More to recruiting than skills

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has reported that companies are still recruiting, but that they’re being more cautious than usual.

To ensure you get the right person first time you need to look beyond just their skills set and address the culture, values and ethics of both parties.

We recently worked with a medium-sized company who’d had to let a new recruit go after just a few weeks.

They’d made the appointment in a rush, even though they’d not been overly enamoured by the quality of the CVs they’d received.

In the end, even though the successful candidate had the credentials on paper, they just didn’t fit into the team. The company in question has an “everybody mucks in” way of working and the individual was only used to taking care of their own workload.

Though they’d done everything to recruit as quickly as possible, they’d ended up back at square one several weeks down the line.

A successful recruitment campaign often starts with identifying the core values of your company and asking the question about what type of person you’re looking to hire.
Bear this in mind when you’re compiling your job ad, when you’re sifting through applications and when you’re interviewing.

Does the person you’re assessing really get what you’re about? Will they fit into your team, or will they ruffle feathers? If you’re going to need them to roll their sleeves up when the going gets tough, can you imagine they’ll do their bit?

Laura Hartley
Director
Laura Hartley Recruitment