“A great team is one of the best assets a business owner or operator can invest in”

In his book, Instant Teambuilding, Brad Sugars the CEO and Founder of ActionCOACH details some key details needed to find, recruit and keep great team members. In today’s business climate, finding talent is not only imperative to ongoing success, but it is also a scarcity that all business owners must plan for.

Recruitment

Recruiting the right candidate in an employ-rich market might seem easy, but the affects of the pandemic are still being felt. As candidates have more options and more leverage than ever before, business owners are scrambling to fill a mounting number of open positions. More resignations than ever before have left businesses with too many positions and not enough qualified applicants. It seems counter intuitive, but employees have figured out they have options and are no longer settling for the first offer.

Think Ahead

To combat this flood of employment openings, business owners need to think ahead, and forecast needs just as they forecast goods and supplies. Business owners need a system for vetting and attracting qualified candidates. It is critical. The first step to find recruit and keep great team members.

In Instant Teambuilding, it details four specific steps to creating a recruiting system for your business, those being Advertising, Callbacks, Interview, and Decision and Follow-up.

Keep in mind that every step along the way gives candidates a glimpse of your business and its culture, so make sure your process reflects the best you and your business has to offer.

The right questions

Before you draft any job advertising, consider these questions.

  • Who is it you want to employ?
  • What skills and characteristics do you want them to have?
  • What other attributes would you like them to have?

Too often, employers don’t entice applicants to apply because they don’t reflect the culture of the business. This is the next step to find recruit and keep great team members.

Focus

Many recruiters focus on the generic skills, past education and experience; forgetting to tap into the ‘heart and spirit’ of the desired candidates. Skills can always be learned, improved upon, or acquired, but passion, personality and heart are the things that will give any team a winning edge.

Targeting your advert properly is key, but there are several other elements to keep in mind when crafting a recruitment advertising post.

  • Be specific.
  • Excite your target.
  • Focus on the benefits of the job.
  • Write as you speak.
  • Be present in your tense.
  • Keep it simple.
  • Follow the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) formula
  • Be credible.
  • Create a strong headline
  • Use a question in your headline
  • Use words that your target will relate too.
  • Avoid jargon.
  • Get to the point quickly.
  • Keep sentences short.
  • Include a Call To Action and contact details.
Getting it out there

Once you have your ads completed, post them on multiple platforms and ensure you announce your openings on social media. Get your current employees to repost and share the ads as well. This gives your advert a higher chance of being seen by the right candidate. Also, provide testimonials from your current team members. This is key in your attempts to find recruit and keep great team members.

The Vetting Process

Once applications start coming in, a business owner must have a system to vet and invite applicants to the next steps of the process.

Phone vetting is critical. You or the member of your team handling calls to and from the candidate selected for the next steps should have script and a clear understanding of what kind of candidate you are looking for. Energy and enthusiasm are the key here.

Once the candidates have been scheduled for an interview, the next stage of process can begin.

Selection Process

The ActionCOACH recruitment process offers a systematic and comprehensive approach. It is a ‘self-selection’ or deselection process which includes a group interview and applicant questionnaires, that gets the entire your team involved. but, whichever process you implement, you must keep it consistent with every candidate.

CV Vetting Tips
  • Look for consistent grammar and spelling. Has it been a copy and paste exercise?
  • Does the CV include a match to the actual description of the work or skills you require?
  • Has the applicant offerd a non-job-related insight?
  • What has the candidate leaves out of their CV; do dates follow on or is there a gap between roles?
Questions to ask

Here are some great questions to ask during your interview process. Have each member of the team ask a question, and have each of the candidates share their answers.

  1. What other roles have you applied for?
  2. How do you see this role helping you achieve your outcome?
  3. Why is that important to you?
  4. How do see us helping you to achieve your outcome?
  5. Why did you apply for this particular opportunity?
  6. What would be the consequences of you not getting this opportunity?
The Checklist

Using an interview evaluation checklist, ask the team to rate the candidate from 0-10 on the following attributes:

  • Responsiveness
  • Attentiveness
  • Positivity
  • Happiness
  • Neatness (Appearance)
  • Commitment
  • Common Sense
  • Practical Ability
  • Honesty

Also ensure you focus on strengths and weakness as part of your evaluation.

Ultimately, the process you create for recruiting the best team must be organic and authentic to your organization. Research different approaches and develop a system that can be replicated. Don’t wing it. Adding team members is a monumental and expensive proposition. If you settle for a mediocre process, chances are you will get a mediocre candidate pool.

For more information or help in setting up you recruitment process, contact me, Ian Finney today on 07716 292378 or book an inital 10 minute call by clicking here.

For more information about how Ian works with business owners, click here