Planning to recruit someone? Before you write the job advert, take a step back. These five questions will help you attract the right candidates, avoid wasting time and get more from your recruitment process.
When a vacancy comes up, it’s tempting to get straight on with advertising. You find the old job description, make a few changes, put together an advert and get it live as quickly as possible.
I understand why. When you’re running a business, an empty position can put extra pressure on everyone else. You want to get someone in and get things moving again.
But after years of working in recruitment, I’ve seen how easily a rushed start can lead to a longer, more expensive process. You might attract the wrong applicants, struggle to find anyone suitable or appoint someone who turns out not to be right for the role.
Often, the problem isn’t the candidates; it’s that the business hasn’t properly defined what it needs in the first place.
The good news? You don’t need to spend days planning your recruitment. Taking 20 minutes to think through these five questions before advertising a vacancy can make a real difference.
1. Why does this role exist and what do you need it to achieve?
It’s easy to focus on the list of duties in a job description but before you start writing a job advert, ask yourself a more important question – What do we actually need this person to do for the business?
Perhaps you’re replacing someone who has left, perhaps the business has grown, your team’s workload has changed or you’re bringing in skills you don’t currently have.
Whatever the reason, don’t automatically assume you need to recruit a like-for-like replacement.
Jobs change, responsibilities grow, systems develop and the needs of a business move on. The role someone was doing three years ago might not be the role you need today.
Take the opportunity to review the job properly. Speak to the people who will work with the new employee and be clear about the problems you need them to solve.
Try this: Complete the sentence, “In 12 months’ time, this person will have helped us to…”
If you’re struggling to finish it, you may need to spend a little more time defining the role before you advertise.
Getting this right helps you write a more relevant job description, create a clearer job advert and assess candidates against what the business genuinely needs.
2. What does success look like in the first 12 months?
Once you know why the role exists, think about what you expect the successful candidate to achieve.
A job description tells someone what they’ll be doing but it doesn’t always tell them what good performance looks like.
For example, are you looking for someone who will improve a process, build relationships with new customers, manage a team more effectively or take responsibility for work that currently sits with you?
Be specific about the difference you want this person to make.
I’d suggest agreeing on three to five key outcomes for the first year. They don’t need to be complicated, but they should be clear and realistic.
This helps in several ways:
- Your job advert can explain the opportunity more clearly.
- Your interview questions can focus on the skills and experience that matter.
- You can compare candidates more consistently and fairly.
- Your new employee knows what’s expected of them from the outset.
It also helps candidates decide whether the role is right for them. Good candidates want to understand more than the job title and salary. They want to know what they’ll be responsible for and what they’ll have the opportunity to achieve.
The clearer you are, the easier it becomes for the right people to picture themselves doing the job.
3. What are your genuine must-haves, and what can you teach?
This is where I often think employers can make life unnecessarily difficult for themselves.
A job advert can quickly turn into a wish list. Five years’ experience, a particular qualification, experience of a specific system, industry knowledge, excellent communication skills, management experience and a whole host of other requirements.
Before you know it, you’re looking for someone who has done exactly the same job before, in exactly the same environment, with every skill already in place. That person might exist but are they the only person who could do the job well?
Think carefully about the difference between what someone must have on day one and what they could learn with the right training and support.
Some requirements really are essential. You may need a specific qualification, technical skill or level of experience, but other criteria might simply reflect the way the job has always been done. Could someone from a different industry bring useful transferable skills? Could a capable person learn your systems? Would attitude, judgement, reliability and a willingness to learn be just as important as previous experience?
Be careful not to rule out good people simply because their CV doesn’t tick every box.
Try this: Review your essential criteria and challenge each one. If a candidate doesn’t have this skill or experience, could they still succeed in the role?
Move anything that isn’t genuinely essential into your desirable criteria as a more realistic person specification can widen your candidate pool and help you spot people you might otherwise overlook.
4. Is your salary and benefits package competitive in today’s market?
You can write a brilliant job advert, but if the package doesn’t match what candidates expect for that type of role, you’ll struggle to attract the right people.
Pay rates and candidate expectations change and what seemed competitive a couple of years ago might not be enough today, particularly if you’re recruiting for skills that are difficult to find.
Before advertising, look at the salary being offered for comparable roles in your local area and industry and consider the level of responsibility, the experience required and the skills you’re asking someone to bring.
It’s also worth looking beyond salary.
Flexible working, working hours, holidays, pension provision, training, career development and the working environment can all influence someone’s decision. Not every business can compete on pay alone, but you need to understand what you’re offering and how it compares.
Be honest about the salary range and the opportunity. If there is flexibility depending on experience, make sure you know where that flexibility sits before applications start arriving.
And if you’re struggling to attract suitable applicants, don’t automatically assume there aren’t any good candidates available. It could be the salary, the job title, the requirements or the way the opportunity has been presented.
It’s far better to review your package before advertising than to spend weeks recruiting, only to discover that your expectations and the market don’t match.
A little research at the beginning can save a considerable amount of time and frustration later.
5. Is your recruitment process ready to go?
You’ve defined the role, agreed on what success looks like, identified the essential requirements and settled on a competitive package. Now, can your business move quickly enough when the right person applies?
This is an area that’s easy to overlook, particularly when recruitment is only one of many things you have to manage.
The advert goes live, applications arrive, then you need to find time to review CVs, arrange interviews and bring the right people together to make a decision.
One interviewer is on holiday, someone else is tied up with a client and meanwhile, a good candidate is progressing with another employer.
Before you advertise, agree on the basics:
- Who will review applications and decide which candidates to progress?
- Who will conduct the interviews, and when are they available?
- How many interview stages are genuinely necessary?
- What will you assess at each stage?
- Who makes the final decision?
- How quickly can you give candidates feedback and make an offer?
You don’t need an elaborate recruitment process, you just need one that works for your business and gives candidates a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they can do.
Remember, candidates are assessing you too, so clear communication, well-organised interviews and timely feedback all contribute to their impression of your business.
Recruitment should save you time, not create more work. A little preparation helps you keep the process moving and gives you a better chance of securing the person you want.
Getting recruitment right starts before the advert
When you’re busy running a business, it’s understandable that recruiting someone can feel like another job on your to-do list but the answer isn’t always to advertise faster.
Taking time to understand the role, agree on expectations, challenge your requirements, check the package and plan the process gives you a much stronger starting point.
It won’t guarantee that the perfect candidate will appear overnight, sadly recruitment doesn’t work like that, but it can help you attract more relevant applicants, make better decisions and avoid repeating the process unnecessarily.
If you’re not sure where to start, you don’t have to work it all out on your own. I’ve put together a practical ‘Vacancy Readiness Checklist’ to help you work through the key questions before advertising a vacancy.
DOWLOAD YOUR FREE VACANCY READINESS CHECKLIST HERE
Use it to check that your role, salary, requirements and recruitment process are ready to go.
Need a little help with your next hire?
At Personnel Placements, we work with businesses across Salisbury, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset, helping employers make better recruitment decisions.
Sometimes you need support with the whole recruitment process. Sometimes you simply need an experienced recruitment partner to help you review a job description, sense-check your salary, improve your advert or work out why you’re not attracting the right applicants.
We believe recruitment should work around your business. You can choose the support you need, while keeping control of the process where you want to.
If you’ve got a vacancy coming up, let’s have a conversation. We’ll give you honest, practical advice to help you decide on the best way forward.
