How To Improve The Quality Of Your Workforce

Finding the right talent for your business is a pressing issue every CEO and manager faces today. In today’s highly competitive talent markets, people are without doubt the most valuable resource in any organization. Though the pool of qualified and experienced candidates is increasing every year, recruiting the right candidate for the required profile is still a Herculean task. Getting the right person in the right place at the right time makes all the difference between dynamic growth or mediocrity, success or failure – but identifying and securing these human assets isn’t always easy.

Recruitment/Talent acquisition is a detailed yet dynamic process, and successful recruitment/talent acquisition is the key to improving the quality of your workforce talent. Here’s a checklist of sorts that will help you hire right and improve the quality of your workforce talent.

  1. Plan well: Identify the requirement well in advance. Always remember…collaboration is the name of the game. For example, if required, discuss these needs with the Department head well in advance. It will give you enough time to gear down and build the right infrastructure to secure the right kind of candidate.
  2. Be detailed: Prepare a detailed picture of the job profile. In other words “if the job could talk”, what are the reasons for the job existing, what are the key accountabilities of this job, the priorities in the job and how much time the candidate will be expected to invest in each key accountability. At the end of the day, a detailed picture of the job’s technical and cultural fabric is created to articulate what kind of candidate you are looking for. As a Hiring manager and Recruiter, this step is crucial for your own understanding and being able to fully understand and express why this job is being recruited for. This exercise might sound time consuming but is the make or break of either finding the right talent the first time around or having to continuously replace your talent because they were incorrectly evaluated and selected for a position.
  3. Be unambiguous: When producing the job profile, be transparent about all the key accountabilities. Have a meeting with all parties involved in the recruitment process and make sure everyone is on the same page. Discuss every requirement in detail so that there is no ambiguity amongst staff internally.
  4. Advertise well: Advertise your requirement in various places like job boards, newspapers, company website and also spread the word internally for employee referrals. For rare and specific profiles, you might want to use tools like professional networking sites. Always remember, once you decide where to post for the position, ask yourself “why” you are using a specific tool e.g. job boards, newspapers, journals etc. Having a strategy (i.e. the “why”) in mind is crucial before executing.
  5. Screen: Select appropriate candidates based on their experience and how they have historically performed through their career to date. Conduct an initial phone screening interview through telephone or video call. Doing this will save a lot of time, money and person hours involved. At this point, along with knowing about the candidate, you may also take time to talk about your company, requirements and value systems. Remember, building an accurate job profile will also ensure you can articulate the job well to the candidate, eliminating any surprises at the end of the day. This will also encourage candidates to explore your company in detail and create an interest in your organization. A brief discussion about compensation must also be done so both the candidate and the recruiter get a rough idea about mutual expectations and can make an informed choice.
  6. Create a holistic interview panel: Candidates who screened into the first face to face interview should always be interviewed by more than one individual (e.g. the Hiring manager and Recruiter). In this case, both the technical and cultural aspects of the job can be dealt with during the interview.
  7. Be transparent: After a candidate clears all rounds of interviews, explain to her the exact compensation structure and encourage her to ask questions so that she is clear in order to make an informed decision at the end of the day. Making the candidate comfortable and informed at this stage is very important. Doing this will help the interview team make the correct selection decision the first time around and significantly reduce inaccurate hiring and damaging employee turnover in the future.