In my previous post, we identified the steps that a company should take during the planning stages of the recruitment process. I have changed the order a little and added one more step from my previous blog post. Today, we are going to focus on Step 1.
STEP 1: UNDERSTAND YOUR COMPANY/DEPARTMENT AND WHERE THEY ARE HEADING
STEP 2: SELL THE COMPANY AND POSITION TO TALENTED CANDIDATES
STEP 3: DEVELOP A JOB ANALYSIS/JOB DESCRIPTION
STEP 4: DETERMINE A HIRING PROCESS
STEP 5: FIND AND ATTRACT TALENTED CANDIDATES
What are the short-term and long-term goals of the company/department?
This is a pretty simple question, which can lead to a very complex answer. If you do not know where your organization is heading, then how do you know what you need? Write down two to three Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG). Once those BHAG goals have been identified, determine what the organizational structure should be in order to achieve those goals. Next, break down those long-term goals into short-term goals. This way you are working backwards. Now you know where the organization is going.
Evaluate your current talent.
Now that you have your BHAGs and have identified a structure that will achieve those goals, it is time to evaluate your current employees. Pay close attention to your leadership roles, sales team, and technical expertise. For a small business, the owner is typically the sales manager, the operations manager, the accountant, and many other positions. As the business grows, she will have to relinquish some of those duties. If she is going to have a sales manager, she will have to evaluate your current sales team and see if someone there has the ability to be a strong sales manager. If not, then this organization should look for leadership qualities in their next sales rep.
What is the organizational culture of the organization?
One of the biggest mistakes is hiring for the position and not the company. Anytime you hire someone, you are hiring them for the company to perform a specific role. In order to hire a good employee, they must be a good fit for the organization and have the knowledge, experience, education, and skills to complete the job. Some people disagree and believe that hiring for culture fit is a bunch of BS. However, I counter that argument and assert that an organization similar to Dell with a culture of operational efficiency and cost management should look for different employees than a company like Apple with a culture of innovation. While there are employees that would work “okay” in both companies, there are also employees that would excel at Dell but not at Apple, and vice versa. And as a small business owner, you want your employees to excel.
There are a lot of different theories on culture and there isn’t a “right” one and a “wrong” one. There may be times when you would like to change the culture of your organization. If that is the case with your company now, then you need to add employees and managers that represent the “new” culture.
Coming Up Next!
What is an Employee Value Proposition? Why is it important?