Recruitment Process

So, You have become a recruitment Consultant @ Eduroof.

We welcome you aboard and lets start with sharpening your recruiting skills.

In my first 3 months I can remember two big mistakes that I made. They were my first job take and my first placement!

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My first placement was an accounts executive in a local company with a candidate called Satish. It’s amazing how over 19 years later I still remember his name (I’ve not put his surname to protect him!). He didn’t turn up on his first day and when I finally got hold of him he said he was sick and couldn’t start. I apologised to the client and said I would update them tomorrow. Day 2 and I couldn’t get hold of him. Day 3 and he had disappeared off of the face of the earth. At this point I was still hoping everything was OK and tried to keep the client happy. By the Friday I had given up and was now apologising profusely. I found another candidate for them, but I’m sure my reputation had taken a big knock and I’d only just started in recruitment.

So where did I go wrong? The answer is Qualifying – in essence I was working blind. I had taken on a job that wasn’t my core category and I knew nothing about the market. I didn’t question the client enough and was just blinded by the possible fee I would make. I hadn’t learned to say “No” yet. With the candidate I had given him a half an hour interview and hadn’t asked the key qualifying questions. He therefore had no commitment to me and certainly didn’t keep me informed.

I learnt many lessons during those first three months and realised it’s easy to get distracted and not follow the whole process. Whether it’s temp, perm or contract there are many steps in the Recruitment Process and I had failed on the first couple.

The market is changing and companies have taken advantage of the dwindling economy over the past four years and have recruited ‘in-house’ some of those recruitment consultants that would normally have found themselves working in a consultancy. The major change that I’ve observed (I work with in-house as well as external recruiters) is the different mind-set of the “in-house” recruiter. KPIs, targets and even commission are now being paid by corporate recruiters to their in-house teams.

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With the advent of social media, it’s meant that gaining access to candidates who are actively looking for a new role, without resorting to ‘Headhunting’, has become relatively easy. From my discussions – as well as two events that I’ve helped to organise this year with in-house recruiters forming guest panels – the consensus was that they didn’t want to cut out the external recruiter altogether, but were more likely looking for a 75/25 split of who filled their vacancies (in-house being the larger number of course). Another key point to come out of these events was ‘The Candidate Journey’ and the interaction that you have with them before they join your company is 90% of that candidate journey.

So with pretty much every company looking to recruit in the next twelve months, then it’s the quality of the Recruitment Process that they perform that will differentiate them to the candidates – who very soon will have control of the market again.

The 12 steps to the recruitment process

Step one – Taking a qualified position

Step two – Making a recruitment plan

Step three – Sourcing potential candidates

Step four – Qualifying the candidates

Step five – Interviewing the candidate

Step six – Presenting the candidate to the line manager

Step seven – Candidate preparation and briefing

Step eight – Line manager interview

Step nine – The candidate debrief

Step ten – Managing the offer

Step eleven – Resignation briefing and management

Step twelve – The post placement and onboarding plan

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Phase 1 is all about making sure that you are not going to be wasting your time. Therefore there is a lot of qualifying in these initial 4 steps to make sure that you are going to be successful once you start putting candidates forward as suitable.

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Phase two covers the different stages of the interview – and this may be extended if there is a third interview required.

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Phase three is all about control. So many things can go wrong during these steps, but hopefully if you’ve qualified well in phase 1, then it should all go smoothly.

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The basic science here is that the more detail you have, the better match you will be able to make with a suitable candidate.

Key questions to ask are: –

a) Is there a job description and person specification for this role? If so, when was it last updated?

b) What is the ideal background for this person?

c) What are the long-term opportunities associated with this position?

d) Where are they likely to be working at the moment?

e) If a relevant candidate could be found today, when would be the first opportunity for interview? and if they were suitable, when would be the first start date available?

There are about another 70 questions, but the key is to find out very early on – is the line manager committed to finding the right person for this position? If they are unwilling to give you 30 minutes to establish all of the information you require, as well as giving you interview and actual start dates (not ASAP), then how much of a priority is filling this position to them?

Working on minimal briefs means that you will make bad matches and you will damage your reputation and the opportunity to be seen as the go to person to find the right people.

Selection

 

 

 

Step Two – Making a recruitment plan

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Phase 1, covering the first 4 steps of the recruitment process is all about making sure that you are not going to be wasting your time. Therefore, there is a lot of qualifying in these initial 4 steps to make sure that you are going to be successful once you start putting candidates forward.

