Recruiting the right staff

Hiring new staff is costly and time-consuming, but it is worth investing the effort to get it right. Without good people your business cannot succeed, and for a growing business, making the right recruitment decisions can be the difference between long-term success or failure.

Consequently, you need a structured process for recruitment. Here are some things to consider:

Identify exactly what you are looking for

Avoid getting swamped with piles of CVs. Talk to existing staff and define the vacant role that needs to be filled. Then build a picture of the ideal candidate, and find which applicants most closely resemble this picture.

Can you promote from within?

Promoting an existing staff member to fill a vacancy can save enormous cost and risk compared to external recruitment. But make sure that the employee has sufficient ability to cope.

Recruit people who are good with people...

If staff do not get on with each other, or worse, the customers, it can only harm your profitability. Make this a key priority when recruiting.

...But make sure that you are objective when interviewing

Structure your interview process, take notes and be consistent. Liking the person is not enough: you need to discover how competent they are. Open-ended 'behavioural' questions are good for determining this: you ask candidates to describe real-life situations at work when they solved problems similar to the ones they might encounter in your business.

Offer staff recruitment incentives

Existing staff might know good people who would be interested in the job. Offering a financial incentive can save you a fortune in recruitment agency costs.

Have an effective induction procedure

Ensure that all new staff have a formal induction programme, intended to make them familiar with their new job. This will pay great dividends in the long term.