Filler text/photos: A guide to help you focus on how you recruit and then lead your team so that you they can be their best together. Knowing who to target and why for your team, how to attract someone who will retain and be a good fit, and how to work together over time to find success.
When focusing on the recruitment and retention of employees for your business, there are some general considerations you should always keep in mind.
1. Naturally, the first step in the process is when a vacancy arises in your business. However, before rushing to fill a position, consider the following points: Do you know why the vacancy has arisen? Perhaps the previous employee left due to problems in the business and unless these are resolved, the new candidate will likely be unhappy too.
Employee recruitment is potentially a very subjective process and unless you take active steps to reduce the levels of subjectivity, you will find that, more times than not, you will make poor recruitment decisions based solely on gut feeling; and as a result you will be frequently caught out by people who ‘do good interviews’. Worse still, without objective criteria to evaluate candidates your propensity to subconsciously select employees who ‘fit’ with your world view will increase, so ultimately you will end up with a lot of like-minded people in the business.
2. The purpose of analyzing the vacancy is to have a clear picture in mind of the job requirements and the type of person you wish to recruit. Then you must set about trying to attract suitable applicants for this position. Not only do you want to attract a good number of candidates for interview, but perhaps more importantly you wish to attract the right quality of candidates. In other words it is the quality of applicants and not the quantity that you attract which is most important.
3. There is much talk about leadership these days and the intention here is not to address the subject in a theoretical fashion but rather to focus on practical concerns. However, it is important to recognize that there is often confusion as to how ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ relate to one another so it is useful to begin by briefly clarifying that particular concern. Instead of thinking in terms like leadership or management, an easier way to look at this issue is to consider what you, or anybody holding a position of authority in your business, must do on a daily basis in order to be effective.
To be successful, you therefore need to both lead and manage, for one without the other will lead to shortcomings of some kind. For example, if you only ‘manage’, then you may not be too concerned with your people and whilst the work might be done, it will not be done to the highest standard possible because people will not feel valued or appreciated, which impacts on their performance. Equally, if you worry too much about the needs and feelings of your employees, you are in danger of trying to create a happiness camp at the expense of getting the job done.
The information provided in this guide is designed to help you find the right people in the first instance, to lead and manage them in a way that maximizes their levels of engagement and to take appropriate action when disciplinary or grievance issues arise.