Two Documents to Improve Your Recruiting Results
Do you hate recruiting?
Most business owners do. Too much time is wasted on unqualified candidates. Too much money wasted on online posting. And in the end, there is no guarantee that the person hired can do the job.
So, they often end up with less-than-optimal results and loath day they have to do it again. Can you relate?
Adding a new member to your team should be an exciting, positive experience.
You should be anticipating the new energy and value your new employee will bring to help you achieve your business objectives.
You can dramatically increase your focus and improve your recruiting results by creating just two documents.
Write a Position Agreement.
Before you start recruiting, you must be absolutely clear about what work must be done, competencies demonstrated, and results produced by the person taking the position you have open. A comprehensive Position Agreement will get that job done for you and is crucial to the first and last steps in an effective recruiting process. I discussed the value of Position Agreements to your operational effectiveness in a previous post, click on learn about Position Agreements.
A Position Agreement informs the very first step of your recruiting process by allowing you to write a Job Specification, discussed below. In the last step of your process, the onboarding of your new hire, the Agreement gives you and your new employee a document to both sign and commit to the scope of work to be done and the results expected.
Create a Job Specification.
With the position clearly defined in your Position Agreement, you can use it to create a simple check list of the experiences, training, and competencies you believe your ideal candidate will need to be successful.
Four Key Sections in a Job Specification.
ACCOUNTABILITIES: Here you list the top 7 things, tasks, or work outputs that the person will be held accountable for delivering. These items come directly from the position agreement and give you a simple list to reference as you scan resumes – does the candidate have experience in these seven areas?
COMPETENCIES: These are the top 7 competencies that a person will need to be successful in the job. Some examples are Team Building, Goal Setting, Following Policies and Procedures and Capacity to deal with Ambiguity. During your initial phone interview with the candidate, you will want to ask questions to see if they have a history of displaying at least your top 3 competency requirements.
TECHNICAL/JOB SKILLS: This list contains the skills that the candidate needs to have demonstrated through a track record of performing and can do immediately for you on day one. These can be anything you require: proficiency in Microsoft Office 365, reading blueprints, writing C++ code, the possibilities are endless.
EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS: Here you document the minimum requirements that the candidate must have in three key areas.
Education – What level of education must they have completed. High School. Associates Degree. 4-year college. What field of study is required?
Experience – How many years of work experience must they have and in which industries?
Certification – If the job requires a third-party organization’s recognition of their training level, what must they already have to qualify for the job?
Having a well thought-out Job Specification gives you all the information you need to write a specific and compelling job advertisement and makes it extremely easy to quickly sort through people that apply for your job.
No one that applies should be contacted that does not meet at least the Job Specification requirements. This one step will save you an enormous amount of time.
I’ll bet that in a 20-minute conversation, I can help you begin to use these two documents in your recruiting process. I will send you examples of both documents after our call. Let's discuss it. Click Book a Call with Thomas. (There is no fee for this call.)
Do you know someone that could benefit from this information? Forward this post to them; if they reach out to me with a question—I will answer them personally.
Be encouraged. Be strong. Be courageous.