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DIY

We regularly work with many business owners who are feeling overwhelmed about doing their own recruitment, particularly in the current climate where there are hundreds of applicants applying for roles every day due to the high unemployment rate.

Also, the Government recently introduced changes to the Employment Relations Act and the Holidays Act which as an employer, you should be aware of. This again may be overwhelming which is why sometimes it is best to leave it to the experts.

If you are going to take on the challenge yourself then make sure you understand your employment brand - what is it like to work in your organisation? Don’t get this confused with your consumer brand which is about your products/services.

Another aspect of DIY recruitment which can hugely impact your brand (in a good or bad way) are the processes you have in place to ensure every applicant is communicated with. If people are not informed of their application’s progress it can impact negatively on your brand. Managing applicants and quality control is very important.

Recruitment Companies

Before working with a recruitment company do your homework on them. Not only do you need to understand their Terms Of Trading (including their fees, replacement policies, etc) but it is ideal to meet with the person you will be dealing directly with and understand how they operate and what their recruitment process is. It is vital they understand your brand and what is important to your business as well as the team fit and company culture. A phone call or email will not suffice - it may save time initially but will come back to haunt you when your new recruit does not stay on because the business is not what they had expected.

Recruiting a new employee successfully takes a lot of time. Here is a breakdown roughly of the amount of time spent on various aspects of the recruitment process:

Vacancy Analysis - 10%

Advertising - 10%

Candidate Screening (email screening, phone screening, reviewing application forms, face to face interviewing, profiling of suitable candidate) - 60%

Pre-Employment Testing - 15%

Placement - 5%

As you can see, the candidate screening takes up at least 60% of the process time as it is one of the most important aspects of successful recruitment. As an employer doing DIY recruitment, you may not have access to certain screening tools which could eventuate in a bad hire. The more screening that is done the better and one of the things we like to do is “knock out” as many unsuitable applicants as early as possible. Leaving this up to the experts can save you a huge amount of time, headaches, and frustration but it will cost you money. What you need to gain from your Consultant when you meet them is an understanding of the value they will be adding to your business in providing their services to you. If they cannot add value to your business you need to find a Consultant that will!