Once the position has been qualified, then the recruitment plan needs to be written. So many people in the recruitment role miss this step. They dive in to finding candidates and steaming ahead to get their shortlist of candidates created, ready for interview. Much time and hassle can be averted in the 9 steps that follow, if just 10 minutes are taken to write out the recruitment plan and get it agreed and signed.

So what’s included in a recruitment plan?

Plan

The recruitment plan is exactly what it says – a plan of action of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and by whom to make sure that the position is filled successfully. The key is to have agreement with the line manager and the recruiter – whether they be in-house or external. Some of the key elements that should be listed in a recruitment plan are:-

a) How many CVs are required to view (if any)

b) The full interview process with timeframes

c) Feedback format and times and dates agreed

d) Where the candidates are likely to be found and specific candidates to approach (if any)

e) How many interviews with the dates and time slots agreed

f) Start date stated (an actual date – not ASAP)

g) Signatures of all included in the recruitment plan

It’s a simple one page document that would physically resemble an action plan. It has 5 columns with the actions required, who is responsible, review dates, completion dates and a tick box for when the action it’s completed (always my favourite box).

So, if you’re not currently writing out Recruitment Plans and agreeing them with the person that is going to make the offer to the candidate, then you may be feeling a little out of control of the process… this is why. Having a plan that both parties sign will add more credibility to the commitment that both parties have made to filling the role.

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Next week Step 3 and it’s sourcing the candidates for the role – which is a huge subject – so it’ll be a challenge to get it into 500 words, but I’ll try my best.

Step Three – Sourcing potential candidates

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There are many different avenues that people can take to source candidates, with the most recent having a huge impact on the ability to access individuals being social media.

A few other options to gain suitable candidates are: –

Recommendations, referrals, job boards, classified advertising, social media websites – LinkedIn being the most prevalent, job fairs, College Boards, direct applications, your own company website, trade industry blogs and forums.

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Whichever method you are using to identify candidates, it’s important to monitor the results. Keep a record of where the candidates are sourced from and follow this through with how many are actually relevant to the position, how many are registered / interviewed, whether a placement is made, the time that it took, how much the process cost and how much revenue was eventually generated.

By keeping records you will be able to establish your most cost effective and successful methods of recruiting for determined positions, as well as the time frame that it’s likely to take.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Four – Qualifying the candidates

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Phase 1, covering the first 4 steps of the recruitment process is all about making sure that you are not going to be wasting your time. Therefore, there is a lot of qualifying in these initial 4 steps to make sure that you are going to be successful once you start putting candidates forward.

Once the position has been qualified (1), a recruitment plan written and agreed (2) the potential candidates are sourced (3) then they need to be qualified to make sure that they are suitable for not only the position but also the role of representing your company.

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This is a screening stage before you decide to interview them, whether your in-house or an external recruiter. During a recession, you can quite easily get upwards of 500 replies to a position you’ve advertised, so therefore it’s important that you can screen and get the number down to (ideally) 5 candidates to interview.

So how do you reduce the numbers to potentially 1% of the replies?

a. Review the information you have on the candidates, whether that be CVs or application forms. Straight away there will be candidates that have no relevant experience whatsoever, they immediately are taken out of the equation.Start by Making a candidate qualifying google form.

b. With the ones that are left, in what way have they attempted to promote themselves to your company or  your position? Is there any indication that they’ve done some research? Is your initial impression a good one? If the answers are yes, then these are the ones that move forward.

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c. Do they have the correct background / skills / abilities / experience? There will be some positions that there is no experience required – always harder to screen, so make sure that when you advertise the position, you add an element of competency required i.e. good organisational skills and time management. Whether we’ve worked before or not, we can all give examples of how we’ve organised our personal life to achieve goals.

d. Now you should have cleared through a lot of unsuitable applicants. Please send some form of communication to let these people know that they have not been selected. One of the worst issues that candidates have with recruiters is that they are only communicative when there’s something in it for them… if they’re not suitable, then they never hear anything. Just picture them by the phone, waiting to hear from you, ever since they put their application in. You want to make their experience of your company a positive one – whether they’re right for the job or not.

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e. The screening call. For the candidates that are left, there should be a telephone screening call that will last up to ten minutes if they are suitable. It’s here that you get to ask them the questions that are not necessarily detailed in their applications.

