How to improve your success with recruitment

In today's episode our hosts Brenton Gowland and Ron Tomlian talk about how to avoid recruitment pitfalls and increase your success at attracting the right candidates. 

Some of the topics covered include: 

• Avoiding the faith, hope, charity syndrome
• Making sure you do not leave recruitment to chance
• Preparing your brand for recruiting
• Building a work culture that's attractive to candidates
• Displaying your work culture through your brand
• and including your staff in the recruitment process.

The Business Builders Podcast is brought to you by SA Business Builders and Nucleus – Creative Agency.

Nucleus – Creative Agency
Specialising in growing business through brand, digital, video, web, print, campaigns and marketing.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Brenton Gowland: 0:00

Today on Business Builders, we're discussing how to improve your success at recruitment. My co-host Ron reflects on missing his calling as a radio host. We look at some of the feedback that you our listeners have given us about our first episode, and we'll give you our six top tips on how to improve the way you recruit right now. Well, welcome to the second episode of Business Builders. We're your hosts. I'm Brenton Gowland.

Ron Tomlian: 0:27

And I'm Ron Tomlin. I have to say, I'm really encouraged Brenton, we've started receiving some great feedback from our first episode, and a number of suggestions about the topics that people would like to hear about to help them in their business this year, which is great.

Brenton Gowland: 0:41

Yeah, absolutely Ron. And that's why we started Business Builders, so we can talk together about the topics that will help us in business this year. But I know why you're encouraged Ron. And I think it's because of a particular piece of feedback.

Ron Tomlian: 0:54

Indulge me Brenton.

Brenton Gowland: 0:55

Well, here's some of the things people have said about our first episode. Great points. Easy Listening. We're really looking forward to the next episode, and that Ron has a very soothing voice.

Ron Tomlian: 1:06

I must say, I did like that comment. But I'm not sure my family would agree.

Brenton Gowland: 1:11

You do have a great voice for radio, Ron.

Ron Tomlian: 1:13

People have often told me have a great face for radio. But this is a new twist. I think I might have missed my calling.

Brenton Gowland: 1:19

Well, you're making up for it now with your smooth tones. Now, it's probably also worth talking about some of the topic suggestions we've received from people and they include things like, can you please talk on the advantages of having a mentor? And how do I find the right mentor? We'd also like to hear about things like the importance of communication techniques and b2b practices. But a really hot topic right now, is recruitment Ron.

Ron Tomlian: 1:43

Absolutely. So we've chosen that for our topic today.

Brenton Gowland: 1:46

Great. Well keep those suggestions coming in. And we'll try to address them all over time.

Ron Tomlian: 1:53

So just before we get into today's topic, Brenton, we'd like to remind you that the Business Builders podcast is all about providing your listeners with insights that will help you succeed in business this year. But a podcast like this doesn't happen without support. So here's a call out to the wonderful folks at Nucleus, whose generous support helps make this podcast a reality. Nucleus specialises in growing businesses and helping you achieve your goals through brand work, digital print, video, campaigns, web and marketing, and they can help you grow your business. In fact, I've recommended several of my clients visit Nucleus, and they've seen their businesses grow as a result. So do yourself a favour and visit their website at www.nucleus.com.au to see how they can help you.

Brenton Gowland: 2:39

Great stuff.

Ron Tomlian: 2:43

Now in my work with CEOs and executives, I hear a lot about the issues facing individual organisations and businesses in general. And with COVID. And all its many implications, the list of issues has morphed twisted, and unfortunately grown. But regardless, in good times and bad. What do you think consistently is the number one problem that businesses face, regardless of the size of the organisation or the industry?

Brenton Gowland: 3:09

Well, I can think of a number of issues from personal experience in my business from growing the top line by getting in front of new potential customers and winning business to team building cash flow management, but by far, the biggest challenge or issue has always been our people. And by that I mean, building the right team and helping them grow. We've found that can be a full time affair, and particularly if you handle it badly, or you employ the wrong person, it can take up literally all your time and distract you from running your business. So to answer your question, I think the number one challenge that leaders face is recruiting the right people. So you can build that cohesive team that can really help take your business forward.

Ron Tomlian: 3:49

Correct a Mundo! Consistency, and I've seen when you strip away the veneer of all the tactical problems that leaders have getting the right people doing the right things, right, as Verne Harnish puts it, is at the core of their misery. Given that this is such a major issue, surely, most leaders would be full book on the subject of recruitment, right?

