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Six recruitment tips you’ll wish you’d read before

Allen Associates, News & Blog

Hiring is an important contributor to growth within business, but it remains one of the hardest things to get right. In a survey of 800 recruiters, 67 per cent admitted it was a challenge to find high-quality Candidates. For a slick recruitment process, which allows you to attract and retain the best people on the job market, consider the following tips.

Understand your Candidate mindset

What would make an applicant switch jobs to work for you? Whether it’s flexible working, better career opportunities or the chance to become a real leader in business, knowing the answer to this question will be your secret weapon. Every role is different, requiring a different type of person, so don’t take a blanket approach. Every time you create a new opportunity, examine the way in which you plan to advertise and interview for this. Doing so will enable you to attract the Candidates your business deserves.

Know who you’re looking for

What are your absolute requirements for Candidates? And how flexible are these conditions? Although you may have an idea of what you’re looking for, it’s easy to lose sight of this once you start receiving applications. Including a person specification within your job advert will keep you on the right track. Within your business there’s bound to be a varying degree of opinion. Establish the key players who will make the final decision to ensure that everyone is in agreement before the recruitment process starts.

Expand your recruitment channels

Having identified your ideal Candidate, it’s time to get creative. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using job boards and social media to post your recruitment advert – these are tried and tested methods which can be very successful. Having said this, it’s possible to build a talent network in many different ways. So, think about the platforms you could be using to communicate with potential applicants. Whether you decide to attend networking events, connect with local university graduates or take advantage of Employee referrals, it’s worth thinking outside of the box to find a number of advantageous approaches.

Make it easy to apply and attend

Long forms can be unnecessary and off-putting. While it’s important to be thorough, you should also aim to make your initial submission process as simple as possible. In many cases, a CV and covering letter should tell you all you need to know at this stage. Job hunting is a tricky stage of a person’s career. It’s a difficult balance to juggle existing work commitments alongside requests from potential new Employers, so be mindful of this. Many Candidates also feel frustrated by multiple interviews with the same company. Streamlining the applicant journey from start to finish will not only save you time, it will ensure that you don’t lose talent along the way.

Give several opportunities to shine

When it comes to picking your top Candidate, you should be 100 per cent confident that you’re making the right choice. Unfortunately, while some people thrive in a formal interview situation, others find it difficult to show their true potential. That’s why you should set a range of tasks in order to spot unseen talent. As a quick suggestion, you could invite interviewees to bring in a portfolio and complete a short test before they sit down to talk with you. Given the choice between someone who appears extremely confident (but performs poorly in response to your set task) and someone who presents an outstanding response to this, who would you rather hire?

Be a proactive recruiter

While it’s possible to anticipate some of the need for new hires, at other times, this will come out of the blue. If a key Employee hands in their resignation letter, it’s important to work fast to find a replacement. Thankfully, if you’re a proactive recruiter – someone who thinks about who to hire without an existing vacancy to fill – this won’t come as too much of a shock. With a list of potential Candidates already in mind, it won’t be long before you find a great team member. Of course, not everyone has the time do dedicate to this, which is why finding a recruitment agency you trust can really add value.

Over the last 20 years, we have grown as a business to become one of the leading independent Recruitment agencies in Oxfordshire, and in 2018 we opened our first London office, to service Clients and Candidates in the capital.

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