Recruiting Formulae

One of the key factor in leading a high performance team is to recruit the right people. There will be times of course when you inherit a team but, nonetheless when the opportunity arises to recruit new people into your team, getting the right people on board will help you deliver the results you require.

Recruiting the right people is key leadership activity.

Most of the recruitment activity these days is competency based, that is recruiting people based on their  experience and ability. This approach is not wrong and it will enable you to recruit good people but this is not enough. If you really want to lead highly performed team your aim should be to recruit great people into your team. Let's review one example.

When you talk to call centre what does good service sound like ? For most people it would be a friendly welcome, listening to your enquiry and providing an appropriate and helpful response. All of these basic skills can be thought and a large number of people can be competent at handling call centre enquiries. 

Now, compare this to getting great service from a call center, what does that sound like? It is likely to include someone who actively builds rapport with you, demonstrate that they really listened to your inquiry by empathsing and going the extra mile in their response to ensure that you have not only been dealt with but that you are completely satisfied. They actually sound happy to have helped you rather than just making you feel like a routine call.

Some of these traits and abilities ca be learned over time but in the main they are in built. The difference between recruiting good people and great people is about hiring people with the right personality, character traits and disposition relevant to the role you want to fulfill.

In this part we may look at traditional competency based recruitment and then explore how to recruit for those extra qualities towards the end of chapter.

Assuming that you work in an organization that has a human resource department, it is important to engage them at begining of recruitment process. In particular, they will ensure that you are working within the scope of relevent employment law in your territory. This said, most of the methods suggested would be regarded as best practice in most recruitment Environmnent.

Stage 1 : Job Description.: A continuously evolving document that highlights the main responsibilites and performance expectation of the job.

Stage 2 : Person Specification. : A key document that identifies the essential and preffered criteria required to fulfill the job description.

Stage 3 : Sourcing Candidate : There are a range of options available and you should choose the right options based on the type pf person you are seeking.

Stage 4 : Screening Candidate.: Candidate should be screened out if they dont meet essential elements of the person specification until there is a manageable number to bring forward to interview. The first level of screeing is CV. The second level can come from telephonic interview.

Stage 5 : Testing Candidate. :  There are three options here : Ability test, in tray exercises and psychometric test. All have their place in recruitment process and improve the chances of making a good recruitment decision.

Stage 6 : Interview  : All candidate should be given the same opportunity to demonstrate their suitability for the role. This entails asking each one the same initial questions but the probing questions that follows on will vary according to their responses. Second interviews might also incorporate questions that varify the validity and psychometric test results.