Recruiting solo (part 1): Hiring as an HR team of 1

Are you a small to medium sized business with no dedicated recruitment team? Is your recruitment managed by HR, or perhaps your Hiring Managers?
Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, is that the majority of my blogs have been written for larger organisations. Typically they have a dedicated recruitment functions whether that be one or 100 recruiters.
The vast majority of employers simply do not have the luxury of dedicated recruitment resources. If they have a human resources function, then recruitment is likely to fall into their remit. If not then more than likely it’s the branch manager, office manager or business owner running the gauntlet.
So I thought I’d write a series of blogs to help you navigate this often maligned but necessary process. After all, if you have people working in your business sooner or later, you’re going to have to hire someone!
Important note. If you are taking notes in relation to your conversations with employees or prospective employees, you will need to save them! These notes can be requested by the Fairwork Inspector (Australia), Permit Holder (Union), Government Agency and the individual themselves. Click here for more information.
So where do we start? Retention.
Let’s start with the obvious. You should be doing everything you can to keep your better performing employees from leaving you. Retaining good employees is far cheaper than recruiting a new one.
Do you get annoyed or frustrated when you see an advert for your health insurer, telco or bank providing incentives for new people, but your long loyal patronage is ignored and never rewarded? I know I do.
It’s the same for employees. I’m confident that if you are reading this, you’ve probably experienced the wrath of a poor hire when replacing someone you should never have lost in the first place. Hopefully with this series of blogs we’ll help you improve your recruitment and selection capability.
Get to know your employees. Understand their personal and professional drivers. Understanding their motivators may enable you to look beyond a financial reward or increase. It might be flexible work hours and by that, I mean enabling them to start later or finish earlier to do school drop off or participate in community events, or social sports.
What about providing them with an additional one or two days leave per year to spend a long weekend with their family outside of peak holiday season. We all know the pains and expense of peak holiday travel. From a professional development perspective, you might offer to provide some additional training or qualifications. Get creative.
What about a counter offer? Statistically speaking, if your employee has been offered a position elsewhere and they accept your counter offer, you’re buying yourself some time to find a replacement. About six months according to various sources.
Another interesting statistic is that 9 out of 10 accepted counter offers will have departed within eighteen months! Once you have counter offer, you set the example for that same employee and others to follow in the future.
If you are considering a counter offer, then know your employee! As previously mentioned, understanding your employees personal and professional drivers will help retain them for the longer term. You can only do this by having regular formal and informal discussions around performance and development as well as having a heart and interest in them as a fellow human.
Keep the door open. Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side, but when you’re there you find out the grass was synthetic. Boomerang employees (they leave and come back) bring added value to your business.
Focus on retaining, and top up your growth with occasional recruiting.
Well, you’ve played your hand but your employee has stuck to their guns and resigned. Whats next? Time to approach the market.
Stay tuned for our next blog on going to market for your next employee!
To read Part 2, click here.
To read Part 3, click here.
To read Part 4, click here.
To read Part 5, click here.
Cover image: Shutterstock 

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