Your Competitive Advantage 4. Do You Have A Hiring Strategy Or Are You Winging It?

Hiring employees is an expensive business process and given that it takes 48.5 people hours to fill a single job vacancy it makes sense to have sound hiring strategies in place to minimise the risk of time and monetary budget blow outs. 

Your monetary budget should be between 100% – 200% of the position’s gross annual remuneration.  This is the cost dispersed over the tenure of the vacancy e.g., if you are turning over a $50k position every 3 years, that is a potential monetary investment of almost $34k per each of those 3 years for that position and this of course is not accounting for the $50k remuneration. 

One of the most widely believed myths about hiring is that it is transactional.  Whilst it is important to have hiring processes the people involved need specific skills, attributes, and training. 

Today however we will focus on the process, and it is important to stress that having a hiring strategy is just as important if not more important for a small business as it is for a fortune 500 corporation.  

There are 3 key aspects to the hiring process, Management, Screening, Interviewing & Hiring, and Administration.  The key responsibilities for each are:
1. Management – are responsible for: - hiring strategy design and documentation protocols - interviewer and hiring manager training programmes - internal hiring policy protocol - talent funnel pooling protocol - employee referral programme guidelines - interview process development and hierarchical limitation stipulations - hiring procedures
2. Screening, Interviewing, and Hiring Personnel are responsible for a sound knowledge of: - employee brand and company culture statements - job descriptions - remuneration schedules and performance and remuneration review practices - employment agreements, policies and procedures including the diversity and inclusion hiring policy – the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - ideal candidate profiling and screening criteria - onboarding and training procedures- reference checking guidelines
3. Administrators must have a sound knowledge of: - advertising mediums including social media, digital, print and the rest, record keeping and placement practices - applicant management - unsuccessful applicant and interviewee communications.

Good hiring decisions are expensive but bad hiring decisions are extremely expensive, so I urge you to establish your Hiring Strategy and aim to get it right first time, every time.