If you are like me, you've probably made at least one or two New Year’s resolutions like going to the gym more or tackling some projects around the house this year. What about resolutions at work? Sure, you probably know the timeline for required reporting and plan accordingly each year, but what about those other activities that are not associated with an annual requirement that you keep putting on the back burner? Do you make plans for when you accomplish those?
For instance, many organizations that I consult with ramp up recruiting and hiring as the new year begins. Finding the right fit for your team is critical. Are your current hiring practices helping you to attract and identify the right candidates with the necessary skill sets and values that will help your organization excel? You do not want to find out after you have made hiring decisions that the new team member is not at all compatible with the mission and vision of your organization. So, how do you know if your recruiting and hiring initiatives have the right make up?
Recruiting Process Review: 7 Questions to Excel Your Hiring Practices for the New Year
Here are the seven main questions I discuss with my clients to help them identify the strengths, and more importantly the weaknesses, of their hiring process. Hopefully it can help you with your new resolution too!
- Do you have a job description outlining the essential duties and required qualifications? The development of a job description is the first step in the hiring process. A comprehensive job description will provide information for writing an advertisement that will attract the most qualified candidates and help to shorten the resume review time by weeding out unqualified candidates.
- How does your employment application look? Has your company reviewed its employment application forms with Human Resources or an attorney in the past two years? Many states have enacted legislation which limits employers from asking candidates about their criminal history. Also referred to as “Ban the Box” legislation, the Obama administration has, and continues to, make steps toward establishing a national directive to eliminate criminal history questions during the employment application process.
- Did you get too many applicants or too few? You should consider the type of position and qualifications you are seeking and review where it is best to advertise to attract those candidates. If you are a government contractor, the OFCCP now requires annual reviews of your outreach and recruiting efforts including identifying remedial action you have taken if the sources are not yielding positive results.
- How cost-effective was your advertising? One way to measure this is to divide the cost of the service including your time by either the number of total applicants received or the number of viable applicants received.
- Were your interview questions consistent and thorough? You must ensure your questions are job-related and not in violation of anti-discrimination laws. Prepare your questions in advance and ensure all hiring managers are utilizing the same list for consistency purposes.
- Do your managers know how to interview including what they can and cannot ask during an interview? Providing regular training on interviewing techniques and how to select candidates based on fit for the organization is important for preventing any potential liabilities for the organization.
- How well did you do as an interviewer? Practice prior to your interviews with someone who will provide you with valuable honest feedback about your performance. This will help you better prepare for the interview and allow for the interview to be more conversational. If possible, have more than one person interview each candidate.
- Do you do any testing to help in your hiring decision? If you are not doing any pre-employment testing, you may want to consider if this is something that could help with the hiring decision. Make sure the cost yields a return on your investment. And most importantly ensure the test is valid and job related and does not cause disparate impact to any one gender or race over another.
Another best practice is to have a third-party expert review your hiring process including the tools and documents you are currently using. This will help to ensure compliance and consistency within your hiring process, so not only the most qualified candidates are hired for the positions in your organization, but the process is compliant as well. Best of luck for a great year!