Brenton Gowland: 4:12

Not in my experience, it's generally, the last thing we think about, and generally only because were forced to think about it, it's either because someone's left the business, and we have to replace them or we keep growing in the current team can't keep up with the workload. So invariably, some sort of pressure is applied somewhere within the business and we as leaders are forced to think about recruitment.

Ron Tomlian: 4:32

Correct? Again, the answer is a definitive No. Well, not in general anyway, in my experience, so managers, business owners, leaders in general, better at getting and keeping the right people. Is it because there's some dark art to recruitment, that only certain people pre-ordained from birth have the right to practice? You know, you're a wizard Harry type of stuff, or is it just luck or are there actions that any leader can take to increase their chance of success in the recruitment lottery, whose odds seem to be lengthening with every day.

Brenton Gowland: 5:07

Well, I'm not sure how many recruitment wizards are out there on particularly because most of us are busy with other priorities within the business. And in our COVID environment, I'm pretty sure most of us are busy working on the business and getting that top line growing. So I would have to say it's the latter, otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation. So clearly, our topic today is how to increase your success at recruiting the right people for your organisation. Now, it would take more time than we have today to cover such a broad topic. So we're going to confine this podcast to our three top tips for leaders and managers. Now, most likely, we'll probably revisit this in a later podcast to include ideas from experts within the recruitment industry. But for now, I have brought my top three points for increasing your success at getting the right people into your business. And what about Ron?

Ron Tomlian: 5:57

Yes, I brought my top three points. So let's get started. My three things are number one, preparation, number two, preparation, and number three, preparation.

Brenton Gowland: 6:09

That's a lot of preparation.

Ron Tomlian: 6:11

That might sound like only one idea, but I'm happy to explain. I've seen too many people go into recruiting with no real idea of what they want. Basically, a person leaves the manager panics and simply wants another body warm and breathing desirable, occupying the same space as quickly as possible. So everything can go back to normal as quickly as possible with as little effort or expense as possible. But this is the height of delusion, surely, especially when you consider the costs associated with getting the wrong person in the position. And anyone who's had to unwind a poor recruiting decision knows exactly what I mean.

Brenton Gowland: 6:49

Yeah, and I think most business managers or owners have experienced that at least once, if not a few times. Good news is though, that these type of experiences are really good learning, and they get us thinking about how to improve our recruitment choices. In general, they say It costs around at least $10,000 to replace someone. So you want to make sure you're making the right choice if you're going to spend that money on just finding the right person.

Ron Tomlian: 7:12

Yeah, I think 10 to$10,000 is a bit of a low figure, but let's continue.

Brenton Gowland: 7:18

Ok

Ron Tomlian: 7:18

I've heard it described as best as the faith, hope and charity syndrome. A poorly prepared manager employs someone on faith because they look or sound good. Then after a few months, the crack starts appearing with the hire, but the manager has hope that the person will come good in the role. Eventually, the manager realises that they've chosen poorly, the person is not performing at all in that role. Others are having to pick up the slack. From that point onwards, they're providing charity, paying someone who can't do the job. And that phase can go on for a long time. And it's not just the direct cost of that person's salary, the hidden opportunity cost of not having the right person and the effect on morale of other staff all point to a much bigger problem.

Brenton Gowland: 8:03

Okay to to avoid the faith, hope and charity situation.

Ron Tomlian: 8:07

Tip number one, right, be prepared. Make sure you know what you want from the person who feels that position, know what success looks like, have a well articulated job description that not only outlines the duties, but also the purpose of the role. And that purpose is really important. Have a personal description as well what skills and knowledge once they have to fulfil this position, the mandatories and what skills and knowledge would be good but not essential. Basically, the nice to haves that if you don't have, you'd be willing to teach them on the job. And I think don't be afraid for this personal to script in description to include values and attitudes. In my experience, you can train skills and increase knowledge but attitude comes with an individual. Armed with this, you now have a template by which you compare the actual candidates with the ideal candidate that you've thought about and spent time describing.

Brenton Gowland: 9:02

Yeah, this is great and look, a well articulated job description will really help your candidates self select if it's written well, which will save you a bunch of time in shortlisting.

Ron Tomlian: 9:12

So tip number two is related to tip number one, but it's so powerful, I wanted to give it a place of its own. Even with a good job and person description that leaders can use to help select good candidates, the problem of knowing if the person you select is actually working can be or shouldn't be left to chance. So tip number two is don't leave it to chance. Even before you start going to the marketplace for candidates take the time to have a very clear idea of what success looks like once the person starts. What I mean by that is asking, actually asking yourself the question, what would the ideal person in this role have done to make me think at the end of their first day that they were the right person for the job and list those things down. Ask yourself the same question for the end of their first one week what would they have achieved successfully. Then the first month, the first three months, and the first six months. These are things that are measurable or visible, that define success in the role. Of course, they have to be realistic, but give you the confidence that you've chosen wisely. Again, you're now prepared with having a blueprint for whether the person is working out. Even better, the new recruit knows exactly what success looks like for them once they start. So don't be afraid to share it with them at the interview as well.

