This article originally appeared in the October 2016 AM Magazine (Page 109)
When you next have a vacancy to fill in your business, take a step back and think about the bigger picture.
Some food for thought for time hungry managers.
Recruiting staff? Stop! Take a step back
How many times have you regretted a recruitment decision you have made?
What has been the cost of this to your business?
Not only in terms of money spent with recruitment agencies or other methods; but the management time lost, the impact on others in the business and lost productive time?
We often hear about how time hungry managers are, and this can lead to cutting corners on what is a really critical business activity.
When you next have a recruitment need, here is some food for thought:
- Resignations usually come when you least expect them, and often in multiples.
- Do you have some form of contingency plan for every member of staff?
- Do you actually need to replace the person that is leaving?
- Who could you promote into the position?
- Have you got a good number two lined up? Could you start preparing someone now for this and other positions in the future?
- Is now an opportune time to restructure the department where the vacancy exists?
- If so, will you need to recruit someone with the same skills or someone different?
- Where might the person you need be working now?
- Do they have to ‘hit the ground running’ or should you create the time to train a better but less experienced person up?
- Can this role be undertaken as a job-share, or with ‘flexi-time’? The greater the flexibility you can offer, the wider the pool of applicants you are likely to have.
Consider how taking some or all of these into account could increase your staff retention in the long run!
All of the above is great food for thought, and even if only partially actioned could save you and your business a lot of time and money.
