tell you to write out a job description and person specification detailing the skills, experience and knowledge required to do the job.  In the current climate, many candidates are willing to move industries so be open to transferrable skills and don’t be too fixed on industry specific experience unless this is crucial to the role.

Skills and knowledge are an obvious starting point, but many small businesses often overlook the most important aspect of attitude.  In fact, I would go as far as to say that small companies should recruit on attitude first and skills and knowledge second.

Why?  Well, skills and knowledge can be learnt but it is very difficult to change an employee’s attitude to their work or colleagues.  Those of you who have tried this will no doubt agree!

 
Find someone with the right attitude and you can develop their skills and experience over time.  So what is the right attitude?  There are 5 key aspects of attitude which I would look for in any job candidate:

• positive outlook – do they have a can-do attitude to life or is the glass always half-full?
• willingness to learn – does their track record suggest a keenness to keep learning and developing?
• team player – will they get on with others in your company? 
• self-motivated – how willing are they to work unsupervised, to show initiative and get the job done?
• client-focused – depending on the role, are they keen to go the extra mile for the client, the company or their colleagues?

Lies, damn lies and interviews

All candidates will try to present their best side at an interview, so how do you really assess a candidate’s attitude?  The secret is to ask the right type of questions at interview.  Too many interviewers ask leading questions such as:

“Would you say that you were a positive person?”  Of course, the only possible answer is “yes”!

Behavioural questions will uncover the real attitudes of candidates by asking about actual experiences.  For example, “Tell me about a time when you went out of your way to help a client.  What did you do?  What was the outcome?”

It may take more time, but these types of questions will uncover the real person behind the facade.  Keep probing to ensure that you are getting actual examples, not set answers to scenarios. 

Can you afford to get it wrong?

Of course, you will be looking for someone who fits in with your company’s culture and values, but it is essential to avoid discrimination claims.  Fitting in with the team can be measured by their attitude to teamwork, not by whether they are the same age, race, or gender as the rest of your staff.    By setting out your selection criteria and keeping detailed notes of decisions at interviews you can defend your position should a candidate decide to claim unfair discrimination in your recruitment methods. 

Although an employment claim is very worrying, the biggest risk in recruitment is in selecting the wrong person for your company. Large organisations can make the odd recruitment mistake without it having too much of an impact.  However, the smaller the company, the more important it is to get recruitment and selection right first time. 

The wrong person can cost you dearly in terms of underperformance, possible unfair dismissal claims and re-recruitment expenses. But the real danger is wasting your precious time and effort sorting out the issues, dealing with team conflicts or losing unhappy customers.With some careful planning and clever interview questioning you can avoid the pitfalls and recruit the best.
 

Can we help you to recruit the best? 

Critchleys HR can help you with all aspects of recruitment and selection from writing job adverts and dealing with candidate applications to coaching you and your team on interview techniques.

We have devised three Recruitment and Selection Packages to suit all needs and budgets. Call us on 01865-261188 or 01865-261145 to discuss how we can help you.