Recruiting

Attracting and recruiting people for your support institution is a major task in which the executive management should actively participate. Recruiting does not only mean posting a job advertisement and selecting a suitable job candidate, it is also attracting high potential employees.

Recruiting implies promoting your institution whenever possible to potential employees. The objective is to make the institution known and perceived as a desirable employer. The following will contribute to the promotion of the institution as an employer:

· Participating in professional events and/or bodies

· Having close contacts to academic institutions (teachers and students)

· General awareness and reputation building via press releases, publications, events

· Developing brochures that include a staff policy and/or recruitment information

· Issuing an annual report including staff policy and/or recruitment information

· Being a fair and good employer to all of your staff. Word-of-mouth is a very powerful promotion tool and it spreads easily on the job market.

What are the steps in a typical recruiting process?

a) Create a job/task description for the position

The job description states the name of the position, the tasks that the jobholder will have to perform, the rights and responsibilities and the qualifications considered necessary for the job.

$image\example.gif$ See an example Job Description.

Source: 501Click Corporation

$image\further_info.gif$ To follow an interactive, online hiring process, see AMEX online hiring tool that guides you through establishing the job description.

b) Communication of job opening

How will you communicate the job opening to potential candidates? The media you will use depends on the country’s business practice, your budget, the importance of the position and the characteristics of the potential candidates.

· Communicate the opening to your professional and private networks and contacts

· Advertise the opening in journals or newspapers

· Announce the opening to universities and other professional development institutions

· Post the opening on the Internet (Institution Web site, Internet job markets)

· Contract a “head hunter” or job agency (expensive, mostly for executive positions)

· Announce the opening to the public unemployment agencies

After deciding on the combination of media you are going to use for your announcement, you will have to write the announcement or job posting.

$image\checkred.gif$ Note 16 Components of job postings or announcements

ü	Position title and location
ü	Presentation of the support institution or association (mission, history, key figures)
ü	Concise job description (tasks, responsibilities and duties, qualification needed)
ü	Personality, values or characteristics considered important
ü	Job conditions (salary, full time/part time, hours, social benefits etc.)
ü	Application documents and contact details (contact person, mail, email, phone ...)

$image\templates.gif$ Elaborate a typical job posting with the help of the attached sample job posting.

$image\example.gif$ See a sample job posting for a Trainer from IPD SR

c) Reception of applications and screening

After expiration of the deadline for the reception of applications the executive manager will need to understand the profile of all applicants and evaluate them. How can this be done?

· Firstly establish a list of criteria that are most important to perform well in the job. The criteria should be clearly derivable from the job description/posting: education, professional qualification, experience, personal values or characteristics

Example Criteria for SCM Trainer: At least 5 years professional experience in a supply chain management function, experience in developing and/or using training materials, experience in training professionals, being fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, open and communicative personality, ability to explain complex issues in a motivating way, optimistic and entrepreneurial, team player with other trainers, willing to travel 50 % of working time,

· Check for every candidate if he or she fulfils the defined criteria. Focus on the achievements and actual work/education the applicant has concluded – loose statements without any prove are questionable.

Example: Applicant statement: “I am a good team player....” But in her CV and motivation letter there is no indication that she has worked in a team or contributed to any team projects. Her interests and hobbies are more individual activities, she likes reading, cinema and jogging.

Applicant statement: “I am very flexible and like new challenges...” His CV demonstrates that he has worked in the same profession and company since he has finished school. In the past five years he did not participate in any professional development or other further qualification activities. His interests and hobbies do not indicate a favour for challenges either: he collects stamps and likes gardening.

· The applications missing one or more of the important criteria will be put aside. Depending on the amount and quality of the remaining candidates, you decide whether you wait if a suitable candidate is identified out of this group before communicating the rejection to the insufficient applications or whether you communicate the rejection immediately.

· The rejection to the candidates should be made in an objective and constructive, factual way. Show respect to all candidates who made the effort to apply with your institution! The job market can be a small place, people communicate about their job search to their friends, family and colleagues. Bad “word of mouth” spreads easily and can harm your reputation on the job market substantially. A person that you do not consider appropriate for your job opening today may also become a highly interesting candidate in a few years. Ideally, the manager communicates either per letter or per phone the objective reason why the candidate was not further considered for the position. Always thank the candidates for their interest in your institution and give some positive feed-back on their profile, too.

Example: Thank you very much for your interest in working for our professional support institution. Unfortunately, we cannot consider you this time. The post requires at least 5 years experience as a professional trainer whereas you just started your professional career. However, we think your profile is very strong and would like to contact you in case a more junior position opens in the near future.

· The positively evaluated candidates will be invited for an interview. In case there are too many people left, find other criteria that should ideally be met and check again for the remaining group.

d) Decision on the interview process and conditions

Depending on the open position (executive manager, consultant, accountant, trainer, etc.) the interview conditions and process will be different. For example, the candidates for the executive manager position will be interviewed by the board of directors, the trainers will have to prepare a presentation and will be evaluated by a panel of experienced trainers, the accountants will have to do a case study and an interview with the executive manager, etc.

· Determine the conditions and terms for the interview process and communicate them properly to the applicants (give them enough time for necessary preparations), preferably in writing.

· Establish a list of questions for the interview.
Basically, you will want to know:

1. Why does the candidate want to work with your institution. What is his/her motivation?

2. What can the candidate contribute or do for your institution? What are his/her skills, experiences, ideas?

3. What personality does the candidate have? What are his/her values?

4. What are the candidates expectations (salary, work conditions, development, liberty, etc.)?

· Elaborate any exercises, case studies or work samples you want the candidates to do.

e) The interview

· Like the applicant also the interviewer needs to prepare for the interview. The following documents should be at hands for an interview:

- Institution brochure

- Annual report or overview of achievements, if available

- Collection of positive media releases

- Samples of products or descriptions relevant to the position (training materials, publications, description of databases, consultant handbook, etc.)

