Time and Money
Recruitment and selection of employees can be expensive, especially so when those employed do not stay. The direct costs involved include advertising vacancies, recruitment agencies, and possibly initial training. Then there is the cost of staff time for those involved - not only the time of those involved in writing advertisements, meeting recruiting agents and providing training, but the time already-busy managers will have to devote to sitting on selection interview boards, induction, and various settling-in support activities.
When a new employee decides to leave after a few months, the time and money spent on recruiting them is wasted, and the process has to be repeated to find a replacement – this involves more time and money. Similarly, these costs and time are involved when you need to terminate the employment of a new hire because they didn’t ‘fit in’ or couldn’t do the job as well as expected.
Lack of ‘Fit’
The reason new hires leave or have to be terminated is that there wasn’t a proper ‘fit’ between them and the job or the company. This lack of ‘fit’ results from an incomplete recruitment process, whether in terms of an incomplete person specification, inadequate short-listing or selection criteria, or inadequate training in selection-interviewing techniques for managers involved. Problems with any of these aspects of the selection & recruitment process can result in the wrong person being employed.
Pay Attention to the Process
To recruit a person who is more likely to stay with the company for the medium-to-long-term, serious attention needs to be paid to all stages of the selection & recruitment process. Proper processes and documentation need to be devised including a job description, person specification, and selection criteria for both short-listing of candidates and for final selection. If your company is deficient in any of these, get outside help to remedy the situation.
The Need for Training
Managers and others involved in interviewing candidates for a job must have training (and re-training as required) in selection-interviewing techniques. It is no longer acceptable for managers to hire based only on instinct or ‘gut feeling’. Competency-based interviews (also called behaviour based interviews) produce candidates who have the necessary skills to do the job and interviews like these work best when the appropriate line managers are involved. However, managers require training in order to conduct competency-based interviews successfully as the type of questions asked need to be specifically focused.
Have In-House Capability
Building in-house selection and recruitment capability is cost effective in the long term. Not only are there cost savings to be achieved, but getting the right ‘fit’ of employee increases productivity and morale, and aids staff retention. The most effective way of getting this right ‘fit’ in recruitment is by doing it yourself (DIY).
