As 2017 sees the jobs market continue to be a very candidate driven one, this means only one thing – speed is of the essence when it comes to hiring new staff. In our experience, good candidates will not be on the market for more than 10 days, so there is a very real chance that you could miss out if your recruitment is not fine-tuned towards a quick turnaround time.
Your business may have a strong, well-established brand and be a desirable company to work for and you could be offering a great salary and benefits package, but so are lots of other companies too – and they are all looking for the same skilled professionals that you are. So the message really is, if you like someone and think they have the correct skill set and will fit your business and culture, then get them off the market and quickly.
Our key advice is to tighten up your process, keep the quality and filtering but really focus on reducing your time to recruit. So how can you go about that?
CV Feedback
We see all too often candidates applying for roles and then companies don’t provide feedback on who they want to progress for 2 weeks or more, by which time the best individuals will have accepted another job offer.
Organise initial telephone screening interviews
Using this initial assessment will speed things up. It will ensure that the initial competencies and other first step checks can be conducted asap. If candidates fall short at this stage – you have only had to spend a very short time assessing them, not hours arranging and conducting face to face interviews and testing.
Commit to 1 day of Face to Face interviews
Organise for all your decision makers to be available for a day and arrange for all shortlisted candidates to come in for 2- 3hrs to see everyone they need to. Make sure a meeting is set-up for the end of the day with all stakeholders so that feedback on all interviewees can be collated immediately and action taken the very next day.
Test your candidate’s skills
Anyone can say they offer great skills and experience, but devise some tests for them to prove these. This may take a little time to develop if you recruit across a range of skill sets but whatever aspect of construction, it is a worthwhile exercise to ensure you get the skills you need.
Make time to make a decision
As with all parts of the process, speed really is of the essence, so dedicate time to sit down with the decision makers and quickly make the job offer to your chosen candidate to ensure you don’t miss out.
PCR can assist with screening candidates as well as every other step of the process to ensure your recruitment works as quickly and seamlessly as possible. For those labour and trades contractors that you need on a quick turnaround, we also offer our first four-hour probationary period. This timescale allows your site management to assess a candidate’s suitability. If they are unhappy for whatever reason, then there will be no charge and we will replace them for you.