HIRING a new person to join your busy company is not quite as straightforward as it may seem. The decision-making process should begin much earlier than when interviewing starts, according to recruitment specialists at Spirit HR.
Identifying exactly what a role will involve and what skills and knowledge the business needs the new person to have before the recruitment process begins is crucial.
Donna Fairbrass, who runs Spirit HR, which offers outsourced HR services, said: “When you fill a role and allocate a salary to that new person, you need to get a return on investment for your month on month costs. It sounds odd, but if you bought a piece of equipment and it wasn’t up to the task, you’d be understandably annoyed, yet so many businesses don’t see salaries in the same way.
“You need to analyse the role, decide exactly what that role involves and what skills you need, and begin the process with a clearly defined job description so that both sides know exactly what is expected of them. Far too often, employers make a decision based on whether they like someone, or go for someone they know, like a family member, without actually ascertaining exactly what that person is going to bring to their business, and whether what they will bring is what the business needs.”
Sit down and draw up a job description of exactly what the role will entail.
Decide what skills are needed and whether you need a fully qualified person, or if there is scope for training someone.
Make clear in a formal contract what is expected of the role, what the line of management will be and what the salary, holiday entitlement, employee benefits etc will be
Keep the interviews formal and stick to finding out whether a candidate will fit your criteria and work well for the business.
Donna Fairbrass added: “Setting out clearly defined job descriptions, with business-like contracts and working relationships from the beginning avoids any confusion later. If the arrangement comes across as too informal from the start, it can lead to disputes later if there’s some misunderstanding about where that employee stands or what is expected of them.”
Spirit HR offers a range of services, including recruitment, HR policy, contracts, employment law and handling discipline and grievance cases. Find out more about Spirit HR by visiting the website www.spirt-hr.co.uk or call 0845 463 3231.
