To ensure you hire good employees, and avoid potential termination problems, you need to follow a well thought out, systematic and documented process.
Why get it right the first time? Poor recruitment is an expensive process. Hiring the wrong person can cost you as much as three times the employee's annual salary, with costs related to the time involved in the hiring process, recruitment fees, wasted salary, wasted benefits, severance pay, and training costs.
Terminating an employee because he or she was ill-suited to the job can be even more costly. The financial outlay and time involved for hiring, training and downtime which will have to be repeated when you go through the total recruitment process again .
Employer's recruitment checklist Merit principle Be committed to recruiting the best person for the job by ensuring that your recruitment and selection decisions are based on the principle of merit.
This means that you will choose staff on the basis of whether they have the right skills, qualifications and other talents that are required to do the job. You won't make appointment decisions based on irrelevant factors, such as a person's sex, race, disability, age, homosexuality etc, or personal biases or favouritism.
Equal employment opportunity Be an equal opportunity employer committed to ensuring that all applicants for selection are not discriminated against on any of the grounds of discrimination contained in equal opportunity laws. No unlawful discrimination should take place in your job advertisements, interviews or the selection process.
Internal advertising Ensure that all positions that become vacant are advertised internally via email intranets, staff notice board etc. Encourage current employees to apply. Promotion decisions should be made on the basis of merit.
Selection panelWhen possible have a panel of at least two people to make a recruitment decision. Membership of the panel is best determined by the manager in whose department the new employee will work. Have both sexes represented on the panel where possible and at have at least one member of the panel with a detailed knowledge of the requirements of the job - preferably the supervisor.
Job description Develop and commit to writing a well thought through job description.
Include:
- job title and identification
- summary statement
- detailed tasks and responsibilities
- key performance indicators (KPIs)
- reporting line and relationships
- working conditions
- conditions of service
Essential and desirable criteria The selection panel should review the job description of the position in question and make sure that it is up to date and accurate.
Remuneration should also be reviewed. The panel should then, in consultation with the relevant manager, determine the essential and desirable criteria for the job.
- essential criteria are those which are essential for the performance of the job.
- desirable criteria are those which will help the applicant perform the job, and give them a competitive advantage.
By determining the essential and desirable criteria of the job, the panel will have a standard for comparison of each applicant.
The job advertisementCommunicate your requirements and the requirements of the position effectively. It must contain the title of the job, all important elements of the position including a list of duties and key results areas. It should also outline the essential criteria of the job and should indicate that applicants should be able to address all of these criteria. Desirable criteria can also be included.
Be clear in describing the actual material output eg "the organisation and production of annual accounts relating to the key divisions of the business", rather than "high quality accounting skills". KPIs for this could be "the accounting records are to be presented in a form acceptable to the company's auditors".
Avoid promising benefits, conditions or prospects that you may not be able to honour in the future.
Where the job is to be held by a junior employee, discrimination on the ground of age is lawful [check relevant equal opportunity legislation in your State for current state of the law], and age requirements may be specified in the advertisement.
Specify what information the applicant should provide with their application, eg resume. If relevant, include information about how application forms can be obtained; the name of a contact person, and a closing date for applications. Your advertisement should state that you are an equal opportunity employer.
The job interview Have your selection panel prepare key questions to be asked at the interview. These should be restricted to questions that are relevant to the job.
Don't ask questions which may indicate an intention to discriminate on any of the grounds of discrimination - this includes questions that may constitute sexual harassment. Your panel members should document each applicant's response.
Have a process in place that ensures references are appropriately checked using references and referees. Remember, candidates for a job would be unlikely to tender a reference that would be uncomplimentary or offer a referee that was not going to give positive feedback.
What personal attributes should you be looking for?Loyalty; commitment; honesty and integrity; enthusiasm; reliability; personal presentation; commonsense; positive self-esteem; a sense of humour; a balanced attitude to work and home life; an ability to deal with pressure; motivated; and adaptability.
What skill areas should you be looking for?Communication; team work; problem solving; self management; planning and organising; technolology; learning; and initiative and enterprise.
The short list Have your selection panel review the job applications and make a short list of the best applicants who meet the essential criteria for the position. Make arrangements for interviewing those applicants.
The job offerHave your panel meet and agree on the successful applicant, who should be notified of the decision in writing.
Make your offer as a conditional one in writing.
Ensure that it is sufficiently clear in respect of salary, commencement date and any special conditions. Clearly state the contract of employment is conditional on the acceptance of the conditions set out in the letter of appointment or formal contract of employment.
This letter may need to be more detailed if you are not offering a contractual document outlining the contractual details of employment.
Ensure you correctly classify the new employee if he or she is under an award or enterprise agreement - this ensures that he or she will be paid the correct wage and will be working under the correct conditions.
Notify unsuccessful applicants of the result. The relevant manager may offer feedback to unsuccessful applicants.
Obtaining medical information If you request tests, information or medical examinations these must be reasonable and be related exclusively and directly to the requirements of the position.
Where a job applicant has a medical condition but is in all other respects the best person for the job, you should endeavour to make all reasonable adjustments to the position - unless this would cause unjustifiable hardship to your business- to enable that person to do the job. For example this may require adjustments to the work station or for you to provide parking amenities close to the business for the new employee.