where to start

You have just won a major new piece of business, someone has given in their notice or you just need an extra pair of hands. These are just some of the reasons you need to recruit and start the process… Ideally you will have a HR team who will take on the burden of recruitment and help you through the process; most of us do not have this luxury.

Before you go any further it is worth taking on board that new research carried out by a recruitment consultancy discovered that it costs over £5,000 to recruit a junior – mid level employee. This figure includes ‘hard costs’ such as using recruitment consultancy and advertising expenditure, as well as ‘soft costs’. These are less easy to calculate as they refer to such factors as time spent on the recruitment process, from drawing up a job specification, through to sifting CVs.

Therefore, invest your time wisely and be specific about what you want and make it clear to any agencies that those who don’t meet your requirements will not be considered. This should reduce the number of unsuitable applicants.

Producing a Job Specification is the most sensible place to start, they help you define what you want from your next person, they help us search effectively for you, and it gives the candidate an idea of what is involved and expected from them. If necessary, we can supply you with a guideline to producing a job specification. It should include a job title, an outline of the key functions of the role, background and expertise required combined with any key matching criteria along with salary and benefits.

Secondly, you will need to decide on a person specification which differs from a job description. A person specification describes the level of qualifications, knowledge, skills and competencies required. When creating a person specification think about your culture. This is really important for small businesses where personality clashes would have more impact. It doesn’t have to be War & Peace, they can form part of the same document and some of the best job specs we receive are a page or two.

Tips for writing a Job Description;

• It is good to start with Job Purpose - a one liner that gives the candidate an insight to the role.
• Be fair to all – try not to include skills that may discriminate, for example asking for a recent graduate will go against age discrimination legislation
• Avoid words such as dynamic, energetic, young etc. this are all adjectives that can be deemed as discrimination.
• Avoid asking for a certain amount of years experience, we know this is the easiest way to determine level but again it can be deemed as age discrimination. Rather than saying “must have 4 years experience” think about what you would expect that person to do with fours years experience – manage budgets, identify new business, manage a team etc..
• Outline what is on offer from you, what salary you have a budget for and benefits on offer even if it is the minimum holiday allowance. Candidates want to know and remember free parking is a bonus! Any training or development should also be included.