The 6 essential qualifying questions

1. Motivating factors. What are the reasons behind them wanting to make a move now? Everyone is likely to say money, so aim to gain 3 if not 4 and preferably 5 other reasons as to why they would want to move away from their current company or to join your company (or the client you’re recruiting for if you’re external).

These could be factors such as work / life balance, not feeling valued, location, working hours, opportunity to learn a new skill, career progression, redundancy, company profile, working environment etc.

2. How motivated are they? They may be the best candidate in the world with a great personality and all the skills that you want, but if they’re not motivated to make the move, then they shouldn’t go through to the next stage. Ask them to rate their motivation on a score of 1 – 10. If they’re under 5, don’t even consider them. 6 or 7 are hesitant. Give them time to think and get them to call you back in a day or so. If they’re not motivated, they won’t call back. 8 and 9’s – what stopped them saying 10? There’s obviously something there and you need to know what it is. If they’re a 10, then ask them what they’ve done so far to secure themselves a new position. If they can’t come up with much, then they’re probably not a 10.

3. Bottom line salary. They may be a good candidate, but if they’re salary is way out of your range, then they’re not right for this position. Consider them for other opportunities instead.

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4. Current Situation. What positions have they currently applied for, interviewed for, awaiting an offer on etc. You need to know what you’re up against. It’s no good going through the whole process only to lose out to a position that they already had lined up. Ask the question and then at least you can make an informed decision.

5. Knock out factors. What could possibly stop them taking their ideal position? This could be as varied as a ‘counter offer’, partner’s influence on the decision, children’s influence on the position, health issues. I’ve even had the family dog mean that a guy couldn’t take his ideal job! Again, know what you’re up against.

6. Achievements and accomplishments. What makes this person stand out against others? What can they tell you that would sell themselves?

If you cover these 6 questions in your screening call, then you will now be in a position to decide whether or not you wish to invite this person to an interview,

Step Five – Interviewing the candidate

Phase 2 of the recruitment process, covering the steps 5 – 8, is all about the different stages of interviewing. Here we look at the first interview by either HR, the internal or external recruiter.

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If the pre-screening has been done well at step 4, then  you should already be ¼ of the way through your interview. On paper and in an initial discussion, this person is suitable for the position and is interested in the role, so the purpose of the interview is to: –

a) Provide adequate information about the candidate’s education, formal training, skills, work experience, previous performance plus personal characteristics – all of which will determine the individual’s ability to do the job

b) Determine whether the individual is motivated to perform the role well in the organisation; good performance in one organisation does not automatically assure the same performance in another

c) Inform the candidate; candidates need to know the full job requirements and other information about your organisation to help them make the right decision. Information should include the job description, hours, compensation, benefits, opportunities for personal development, company values and vision

d) Promote goodwill between the candidate and your organisation regardless of whether it results in employment or not.

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Questioning to gather as much information as possible is key to achieving the above.Pareto’s principle of 80/20 can be used here. 80% listening and only 20% talking by the interview. Think about your last interview – who did most of the talking?

This is where having interesting competency questions can help you.  For detail on structuring your interview, please refer to a previous series and the post Interviewing for Commitment’.

What is a Competency Based Interview?

The Competency Based Interview is an objective method of establishing the level of skill or ability and/or the potential skill or ability of the candidate.

The process involves asking a number of questions to gather real life examples from the candidate on their use of a specific skill or ability.

Questions need to be designed to encourage the candidate to consider particular events or activities and describe them in such a way that encourages them to give information on what they contributed to the event in question.

Before embarking on this type of questioning, ensure that you have made the candidate comfortable and a two way rapport has already been established.

As there are many competencies to choose from and it is not feasible to cover them all in an interview, it is best practice to identify 4 or 5 key competencies for each role. If there are to be 2nd interviews, then they can either be questioned further or additional competencies can be added.

Negotiation

The key to a great interview is to make the candidate feel comfortable with your and to build rapport as quickly as possible – you will get a lot more out of a willing and relaxed candidate, than one that is constantly on their guard. I’m not for the school of making the interview as difficult as possible to see how they cope.,. some people are just not good at interviews, just like some people hate exams.

So now you’re ready to make the decision as to whether this candidate should go forward to the line manager or not. If you can answer yes to the follow 10 points, then they could be the ideal candidate.

