High Caliber Recruiting Methods

Every company is different so I'm not going out on ledge saying that their recruiting methods are also different. You need to decide your recruiting method and process. It is based on a number of factors like importance of position, how soon does it need to be filled, budget/resources etc.

• Creating a Job Description
• Determine recruitment strategies
• Design your recruitment process
• Identify Resources.
• Create a time line for the process.

Recruiting Process

Once you have a competed defining your strategy and job description, you now need to concentrate on the process.

Now you have to decide how you are going to recruit for this position.

Some recruiting methods include,

• Promote from within
• Employee referral
• Internally headhunt
• Post the opening outside the company
• Search Resume databases
• Hire an external recruiting service

This is roughly ordered in the order of preference we see companies attempt to use to fill positions. Some are not available to all companies.

For example a company with 10 employees that promotes from within is still likely going to have an opening to back fill, so you still need to fill a position. Or in another case, headhunting internally is considered risky because if your competitors found out there may be retribution or worse yet lawsuits.

If you would like more information on this topic, please email me your question or comment and I'll be happy to put you in touch with someone who can assist you in assessing the pro's and con's of each of these recruiting methods.

Resources

The recruitment process and resources available go hand in hand. For example, resources include schedule availability of those involved in hiring process, budget for job boards, the time available for the hiring manager/HR person/recruiter to fill the necessary positions, budget for external recruiters or staffing agencies, etc.

Pretty complicated stuff if you haven't been down the path before and do not have a defined recruitment process. One way to organize you thoughts is to start with the end in mind. When is the drop dead date to have this employee start?

Create a Time Line

Now you have a start and end date. You can organize a time line. Say for instance you have 2 weeks

to find you a controller and all you have is a job description and you know the CFO of your company has final decision authority but she is traveling for 3 months to the plant in China in 2 weeks. Her schedule is very tight and she wants to do the final interview before she leaves. She wants you to set up 5-6 candidates to talk to you, the outgoing controller and one other manager of your choice and select the top 2 candidates for her to interview before she leaves. Money within reason is no object (Oh if this were really true in all cases!)

Note - As a general rule of thumb do not let a person leaving your company have decision making authority on who will replace him/her. It is human nature that a person would not want to be replaced by someone who is better than they are. Who likes to be shown up!

Working backwards, you can see that you need about 1-2 days for panel interviews of 5-6 candidates with the 3 person interview team. Then you need 1 day to schedule call backs for the 2 finalists to interview with the CFO. That leaves you about a week to find, screen and schedule 5-6 candidates. Yikes!

Philosophical Note. In any process there are generally 3 variables, cost/resources, quality and schedule. Pick any 2 and it is reasonable to do them well but the other will suffer.

In this example process, you need quality, and schedule is tight so cost/resources must be expended to meet the goal. With this in mind, of all the available recruiting methods, the best option is to multiply your time by hiring and outside service to recruit for you.

Be sure this service has candidates ready to interview because you don't have much time to waste.

Example Time Line

The time line would look something like this:

Days 1 to 5 Review profiles of candidates from recruiting services

Day 6 Select top 5 candidates & schedule interviews

Day 7 to 8 Panel interviews for top 5 candidates

Day 9 Select top 2 candidates and call back for final interview

Day 10 Interview with CFO

That is a packed 2 weeks! But you can see that with the end in mind, the time line forces a decision on quality vs. cost to find the candidates! In effect you are limited in your recruiting methods to the one, hiring an external recruiting firm. That is why it is important to know your recruiting process and define available resources. If you would like more help on this issue, please email me.

Return from Recruiting Methods to Recruiting Plan
Return to Recruiting and Staffing Home Page

Search This Site

If you have a passion,
or some unique and special
knowledge? Share it with the
world. Own your own website
that earns you income!