Office recruitment is a very crucial process in a company or business setup, especially if the staff to be hired are the founding team. In the staff recruitment process, always keep in mind that they are the pacesetters and they will be responsible for your business failure or success. It is important that you hire staff with specialised skills and qualifications in the particular position you are looking to fill.
The office recruitment process follows a series of steps which include the following; identify the vacancy and evaluate whether there is a need to fill it, develop a description of the position to be filled, create a recruitment plan, organise a search committee, implement the recruitment plan, review the applicant and develop a shortlist, conduct interviews, select the one(s) to be hired and then finalise the recruitment process.
Identify the vacancy and evaluate the need
A vacancy may be created by either of the following two reasons; a newly created position has turned up or replacement of former staff. A newly created position can turn up after doing a complete job analysis to determine any gaps in the company or business setup. For example, a job analysis accompanied by thorough consultation can find it important to have a procurement office in the finance department. This will call for the need to recruit a procurement officer.
In another scenario, an employee may be transferred to another location, or he or she may quit the job, or retirement of an employee may also call for a replacement. This is also an opportunity for new staff to be hired. However, it is important to evaluate if the role(s) of that employee is still required for you to establish whether there is a necessity to fill that position.
Development of the job description
This is the pillar of the official recruitment process. It is the point of reference when developing interview questions and interview evaluations. A good description should give the candidate a first impression about the company, it should clearly outline the specific responsibilities and qualifications to attract the best-suited candidates, it should identify tasks, accountability and workflow thus enabling the department to know how it will operate and grow, and it should assist in creating and developing performance objectives and ensure there is internal and external equity.
Identification of duties and responsibilities
This should be done before developing the job description. It should include general information like the name of the department, the head of the department, the name of the supervisor, title codes among others. It should also have the position purpose which should include a description of the role and its importance in the company or organisation, the number of openings in case there is more than one, and describe any assessments that might be done before employment if applicable. This stage should also include essential job functions which should be arranged from the most important to the least important and should include the time frame. It should also describe the level of complexity of the roles and authority structure, and the essential tasks named should be inter-related to accomplish the essential function.
The minimum requirements or the basic qualifications for this post should also be included in this section; they should be relevant to the job and can include soft skills like communication, be specific according to the department or position, should be assessed in the resume and they should align with the accomplishment of the essential function. Lastly in this section are the preferred qualifications. These are used to cut down the list of applicants. They are the qualifications needed on top of the basic requirements and may include prior experience.
Developing an office recruitment plan
Each position requires a recruitment plan which should be documented and has to be approved by the organisational unit. It should include the posting period (this is normally 10 business days from the date posted beginning the next business day for Professional support staff or 15 business days for a management or senior professional post), the placement goals which should include outreach efforts to people with disabilities and veterans, additional advertising resources like internet job boards and social media among others, diversity agencies which include agencies that represent the under-represented, and lastly resume banks which have resumes posted by candidates.
Selection of the search committee
A search committee is important so as to eliminate the possibility of personal bias-ness. The hiring manager should include people who will be interacting with the applicant either directly or indirectly in the search committee. The members of the committee should have no conflicts based on the relation with the applicant.
Putting the office recruitment plan into action; once the job description has been done and approved it is then posted on career sites. Internal candidates are also expected to follow the same procedure as the external candidates.
Creating a shortlist of the applicants
Candidates who apply within the initial application period are now referred to as “Applicants” while those that apply after the initial application period are referred to as “Expressions of Interest” and they are not viewable by the search committee. All members of the committee are advised to review all the applicants to assess their qualifications. Sometimes the applicants may be assessed in terms of their availability, flexibility, salary requirements among others. The Chair or his/her associate will review all the comments of the committee members and develop a short list which has to be approved before the applicants are conducted for interviews.
Conducting the interview
The chair should determine the following; the format of the questions, who will ask which questions, questions to be asked of all applicants and the weight, the starting date for the position and any other details which may be needed by the applicant that were not included in the job description. The questions should be job-related.
Selecting the hire; after the interview, the committee meets to discuss each applicant and determine the extent which he or she has met their criteria for selection. They should then write a document to explain why and how they chose the best candidate.
Finalize recruitment
In this stage, the job description is reviewed to establish whether it reflects the exact qualities that they were looking for. Then the selected applicant is called and the offer is initiated and negotiated. In some instance, the applicant may choose to decline the offer and so the committee might choose to counter it, lastly the offer is finalised. It is recommended that when initiating the offer, you should put your best offer first. We wish you all the best!