 

Step Six – Presenting the candidate

Phase 2 of the recruitment process, covering the steps 5 – 8, is all about the different stages during the interviewing phase. Here we look at presenting the candidate after you’ve interviewed them, to the line manager (or relevant person if you’re external). We’ll call them the ‘hirer’ for ease.

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All to often, recruiters are so convinced that their candidate is right for the job, that they forget to put the time and effort in, to be able to convince the hirer of this fact.

Top recruiters will spend 15 minutes honing their ‘pitch’ on an individual candidate to make sure that the relevant points are portrayed in a positive light. This is the difference between a good recruiter and a great recruiter. The good recruiter finds the right candidate, but the great recruiter finds the right candidate and also makes sure that the hirer understands why the candidate will be a correct match for their role.

Good to great

The key to the presentation is finding out how the candidate will make a difference to the business / department / hiring manager etc. What is it in their background that means that they add benefits from day one. Too many consultants talk about what the candidate has done in the past and this can leave the hirer wondering “yeah everybody says that, but what’s in it for me?”

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For example, if the candidate has run projects worth millions and has brought them in on time and within budget, then that’s what the company will want them to do for them. The key is to put it in the future tense so they can visualise it.

“If you were to take this candidate into your department, they would be able to run your project for you and I believe, they would not only save you money, but make sure that it was completed on time and within your budget”.

Do you think that the hirer might be listening to you now?

After you have made your bold statement, then that you can back it up with the experience and abilities of your candidate, but make sure you put the specifics in there. It’s the detail that brings the candidate to life.

Working with students this week on the LinkedIn profiles and CVs, one of them had put that they’d successfully managed a team during a project. After questioning him, it turned out that the ‘team’ was two hundred 14 – 18 year olds! I don’t think I could manage that lot, so it was really important for him to put the detail in, as it changed the whole connotation of the sentence.

 

Step Seven – Candidate Preparation and Briefing

Phase 2 of the recruitment process, covering the steps 5 – 8, is all about the different stages during the interviewing phase. Briefing a candidate so that they are able to portray themselves in the best possible light, is down to the recruiter and it’s the recruiter who can often have a bigger impact on the success of the interview… not the candidate.

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I’ve already had the commentI was really astounded by the fact that [the] consultant does so much preparation to present their candidate to the hirer.”  on the last post. So, now it’s time to show what the recruiter does for the candidate to aid them in achieving a successful placement.

Some people are just not good at interviews, just as I would believe that those same people probably freak out a bit during exams as well. The interview is certainly not always indicative of how capable that person is of performing the role. Ask yourself – have you ever recruited someone who did a wonderful interview, only to find out that the reality was actually a lot different?! It works both ways…

Office life

Your role as the recruiter, is to make sure that the candidate can perform to the best of their ability during their interview with the line manage / hirer. Last week I met up with a potential new client, who eventually had to shoot off as they were prepping a candidate for an interview later that day. Now it was a very high level job and the fee was going to be not inconsiderable, but even I was surprised to hear that he had booked 2.5 hours with the candidate to make sure that they gave the best possible interview.

Normal recommendation is 1 hour for a full and complete brief of a candidate going for a permanent role. Recruiters usually then ask – “What can you talk about for an hour” and when I inform them that the briefing checklist has 21 points to cover, then they tend get the idea… they’re not briefing enough.

 

Now I’m not going to cover all 21 points here today – this is meant to be a short 500 word blog post each week – but I’m going to refer to a few that a lot of recruiters either forget or hadn’t thought of in the first place.

1. Get the candidate to take notes.                                                                                                                     Now, whilst your briefing them, but also in the interview itself. Make sure that you discuss the implications of the lack of eye contact and that they only take notes on the things that they want to question and might not remember later.

2. Brief candidates on appropriate interview attire.                                                                               Give them at least a chance of getting through the door without their appearance meaning that the hirer just does a perfunctory “eyeball interview”, as they don’t look like they’d fit in.

3. Tell the candidate about the interviewer and any others who will interview them. This includes personal information, their likes and dislikes, hobbies, sports, family and how they act at an interview. The more you can give, then the easier it will be for your candidate to build rapport. Give them a link to the linkedin profile of the interviewer.

4. Review points of interest in the candidate’s background that would interest the client. Help the candidate develop mini stories to take care of the common questions that will be asked.