- The application documents (CV, letter of motivation, etc.) of the interviewee

- Job posting/announcement

- List of interview questions with possibility to note the answers

- Exercises, case-study, work sample to be done by the candidate

· How to conduct an interview?

The interview is a personal communication between two or more people. Therefore, it depends on the cultural background, education, personality and character of the participating people. A professional interview should follow some general rules.

Remember, it is also a chance for you to present and demonstrate the quality of your institution and inform the interviewees about its purpose and objectives. Especially in non-profit or small, unknown organisations potential candidates often need more than financial motivations to join the team. See also “Compensation”

Note 17 How to conduct a job interview

ü	Reserve a quiet, necessarily equipped and “pleasant” room for the interview.
ü	Tell the secretary and other staff not to disturb the interview session. Do not allow incoming phone calls.
ü	Welcome the applicant, offer something to drink (non-alcoholic) and try to “warm-up” the communication (how was your travel, did you find our office without difficulties, how are you...).
ü	Start with a presentation of the institution and hand out the brochure, annual report, press releases etc. to the candidate(s).
ü	Describe the open position and its relevance for the institution.
ü	Ask whether the candidate has any questions, needs any further information.
ü	Then start with the interview questions regarding the applicant’s motivation, skills, experiences and know-how as well as his personality.
ü	Note all answers and impressions you got in the interview immediately (you will need the notes to objectively compare applicants).
ü	After having finalised any work sample, exercises, etc. thank the candidate for the interview, inform him/her about any further steps and maybe ensure your interest in the application.
ü	Do NOT indicate or commit any selection or decision at this stage, even if you found the candidate especially convincing. The selection only takes place after you have heard all applicants and evaluated the interviews.

f) Evaluation and reference checks

After finalising all interviews and work samples or tests the decision taker(s) will systematically evaluate the interviews. This will again be done in view of the qualification and personality criteria stated in the job description. Make a list for all candidates including any comments regarding personality or character.

It is widely known that the selection of applicants is far more driven by the experienced sympathy for and personal impression of a person than by real facts. In order to avoid a too subjective decision it is advisable that two or more people participate in the interview and exchange their views.

$image\tips.gif$ Tip 5 Evaluation of job candidates

ü	Sympathy and preferences for job candidates are very subjective.
ü	Try to be aware of your own subjectivity (e.g., I like candidate A because she reminds me of a good friend of mine. I found candidate B less appealing as he speaks the same way as an ex-colleague with whom we had a lot of problems. Candidate C has a horrible taste in cloths.)
ü	Counter-check your “feelings” with facts and achievements of the candidates.

In the end, the candidate needs to fit the team and the style of his/her future manager. In the author’s opinion, the personality fit with the team and the supervisor has a strong impact on the success of a job holder. This does not mean that all employees need to have the same character, views and/or personality, but they need to harmonise and understand each other. For example, a person who likes to work in a competitive and challenging environment can fail in a team that works in a non competitive, very harmonious way where individuals stay back for the forthcoming of the team as a whole.

Another possibility to gain more information on the most interesting job applicants is to check on their references and former employers. Be aware that the respective law (employee or data protection) might forbid some questions or information exchange and that the information received can be manipulated or highly subjective, too.

g) Communication of the decision to the candidate

Organise a meeting with the chosen candidate and make the job offer personally. This is also the opportunity to discuss open questions, especially the conditions and terms of the job. Salary will normally be discussed in this occasion.

Ideally, you will have already prepared the sample job contract and hand it over to the applicant. Allow for a reasonable reflection time for the candidate to discuss with his/her family or friends, inform about the legal terms, etc.

In case the candidate excepts your offer, you will need to inform the remaining applicants about your decision. The rejection should be made personally over the phone and follow the same guidelines as stated above for the rejection of candidates in the first round. Avoid sending an impersonal letter, this is generally perceived as insulting after having gone through a profound personal interview.

In case the chosen candidate rejects your offer, you will need to contact the second best applicant. If none of the other applicants were considered suitable for the job, you might start searching again. The non-chosen applicants need to be informed personally about their rejection.

h) Contracts and Confidentiality Agreements

The contractual terms will vary depending on the position and the regulatory framework. In general, a trial period can be agreed between the employer and the employee. This means that both sides can dissolve the contract easily in the trial period that extends to max. 6 months.

Independent from the nature of the contract, your staff, volunteers and independent contractors should sign a confidentiality and invention agreement. The agreement obliges the employee legally do not disclose any confidential information or intellectual property to third parties during or after his assignment. The invention agreement states that anything invented or created by the employee in the framework of his job becomes automatically the property of the institution. The agreement should include a clause defining the law applied and the place of arbitration in case of a dispute.

$image\example.gif$ See example consultant agreement including confidentiality and invention agreement.

Source: Allbusiness.com

i) First day of work

Prepare for the first day of work in respect of the proverb that first impressions go a long way. Organise for a brief welcome of the beginner where he/she will be presented to the executive manager (maybe also the board) and his/her colleagues. Clarify if necessary the role of the new employee and express your trust in a good and fruitful co-operation.

The new jobholder should get a short orientation on his work place and an overview of any administrative processes and necessities. Prepare work and information packages for the first days and/or nominate an employee who will help the newcomer to orient in his/her new job.