New Year’s recruitment resolutions for your business

Here are the four most important priorities for Employers this year.

1. Raise your profile as an Employer of choice

According to research conducted by LinkedIn, 72% of hiring managers agree that their employer brand has a direct impact on the ability of the business to attract the talent needed to fill their vacancies. It has also been shown to reduce recruitment costs over the long term.

Indeed, the more ‘desirable’ you are as an Employer, the greater the quality of Candidates who apply to work for you (and stay). This not only shortens your time-to-hire, it will boost your staff retention levels and keep your overall recruitment costs to a minimum, too.

2. Expand your hiring team

As we enter our 21^st year in business, it still baffles us how some Employers choose their hiring team. Of course, having the successful Candidate’s future line manager and someone from HR at the interview stage are pretty much a given. It is their job to ‘sell’ the role and company as a great place to work, while identifying which applicant will make the best fit. But that can be counter-intuitive.

There are other people who should also be part of the process – think about members of the team they might be joining, those in other departments who they’ll be dealing with as part of their work. Remember, the application process is about you positioning yourself as an Employer of choice as much as it is for the Candidate to sell their potential to do a great job. So, involve those other stakeholders in the business who will work with your new hire – they may unearth a potential (or concern) in the applicant that the HR and line manager have missed.

3. Always do your homework

Time is a precious commodity that few hiring managers have much of. Not surprisingly, this can sometimes result in a Candidate being hired who, with hindsight, might not have been quite right for the role. In fact, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development estimates that the cost of a bad hire is between £8,000 to £12,000 – for senior roles it is substantially higher (see our FREE guide: The Cost of a Bad Hire).

One of the primary reasons for this the lack of pre-screening that takes place. Simply checking out the social media footprint of applicants, for example, can provide an insight into their personality and potential to fit with your organisation’s culture. Then there’s preliminary assessments, CV parsing…the list goes on. These things take time to complete, but the return on that investment will pay dividends. Make homework your priority within the hiring process and if you need support or direction, get in touch and we can help.

​4. Engage your team

Irrespective of how well or poorly the economy is performing, the ability to hold on to your best people remains a constant priority. But it isn’t easy, especially in the current climate where candidate supply is tight and competition between Employers is at its most intense in over a decade. However, by better engaging the workforce, organisations can switch the odds in their favour.

According to a study published by the Harvard Business Review, 70% of organisations attribute employee engagement as directly influencing the success of the business itself. This is because if your people feel more engaged, they demonstrate higher levels of satisfaction in their work which in turn lowers staff absenteeism and turnover rates. It also results in happier customers and this leads to improved profit margins…. that should win you a few Brownie points with the senior leadership team.

It may sound like a cliché, but it is true nonetheless – the war for talent is gathering pace and Employers need to use all the tools in their armoury to battle their competitors and capture and hold the talent they need. But it’s not a battle that has to be fought alone.

For over 20 years, we have worked as an extension of the existing hiring teams within organisations across Oxfordshire and London. If you need us, we’re here to help.