The Art of Recruitment

"Hire people, who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it...;
Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine."

- David Ogilvy

Why Companies fail to recruit potential performers? Recruitment is an art as well as science. A good recruitment process is the foundation for any company. Intelligent recruiters always see to it that the company should get good performers to meet the organizational goals. World class infrastructure, ergonomically designed seating arrangement, availability of small perks like usage of internet during working hours and excellent employee engagement policies will attract potential performers to any company. Then why Recruiters could not sell their company to attract right talent?

Cost effective thinking or ineffective thinking: Every company has to spend most of its earnings inevitably on salaries of the employees. In any industry, major part of profits goes towards salaries of employees. Equal opportunity and equal salaries for equally qualified and experienced employees should be the success mantra of the day for any company. If companies will not follow this ethical policy, it is really difficult to attract right talent. Recruiters will forcibly, cunningly and manipulatively convince fresher or experienced in the same manner to take them on board, if they find right talent without exposing them to the facts about the company. Many of the companies use their websites only to highlight their mediocre achievements and hide their adversities. This will enhance attrition rate of the companies and decreases retention rate to the amazement of the Management as they compromised on the quality of the candidates and also hide the balance sheet from the piercing eyes of experienced employees.

Referral Recruitment attracts relatives; not talent: It is the latest fad encouraged in the name of another cost cutting measure to attract right talent. This policy also effective only to some extent which has helped employees to bring their relatives on board only to spoil the team spirit and team building efforts of the Companies in which they are working. Recruiting Manager has to take all precautions to avoid mediocre talent to enter the company by not just verifying certificates and should scrutinize like 360 degrees feedback through verifying four sides that is from external resources like private detectives, friends and relatives of the candidates. Some companies are asking astrologers also to find out the compatibility of the candidate and his staying capacity in their company, based on his sign of zodiac and behavioral patterns.

Gap between job description and job advertisement: Many companies write theory in their job description when they give advertisement in the media for the positions required to be filled. There is a gap between job description i.e. job to be performed and the advertisement which they give based on the theory they read during their days of education. For example, a HR Manager's job description is advertised, which is not based on the expected performance, but it is about the general functions of particular position. This will attract thousands of applications from the experienced as well as fresh job seekers, but nobody will be selected finally to the utter dismay of the unemployed who attended the interview. This is more disgusting during the situation like recession where very few companies recruit without much sincerity and honesty. Finally, the candidates are confused about why the companies recruit or why they leave candidates in the lurch only to force them to abuse the system, which is weakening the processes which have to be fool proof especially as far as the basic activity like recruitment is concerned.

A Recruiting Manager must be honest and understand the needs of the organization before starting the process and also understand the sincere needs and requirements of the candidates. Recruiter must be shrewd and impartial in selecting the candidates to help realize the goals of the organization. He should help the company to shrink the gap between expected performance and delivered performance. This will help Management to understand the roles and responsibilities of positions which they wish to recruit. This is the real art of recruitment which enhances the value of the balance sheet of any Company.

Finally, as John W.Gardner said, "When hiring key employees, there are only two qualities to look for: judgement and taste. Almost everything else can be bought by the yard."

Having talent attrition problems? Talk to our talent retention & HR consultancy in Singapore. Visit here. A marketing strategies blog for smes by Scotts digital.