Top 5 Tips – Making Good Recruitment Decisions

So, another week, another headline that no-one is recruiting!  Whilst we haven’t seen evidence of this we have had discussions with clients recently who are really concerned about ensuring that they get their recruitment decisions right.  Here are our top tips:

• Don’t make recruitment decisions on your own; involve a trusted manager/colleague in the process and you will avoid the “halo/horns” effect
• Don’t just rely on an interview, test their skills using a work based assessment exercise like a presentation scenario,  IT test or In Tray exercise specifically designed to test the required skills
• Use pre-prepared competency based interview questions.  An “HRism” we know, but they work! It essentially means getting candidates to talk through real examples of where they have demonstrated the required skills for the role rather than asking “what if” questions
• Don’t just check their skills; check fit with company culture and motivation levels. Do they want your job or just any job?
• Make sure the candidate does most of the talking in the interview otherwise you will realise afterwards you know nothing about them!

Don’t forget, you are dealing with people so recruitment is not an exact science!  Most managers have had a bad recruit at some point in their career so if this happens don’t beat yourself up about it, review what went wrong and learn from it.