Are they the ‘one’ for my business?

Taking on new employees can be challenging, time consuming and even quite daunting – if recruiting externally you never quite know who you are going to be bringing in to your business to represent and promote your service or product. This month we look at ways of helping you look beyond the interview situation to find out more about your potential future employees.

Screening candidates

Often, when having posted the job advert for your new role or current vacancy, you find yourself inundated with CVs. What do you focus on first? How do you devise a shortlist from a thousand sheets of paper? The first step is to undertake some initial screening. We have provided some simple yet effective checklists for advert and telephone screening for you to use within your business, helping you to find the best candidates to progress through to interviewing.

Advert Response Screening
Screening Checklist – Telephone Screening
 

Psychometric assessment

We all like to think that we are a great judge of character, and when you make the first poor hiring decision because people ‘on the job’ aren’t what they seemed at the interview, this can shake our confidence in our ability to identify who would be right for our business. Sometimes you just wish you knew a little more about your new employee.

This is where psychometric assessment really comes in to its own. Yes, if you ask your shortlisted candidates to undertake testing, often it will simply confirm your hunches, but it may also raise issues relating to how the candidate will perform in the role, how they will interact with others or even how they like to be managed. All of this is invaluable information which will help you make a good selection choice.

What are the benefits of psychometric assessments?
 

Assessment centre exercises for recruitment

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just try out a candidate to see how they would perform on the job, without having to employ them first? Assessment centre exercises allow you to do this by providing activities which simulate the skills, competencies and abilities that a candidate would be expected to perform on the job.

You could create your own assessment centre exercises for your business to enable you to really get a feel for a candidate’s ability. It also helps to confirm whether a candidate would truly enjoy the role that they are considering – the work simulation can be a win-win situation for both parties and a very practical addition to your recruitment process. 

Assessment centre exercises – work simulation activities

Reference questions

After an extensive search, interview process and psychometric testing, you think you may have finally met “the one” for your business, but how can you be sure? Reference checking is often seen as a minor formality, however, these checks provide an opportunity to gain greater insights into the candidate’s knowledge, skills and abilities from those who have had first-hand experience of the candidate’s performance.

Reference Check - The Final ‘Check’ in the Recruitment Process

Pod’s poll

Last month we asked, ‘Do you follow a structured interview format when hiring new employees? 67% said yes, 17% said no and 16% said sometimes.

It is great to see that the majority of respondents use a structured interview format. Structured interviews allow you to target your questions specifically at the key competencies of the role so you focus on exactly what you need for your business. The added advantage is that you create a level playing field for each candidate as you use the same criteria to assess their suitability of the role.

This month we want to know ‘How much per employee did you invest in training and development in the last 12 months?’

Your vote counts 

Pre-employment guidelines

What are the legal “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to advertising jobs and asking interview or reference questions?

Kate Ashcroft, Senior Solicitor within the Employment Law team at Hesketh Henry outlines the relevant legislation and how to avoid breaking the law when recruiting.

Pre-Employment Guidelines

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