5. Advise the candidate to interview in the future tense: “here’s what I will do for you…”

6. Tell the candidate to call you after the interview and why it is important.                           You need to know ASAP what happened during the interview from the candidate’s point of view. They may have made a stupid remark that they wish to take back, and you can deal with this when you speak to the hirer. It’s also important to know whether the candidate believes they can do the job and whether they want it or not. Either way, you can speak from a point of knowledge.

7. Maximum Company Information.

Share the company website link with the candidates, so that they are well prepared for the interview and they are aware what the company does and how big or small the company is.

By giving the candidate a full and complete briefing, they are much more likely to have a successful interview.

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Step Eight – Line Manager Interview

Phase 2 of the recruitment process, covering the steps 5 – 8, is all about the different stages during the interviewing phase. After the first 7 steps, you are now physically handing your candidate over to the line manager for the first time.

So is this now all out of your hands?

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I’m sure some of you are thinking “Well, this is their part of the process, so what am I going to have to do here?” Too many recruiters leave the line manager interview up to chance… and therefore lose control of the process.

So what can you do?

We spent time last week briefing the candidate fully, so that they can do their best in the interview. What is there to stop you briefing the client so that they can do the best job possible too? It’s a candidate driven market again now, which means that the company recruiting has to showcase themselves as much to the candidate as the other way round.

It’s your job to make sure that the interview is a positive experience for both. I still hear of candidates turning down jobs because they didn’t like the way that they were interviewed.

Negotiation

Many years ago I faced this problem with a client, so I offered to share the knowledge and training that I’d received on interviewing skills – they were so appreciative. Recruiters interview nearly every single day; line managers are sometimes in the position whereby they only interview once a year or so.

When I went to spend a couple of hours with them, it was clear that they were very nervous about interviewing, so I offered to sit in on the interviews and hold them at our offices. I soon realised that this was a great benefit to the client, but also to myself as it meant that the interviews were all done in one day and the feedback given straight away after every interview. The offer was made that night and all of the candidates got a feedback call and felt that they’d had an amazing service.

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So as the recruiter, whether in house or external, don’t let this part of the process become the time when it all goes wrong. Help the line manager (or whoever is interviewing) to do the best job they can and portray the company in the best light.

Next we move on to the last phase and the debriefing.

Step Nine – Candidate debriefing

This is the ninth in a series of 12 posts detailing the recruitment process for both in-house and external recruiters. The links to all the posts can be found below.

Phase 3 of the recruitment process, covering the last steps 9 – 12, is all about keeping control during the final stages, to make sure that the process is successful. The interviews are complete, so it’s now all about the communication.

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The line manager has interviewed the candidate, so now you’re waiting patiently to hear from the candidate as to whether it went well or not. The reason for the debrief is not just about maintaining the momentum of the recruitment process, but also about seeing how the candidate fared and to confirm the next part of the process.  It is also a good time to identify any areas that may slow down or stop the recruitment process.

There are 3 basic questions to get you started, but it’s key to probe deeper at this stage to really assess whether this is the right role and company for them.

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Questions:

1               Do you feel confident that you can you do the job?

2            Would you want the job?

3            If an offer was made, will you accept it?

Once you’re past these 3 initial questions, then you’ll know how to carry on with the de-brief. Additional questions to ask could be: –

How long were you there for?

How do you feel the interview went?

How accurate was the description of the position I gave you?

What kind of future can you see for yourself with this organisation?

Is there anything that would prevent you from accepting an offer at this time?

Were you introduced to/interviewed by anyone else?

Additional question suggested by Don Aitken, Watson Moore Recruitment, ask the candidate “What they would do differently if they could be interviewed again?”

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You now have a really good indicator as to whether they are likely to accept the role if it’s offered and can now contact the interviewer to get their side of the story and decide on the next step – ‘managing the offer process’, that we’ll look at next week.

Step Ten – Managing the offer process

This is the tenth in a series of 12 posts detailing the recruitment process for both in-house and external recruiters. The links to all the posts in this series can be found below.

Phase 3 of the recruitment process, covering the last steps 9 – 12, is all about keeping control during the final stages, to make sure that the process is successful. The interviews are complete, so it’s now all about the communication between all the parties.

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You’ve got the debrief from the candidate in step 9, so now you’re going to contact the client and get their feedback and also the ‘offer’ for your totally suitable candidate. Let’s think positive!

The reason for the debrief is not just about maintaining the relationship with the line manager and the momentum of the recruitment process, but also about seeing how the candidate fared and to confirm the next part of the process.  It is also a good time to identify any areas that may slow down or stop the recruitment process.

