Procurement of labour is often one of the biggest investments a company can make and the same care you would take before purchasing a piece of equipment should be taken before recruiting a new member of staff.

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Maybe you are recruiting for the first time, or maybe you have always recruited friends in the past, but this time you have to go onto the open market to find the skills you require. Either way, the best recruitment is structured and planned upfront.

Use this check list to ensure you have covered all the bases.

• Decide on your structure and where the skills gap is
• Write a job description to fulfil that gap.
• Write a Person specification that accurately describes the type of person you are looking for. Any experience you would like them to have, any specific skills required.
• Agree your minimum requirements – this will help you select a short-list of candidates to assess later on.
• Target your recruitment marketing based on the person spec. If you’re looking for an experienced administrator, posting on a job board normally associated with purchasing professionals won’t get you very far!
• Decide which methods of assessment will best measure against your Person specification.
• Decide which methods you can afford / which ones will gather the most relevant information for the role in question (remember spending a little now may save you a lot later. Poor recruitment can be costly).
  • Psychometric testing based on skills
  • Psychometric testing based on personality profiling (this may help you achieve an organisational fit)
  • Interviews (various types of questions designed to test the candidates knowledge)
  • Role plays
  • In-tray exercises
  • Group exercises.
• Select your short list based on your minimum requirements.
• Assess your candidates.
• Score your candidates against the assessment criteria.
• Make an offer of employment to the highest scoring candidate.
• Prepare and provide a contract of employment
• Prepare an induction programme to ensure your employee can be up to speed as quickly as pos
  sible.
• Ensure you have up-to-date employment policies and practices in place.

If you have the resources to do so (or friends / colleagues who are willing to help), always try and obtain a 2nd opinion. Have a second assessor at the interview or talk over the results of your assessment with someone you trust.

And finally, no recruitment process is risk free, but minimising your risk is possible.

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