Brenton Gowland: 10:32

Yeah, that's great stuff. And look, I'd say once you really know what you're looking forward, translate that into preparing really well thought out interview questions, good questions allow the candidate to really open up about all sorts of things, which will give you some really great insights into how they think and whether they can achieve your definition of success or not. So a good recruiter can help you craft these type of questions, Ron, if you need help.

Ron Tomlian: 10:56

Yeah, and it sounds like you're offering a few of your points upfront there, but I'll let you get away with that.

Brenton Gowland: 11:02

Oh thanks.

Ron Tomlian: 11:02

Finally, and there's so much other, many other things I could talk about, relating to interviewing, checking references, and so on. But I've had to say in line with my preparation theme is preparing your brand. Most people think about branding as being solely about the customer. But the truth of the matter is that your organisational branding encompasses all of y ur audiences, customers, supplie s, regulators, financ s, shareholders, and employees. nd this is crucial for recruit ng also potential employees. Y ur organisation has a reputation as an employer, whether you like it or not, and whether you cho se to influence it or not. So my last tip is to first underst nd what your brand is, as an employer to employees, nd potential employees, and t en start to manage that percepti n. The type and quality of he talent you can attract sta es with the reputation you have as an employer, your emplo er brand, employees are looking as much to you as they are, look as you are looking at them. Ma be even more so as the so cal ed war for talent increas s, influencing the way they look at you is therefore becom ng critical.

Brenton Gowland: 12:12

Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Ron, but you've actually stolen one of my tips. I thought I was the branding guy, and the marketing guy, but that's okay. I might comment on this one in my actual tips, if that's okay.

Ron Tomlian: 12:24

Okay, then. So we might as well get straight on that, what are your top three tips, I'm guessing what the first one might be?

Brenton Gowland: 12:30

Well hold the bus. My first tip is actually to build a great staff culture. So I'll get onto the branding thing in a minute. So right off the bat, a great work culture goes a long way towards retaining staff. And there are so many companies who are trying to employ great people at the moment that you know, the good ones have choice. So if they have a choice between two very similar jobs, and one company it looks like the people really enjoy working there. And there may be some doubts about the other one, nine times out of 10, I would suggest that they will choose the business, which displays that they have a great work culture. So creating a great work culture takes deliberate consideration. So for example, staff value things like flexibility in their working arrangements, at least that's what we've found. So being able to work from home are being flexible in their hours, depending on their out of work responsibilities, and you know, that has real value like a dollar value. So having social events, team activities, finding a cause that you can all get behind, like supporting the homeless as a group. Having bosses and management, coming in finding out how you're doing rather than just always talking to you about work. There's also a great way to work out how to build a great staff culture is to actually ask the staff about the culture and what they would like to see. So the final point in creating a great culture is when someone does invariably leave for another job, treat them well. Celebrate the time they've spent with you and let everyone see that. Because the way you treat them when they leave speaks volumes to the rest of your staff. And I've experienced this a few times we've had people leave, but we've found that if you treat them really well, they all might just come back down the track. And when that happens, you get a new level of loyalty.

Ron Tomlian: 14:20

Yes, I think that's an important point. It's, you know, a lot of people listening to this might think, Well, wait a second, they're talking about recruiting. Surely this has nothing to do with recruiting, but it is because it's the as I said before, it's the preparation that makes all the difference. actually going out into the marketing marketplace is the final step. And making sure the person is the right person is the final step in the preparation you've done beforehand. So I'm going to sneak another little tip in there. And that is, when should you be recruiting? And the answer is always.