Approved and rejected icons.

Examples of questions that could be asked:

How did it go?

What do you think of X?

What did specifically like about  X?

How do you feel X would fit into your team?

Did you have any concerns?

How did you leave it with X?

Will you be seeing X again for 2nd interview?

When will a decision be made?

What will the procedure be?

How long will the interview last?

On what criteria will you be making your choice?

How do feel X compares to those criteria?

When will your final decision be made?

High level performance

From the answers to these questions, you will know whether you can close the line manager down for an offer to your candidate. You should already be aware from the candidate debrief what it will take for your candidate to accept an offer, so now it’s all about closing the line manger down with confirmation of a suitable offer and agreeing timelines for the actual potential start date.

Consistent contact during this time is imperative – it’s during this and the next stage that it can quite easily go very wrong.

Phone call

Next week we look at how you can support a candidate through their resignation and the issues they will undoubtedly come across if they are currently employed, such as a counter offer.

Step Eleven – Resignation briefing and management

This is the eleventh in a series of 12 posts detailing the recruitment process for both in-house and external recruiters. The links to all the other posts can be found below.

Phase 3 of the recruitment process, covering the last steps 9 – 12, is all about keeping control during the final stages, to make sure that the process is successful. The interviews are complete, so it’s now all about the communication between all parties.

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You’ve got the offer from the client and the candidate has accepted, but it’s not all plain-sailing yet. They’re obviously a good candidate, so if they’re currently working and need to resign from a position, then their current company is not going to let them go so easily.

To recruit a new manager can cost as much as 150% of their salary, so it makes sense that they will counter offer them.

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In Step four – Qualifying the candidates, we asked the candidate about ‘counter offers’ from current employers and could this potentially stop them from accepting a new job. You don’t want to get to step eleven to then find out that they’ll accept the counter offer, or that the reason for them looking elsewhere was to prompt their current company to pay them more.

To keep in control of the process, then it makes sense to support and help your candidate as much as possible. People find it difficult to resign from a company that they’ve enjoyed working at – if they’ve been there for a considerable amount of time, they could quite easily see their colleagues and boss as an extended family. Candidates get nervous and can easily be persuaded to stay.

Letter of resignation

One way of helping is to provide your candidate with a resignation letter, already written, that they can add their details to. This way the letter can be positive, but also clear that the individual has made their decision and is not looking to move away from that.

Key at this time is that the communication is consistent.

Firstly, a call before the candidate hands their notice in, to remind them as to why they wanted to leave and what they really liked about the new position and company. What’s also important is to remind them that they WILL get counter offered. Secondly, another call after they have handed their notice in, to show support and ask them how it went.

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The communication doesn’t stop here. A contact plan needs to be organised so that there is a call at least once a week, until the candidate starts their new role. Too many recruiters believe that the work is done and they can relax now, once the candidate has agreed a start date… not true. So much can still go wrong.

By having consistent communication, then you are much more likely to find out about any issues and deal with them, before finding out that the candidate hasn’t turned up on their first day!

Step Twelve – Post placement onboarding plan

Phase 3 of the recruitment process, covering the last steps 9 – 12, is all about keeping control during the final stages, to make sure that the process is successful. The candidate has handed in their notice, so it’s now comes to the final stage of them starting their new role and you keeping in touch to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

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In step 11, I made the point that you need to keep in regular contact with the candidate whilst they are in the transition stage between jobs. The last contact would have been on the evening before their start date, making sure you answer any last minute questions and remind them of why they wanted the position. It’s surprising how many people don’t turn up for their new job.

Contact plan

On their first day at their new company, call them at lunchtime to make sure that everything has gone well on their first morning and to answer any initial questions that they have – it may be one that they feel ‘too stupid’ to ask their new employer.

day one

It might seem like overkill, but it’s also important to call them at the end of their first day as well. Call them at home, so that they can be really candid with you. End the call by explaining that they can contact you at any time, but you will speak to them again on Friday to see how their first week went.

Speak to the line manager during this first week as well, to findout how their new starter  is getting on and let them know you are going to keep in contact with their candidate during probationary period.

Speak to your candidate at least once a month during their probationary period, so you can keep updated with how they’re getting along, but also to ward off any problems or issues before they become too big to resolve.

By following these simple tips you’ll have a successful placement, a happy candidate and line manager and everyone involved in the process will speak highly of you.