A recruitment policy is imperative

Ithink there’s something wrong with our hiring process as we continue to suffer from the effects of bad hires. They stay with us wreaking havoc in our operations and yet the good ones don’t stay much longer than four to five months. What’s wrong with us? — Moon Light.

If an organization fails to attract, motivate, and maintain the most qualified people, it will surely fail to meet its objectives. In other words, the company’s performance depends on the effectiveness of its recruitment strategies, which start from screening the best candidates for the job.

A sloppy hiring process can result in unimaginable damage to the organization.

It’s easy to understand the cost of recruitment if workers fail to meet performance standards or commit infractions. The cost could be staggering if we consider vacancy announcements, countless hours of interviews, negotiating, onboarding, and training new people.

The cost is compounded when a worker is terminated and decides to file an illegal dismissal case. Therefore, no matter how you attract and screening external job applicants, you’ll be at a loss without a sound standard policy.

FORMAL POLICY
I’m not sure what’s ailing your hiring process as I’m not privy to your operations. I can only speculate and say that every human resource (HR) department must be guided by a formal recruitment policy.

In my interaction with hundreds of people managers from various organizations, around 98% have no standard policy on how to attract, screen, motivate, and retain good hires.

They hire people in all sorts of ways without knowing the proper process. Take note of the following points:

One, determine if a vacancy must be filled. When an employee is dismissed, resigns, retires, dies, or becomes incapacitated, an honest-to-goodness review must be performed by HR to validate the need for a replacement. It should not be automatic. This is to avoid over-staffing and improve productivity.

Each vacancy must be re-assessed to discover whether there are redundant or unnecessary tasks. Some solutions may include the distribution of tasks to other workers and the application of digital tools that eliminate certain manual business operations. Outsourcing to a service provider is also an option.

Two, promote the best candidate from within. If a replacement is needed, HR must search, assess, and recommend internal candidates. It tends to be cheaper in terms of offering starting pay, and faster to fill, with the candidate having inside knowledge of how the business operates.

Other advantages include shorter periods of training and “fitting in.” Also, internal candidates are already attuned to the corporate culture. Moreover, other employees would be motivated to learn that a similar promotion is possible in the future.

Three, hire only outsiders for entry-level posts. This is the ripple effect of promoting people from within. This is beneficial for entry-level workers as they are given enough time to demonstrate their capacity to do the job and be accustomed to their culture.

If there are bad hires, their adverse effect on the organization is minimized and at the same time easily controlled. On the other hand, if they are good hires, they can be fully motivated to the satisfaction of their boss.

Four, create a shortlist of the top three candidates. Do this even when we’re talking about fresh college graduates for entry-level posts. When you compile a shortlist, you must rely on standard parameters applicable to all candidates. Choose the number one candidate. Then, discuss starting pay, merit increases, and other benefits.

The candidate should be given not more than three days (non-extendible) to accept the offer, including all the terms and conditions of employment. If your first choice declines, move on to the next choice. For some reason, many of the second choices in my experience are the best bet for employment.

BACKGROUND CHECKS
One of the most crucial but neglected steps in the hiring process is background checking. While reference checks yield little useful information about a candidate, it’s no excuse to ignore it. Besides, a third-party “truth verifier” has a reputation to protect. They have established professional relations with academic institutions, government bodies (like the courts and the National Bureau of Investigation), and other organizations.

Don’t rely too much on the statements of the applicants’ references, who are either their friends or relatives prone to giving positive feedback.

To protect your organization from employment fraud, it’s essential to require the three shortlisted candidates to fill out the company’s application form for employment, which should contain a statement that they attest to the accuracy and truthfulness of all personal data. It must also contain provisions giving consent to verify their data, subject to data privacy rules.

That would be the organization’s basis for carrying out a background check.

Strengthen the capacity of your team leaders, supervisors, and managers. Learn from Rey Elbo’s leadership program called “Superior Subordinate Supervision.” Contact him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X or e-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com