Recruitment advertisements can become the framework for the hiring process

Recruitment advertising should be more than just an invitation to apply. It can provide a framework to shape the entire hiring process, from your review of resumes that determines who to interview, to the interviews themselves and the reference checks.

Typically, advertising defines what you are looking for in a new staff member. Identifying the training, experience and skills needed is relatively easy.

What is the minimum education and training required? High school diploma, BEd, trades certificate, etc.? What related experience is required (remembering that a specific amount of experience doesn’t necessarily translate into candidates who have done the job well)? What skills, such as the ability to format a spreadsheet or second language competency, are necessary?

Hopefully, listing these requirements will discourage those who do not meet these minimum standards from applying.

Deciding which attitudes to list is trickier but is more important when deciding who to hire. Learning what candidates believe and how these beliefs inform their work is important in deciding if they will be a good fit for the culture of your workplace.

The selection process begins with decisions about whom to interviews. Start with the applicants’ training, experience and skills. If these basic requirements are absent, disqualify these individuals from further consideration.

Next, search for evidence of commitment to teamwork, a customer service orientation or whatever attitudes you have listed. Ideally, applicants will have made this easier by adjusting their resumes or writing cover letters to address what was in your job posting.

Compare what the candidate has done to what your top performers do under similar circumstances. When the match is strong, these are the individuals to interview. 

Prepare to interview

Interviews are an opportunity to learn as much as you can about candidates during a brief conversation. Don’t squander precious time by asking questions to which you already have answers, such as information about education and training or work experience, which is already available in resumes. These documents also list technical skills. If required, schedule another time before or following the interview to test the candidates’ skills.

Prepare to interview by writing questions that require candidates to describe previous on-the-job performance related to the attitudes included in your advertising. For example:

Teamwork: 

• Describe a time when you were a member of a work team. 
• Provide an example of a time when your commitment to teamwork was important.

Customer Service:

• Describe a time when you dealt with a customer with a complaint.
• Explain how you ensured customers received service that met or exceeded their expectations.

Note that these questions are phrased in the past tense. Interviews are the time to gather information about previous, on-the-job performance. Knowing what candidates have done and being able to compare this to what your top performers do provides a strong basis to decide who to hire.

Asking questions in the future tense invite candidates to speculate how they might respond to these situations, without any evidence of actually have done so in the past.

When writing interview questions, anticipate that candidates’ initial responses will be incomplete and prepare followup questions if you need additional information to better understand what the candidates have done.

Prepare to assess what candidates say by developing criteria against which to judge candidates’ answers as unacceptable, acceptable or outstanding “top performer” responses.

Conducting reference checks

After interviewing several candidates, you will be able to make tentative hiring decisions, but before making any job offers, there is one final step—reference checks.

Approach the candidates’ references in the right way and you can make them your hiring allies. Most will expect to be asked to share their assessments of the candidates, so begin reference checks with the opportunity to express their opinions. But remember that the only opinions that matter are yours, which should be based on facts you gather from resumes, interviews and reference checks.

As soon as possible, shift reference checks to questions related to what appears in your advertising, with a focus on the candidates’ previous on-the-job performance. These inquiries should be similar to the questions you asked during the interviews.

“Describe a time when [the candidate’s] commitment to teamwork was important.”

The references’ responses can be compared to those of the candidates. Are the messages the reference provides consistent with what you heard from the candidate? Or did the reference recall events differently than what the candidate had described?

With the information you have from resumes, interviews and reference checks, all of which were based on what appeared in recruitment advertising or job postings, you are ready to make a decision to hire the right person for the job.

Well-written recruitment advertising should provide the person with a vacancy to fill, the candidates and members of the interview panel all with a clear understanding of the basis on which the hiring decision will be made. This ensures a fair and focused approach to hiring decisions.

==

Nelson Scott writes and speaks about how to hire and use staff recognition to engage and retain the right people. To learn more, or to schedule Nelson to speak at your next conference, convention or staff training event, email nmscott@telus.net or call (780) 232-3828.