This article was authored by The Unforgettable Agency’s Meqa Smith and first appeared in the Nov 2021 issue of Australian Printer

Most small businesses use the need for a new person as the trigger to post a job ad; medium and large businesses usually have a slightly more onerous administrative process to get approvals before they can list a role. But in my experience of working in businesses of all sizes, the most important aspects of the preparation process are missing in action.

The saying ‘measure twice and cut once’ applies to recruitment as much as it applies to building something.

Most people think of the recruitment process as an administrative exercise; something that’s easy to do and starts with a decision to hire someone with the next step being to write an ad and post it on a job board.

Then, they just sit back and wait for the great candidates so you can sort through the resumes and pick the person of your choice. 

In reality, it almost never works out that way. The recruitment process is frustrating at best and a failure at worst.

People spend hours dealing with emails, phone calls, and sorting through resumes that all blend in together, resulting in their struggle to decide who to interview or at the other end of the spectrum, staring at an empty list of applications. 

They also deal with phone tag and interview no shows, disappointments, and the odd ray of light who often gets hired and then many times seems to fall short in the coming months.

Why is it so hard to find great employees?

Well, it all starts with the recruitment process. If you’re not really ready to recruit, your ad won’t attract the right people and your process will deliver a far less than ideal result.

If you’re truly ready to recruit and you have a well-designed recruitment process to help you, you’ve got a 99 per cent chance of finding someone fantastic.

Wondering what you need to do?

I’ve created this Recruitment Readiness Roadmap to help you:

STEP 1: Get clear on the business’ values, vision, and culture. Not just what’s in the documents, but what it is really like to work there and what’s most important.

STEP 2: Get very honest about the position requirements and who the ideal candidate would be, not because it sounds good, but who would be most likely to fit into the team and do well in the role.

STEP 3: Start mapping out the bullet points for the job ad that will engage this ideal candidate using the information you’ve gathered above. Writing is a skill that is not for everyone, but if you remember who you’re writing for you’ll have a lot more success even if it’s not your strength.

STEP 4: Decide how to recruit. If you’re using an agency or recruiter, this upfront work will give you a huge advantage and ensure that you get the best return on your investment, if you’re going to DIY it is essential you’ve done this work. 

To DIY you can refer to the Hiring Hero Canvas below for the entire process you’ll need to design.

As you can see there is a lot of planning to be done, but that doesn’t mean the process needs to be complicated, in fact, the simpler the better.

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