Brenton Gowland: 14:55

Yeah, that's good. I like that. Because you know, you brought up that tip about brand but you know, brand is actually a reflection of who you are and where you're going, but who you are as the who you are part right now. Right. So I guess further to your earlier point, my next tip, or my second tip is to display your culture through your brand. And a Nucleus, we've worked with countless organisations where part of their brief is to, or is that they want to be seen as an employer of choice. So the best way to do that is through your communications, which might include your website, your social channels, and your interactions with clients and prospects, and sometimes even your competitors. So, firstly, when people are employing and even when they're not, we've seen this, in the websites in the materials that we've built for clients is that the busiest pages on our website will generally be all about careers and key staff, who am I going to be working with more often than not, it's people who are researching for your business so that they can see if they want to work there. And the good ones will go all over your website, like with a fine tooth comb. So invest in demonstrating your culture vision, and the things that make you a great place to work on your website. Sometimes as simple as making sure you invest in your brand, and you look just professional and capable. And that means a lot to people because they're often thinking about a career and not just a job. In other words, you know, how am I going to be able to work here? How am I going to be able to develop myself, right, these guys look like a solid business that are going somewhere. So a well thought out professional website really can give people confidence. Now on the social channels, of course, show how you celebrate with your staff, what you do together and get your staff involved with posting, because the social social channels are a great way to actually demonstrate your culture. And finally, on this tip, brand is not just about how you look and what you write. It's also about how you talk in person, your tone of voice, and what your staff say in meetings, and what you say yes to as a business and how you work with your clients. And we've actually had clients tell us that they've chosen to work with us, because they can see that we work well together as a team. And that it's clear that we have a great staff culture. And when you have clients saying that about you, or prospects, the word spreads, and especially in a place like Adelaide, that's really important.

Ron Tomlian: 17:19

Yeah, I mean, to my way of thinking when, when in my experience, when people are looking at organisations for jobs, the first person or the first people that go to people who are working there at the moment.

Brenton Gowland: 17:34

Yeah, 100%.

Ron Tomlian: 17:35

And straight from the horse's mouth is the ultimate form of information. So in that case, if you're not looking after your staff well, your chances of recruiting well in the future, are pretty slim.

Brenton Gowland: 17:49

Yeah.

Ron Tomlian: 17:49

The opposite is also true, if you are doing the right thing by your staff. And that's seem to be doing the right thing and doing the right thing. And all that comes down to making sure you have open communications, then you've got a much better chance of getting better staff in the future getting better talent. And in fact, I've always believed in this, having your staff be your recruiting force, and having your staff out there looking for the type of people that they want to work with. So it's a multiplier effect when you do this well.

Brenton Gowland: 18:22

Oh, that's very interesting, because that leads directly into my last point, which is, and I learned this a long while back, and it aligns with what you're just saying is get the key staff who are going to be working with the candidate to be involved in the interview process. So but I'll put a caveat on this. The staff that you can involve should really be senior and stuff like managers who have the kind of maturity that's required, because when they're in a meeting with the candidate, and so forth, they'll get a vibe of what it might be like to work with these people, particularly if they're involved in actually being the ones who are asking the questions and taking the candidate through their paces. So the other advantage of this as well is that the candidate will get a feeling about what it's like to work with them, and get a sense of your staff culture, from the people that are involved in the interview process, which is also super important for cultural fit. So that's my third point, get your staff involved in the recruitment process formally.

Ron Tomlian: 19:21

Absolutely. I would never go through an interview process as a single employer. I would always have at least two other people working with me on that interviewing candidates. And don't get me wrong. Interviewing is not the only way to look at candidates. And like I said before, we might have people talk about this later on, but certainly having different perspectives on what candidate said, especially when you're the one asking questions, I found that you're often distracted about the answer because you're thinking about the next question you're going to ask. Having other people looking at the responses when they're not asking the questions is a great way to get feedback on what the candidates like. And as you said, it also gives the person who's looking at the job, or is applying for the job, an opportunity to see that what they're going to get themselves into.

Brenton Gowland: 20:13

Yeah. 100%.

Ron Tomlian: 20:15

So as with our last topic on networking, this is a really important topic and might be worth talking about this some more in future episodes with people from the recruitment industry to get their take on how leaders can be more successful in the recruitment efforts.

Brenton Gowland: 20:29

Yeah, absolutely. So looking at recruiters, because we're going to be knocking on your door to pick your brains for our listeners. And on that, please also, if you're listening here today, let us know if there's any topics that you would like us to discuss. So remember, if you like the podcast, and if you're finding it useful, please post a comment or rate us on Apple podcasts or your favourite podcasting platform. And if you would like us to discuss any topics on future episodes of the Business Builders podcast, as I just mentioned, simply direct message Ron Tomlian or Brenton Gowland on LinkedIn.

Ron Tomlian: 21:03

And please remember to check out our sponsors, Nucleus at nucleus.com.au they're experts helping you build your business and helping you become an employer of choice for helping you with your website, communication, social media, campaigns and brand work. Please check them out.

Brenton Gowland: 21:20

Yep, so thanks for joining us. We hope you found this useful, and we will see you next time.

Ron Tomlian: 21:26

See you in the next episode Brenton.

Brenton Gowland: 21:27

Bye for now.