BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOR SMES
RECRUITMENT
A COSTLY BUSINESS IF YOU GET IT WRONG!
I was once asked in a media interview what my top 5 mistakes in business had been. My answer was simple, “1 Recruiting the wrong person, 2 Recruiting the wrong person, 3 Recruiting the wrong person............” Do you get the pattern?!
CREATING AND MAINTAINING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE When it comes to creating and maintaining competitive advantage, by far the most important thing in my mind is to attract, develop and retain exceptional people. And that’s why recruitment is now the one area that I will never compromise on.
But to be honest, recruitment can be a form of unregulated lottery, in which the odds are stacked highly against you. Unless, you are very cute about how you go about it, though, even the best companies in the world only ever claim to get it right 75% of the time.
GETTING IT RIGHT
So how can you increase your chances of success? I could spend hours on this specifically sharing some of my own massive gaffes, but, to be brief, here are a few of the things that I have found, by experience, to work well.
1 Create a remarkable and emotionally compelling job ad’ or profile with a package designed to attract the best. “Pay peanuts, get monkeys.”
2 Scour your personal networks for talented people and offer employees a cash reward if they can find someone remarkable from their own
3 Choose carefully how and where you market your vacancies and if you use an agency, negotiate hard on terms including a form of guarantee. Watch out for cowboys who act just as as overpaid postman distributing CVs
4 “Sweat” your agency and get them to pre-filter candidates against objective criteria important to the role
5 Adopt a universal predefined efficient process and involve all stakeholders in the same. Selection days have proven the most efficient and effective ways to recruit
6 During the process, use some form of benchmarking or standard tests such as Wonderlic, literacy, numeracy. More than ever, recruit on attitude and cultural fit over skills - you can train skills and knowledge
7 Perform deep competence based interviews appropriate for the level of position on offer. At least two independent opinions are important
8 When you are sure a candidate is right, make a quick offer conditional upon references and take up references deeply and verbally. If you have any doubts about a candidate’s integrity, decline them immediately, as you’re probably right and would live to regret it - I know from great experience!
9 Keep in contact after the offer - many a good candidate may have worries that may need calming.
10 Set them up for success by ensuring everything is in place for them on day one - a comprehensive induction plan is critical
NEVER COMPROMISE
To do recruitment properly takes time and money, but to do it badly and hire the wrong person costs you a lot more. Invest the energy up front to turn the odds in your favour to ensure you get the talent that your business deserves. Never compromise!
Paul Luen
Martek Marine Ltd
www.martek-marine.com
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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