How To Get Better Results From Your Recruitment Campaign

by Jerome Forde, founder of Forde HR Cloud

If you’re looking to make a new hire for your fledgling business, you’re going to need to get hands on. However, recruiting is not as easy as it may seem and there are many obstacles to get through if you want to achieve the best results.  In fact, a recent survey showed that nearly 2 in 3 businesses struggle when it comes to the hiring process. The main problem areas identified were a lack of applicants and those who do apply are often without the required skills and experience.

We spoke to some of the leading experts to get some tips for improving your recruitment campaign and together with our own advice, we hope you find some useful information to help you achieve better results.

What impact will the role have?

Candidates can respond favourably to a job description which talks about the impact of the role, rather than just what the main duties are. Strong candidates will be inspired when they can see how their input will help to grow the organisation. If they can imagine themselves in the role, they are more likely to apply.

As Perry Timms, Chartered MCIPD, Founder & Chief Energy Officer at PTHR said:

“Describing the impact a role has can be more of more value than a list of competencies, and a range of accountabilities.”

Your job description can be as inspirational as it is informative and doing so will increase your candidate pool. Not only this, you will also be more likely to get the most suitable candidates.

What will excite the candidates?

In addition to showing the impact of the role, you also want to write a job advert which gets them excited. Once you have enticed the right candidates, leave them with the sense that they don’t want to miss out on this opportunity.

Kunjal Tanna, Director of LT Harper spoke about the key to a great advert by saying:

“Your ad is about attracting people to want to talk to you so it should get someone excited. The key thing to get across in an ad is what the person applying stands to gain by getting this job (e.g. will they get specific training, will they work directly with clients/the business leaders etc). “

What are the potential achievements and recognitions for someone working in the job? Show them the perks and they won’t be able to resist applying.

Is the job description transparent?

A key aspect of recruitment is transparency with the job description. Afterall, people are instinctive and can sense when something’s off. You want both the advert and the job description to be enticing, but not to the point were you are being creative with the truth.

Rebecca Clough, the Managing Director of In Car Safety Centre, the UK and Ireland’s leading car seats specialists talked about the importance of an accurate job description;

“It might be tempting to exaggerate the positives of the role and/or gloss over some of more mundane expectations. Whilst this may increase the number of applications, it may also increase your turnover rates if new staff feel the role hasn’t met expectations.”

It is good to focus on the positives of the job, but also mention the challenges of the role. The right candidate won’t be put off, but it will help ensure you don’t make the wrong hire.

Do the recruiters know the role?

It’s important that your employees to be have an enjoyable application experience, as it’s their first impression of the company. It’s not just down to the job advert and description; it is also about the communications they receive during the process.

Whilst some SME’s use recruitment agencies, there are benefits to doing it yourself. Either way, you’ll want to be involved where you can add value. Whoever is handling your vacancy, make sure they have good knowledge of the role and the requirements.

Leon Brown, Education Content Developer & MD of NextPoint Software echoed this sentiment by saying:

“Make sure the person handling recruitment has a fair understanding of the role they are recruiting for. Seems obvious enough, but is often overlooked. This is particularly relevant to those in SMEs, whose businesses are often niche and specialist in nature. “

The last thing you want is for the whole process to fall down because the recruiter is unable to answer important questions or they don’t ask the right questions, which leads to the wrong hire.

Do they measure up?

You may be under pressure to recruit, fast. However, rushing the process and hiring someone “who will do” can be costly error, so never make a hire for the sake of it. You should ensure the candidate meets with your expectations during the interview.

Tim Fouracre is the founder & CEO of Countingup spoke about the importance of the interview process; “The next step at the interview stage is of course ensuring that a candidate actually measures up to the template you’ve set out in the job description. “

Again, this is why the job description is so important. During the interview process, you should go through the description. Ask questions aligned to the criteria and ensure that the candidate can do everything they claim in their CV. It’s also why the interviewer needs to know enough about the role to accurately assess the quality of the answers.

Jerome Forde is an HR and employee relations specialist with 30 years’ senior level experience in complex public, private and not for profit organisations. Before starting Forde HR Cloud, a HRIT platform for start-ups and SMEs, Jerome operated within large scale businesses, bringing extensive practical experience in the areas of conflict resolution, change management and outsourcing.