Copy
May 2016
Because the People You Employ are Your Competitive Advantage


Dear <<First Name>>,

The people you employ are part of your competitive advantage. As with many aspects of People Management there is no perfect process that will lead to you appointing the perfect employee. However, you can, as part of your People Strategy, develop an approach to recruitment that will help you appoint high performing people who will maximise your competitive advantage.
 
Read on to find out how to develop this approach and build a strong advantage for your organisation.                         
 
  Best wishes,
 
  Michelle Prescott

Because the People You Employ are Your Competitive Advantage


It is essential that you remember that recruitment is more than just finding someone with the right skills and experience to do the job. An often overlooked vital element is finding candidates who have the personality and approach to complement and integrate successfully with the rest of your team. Many organisations also lose sight of the crucial fact that recruitment is a two-way process. You have to sell your organisation to potential candidates as being the best one to join, just as much as they have to sell themselves to you.
 
When recruiting, you can’t assume that just because you have a job to fill, the right people are readily available and waiting to present themselves to you. Even in an economic downturn when there should be plenty of candidates to choose from, it doesn’t automatically follow that the best candidates will apply for your vacancy. To build an effective team, you want to take on the best person for the job, not just someone who can do the job. If a person is good at what they do and they are settled in their current organisation, you have to make sure that your approach to People Management will be sufficient to tempt them into joining yours.
 
There’s no exact recruitment process for you to follow that will guarantee recruitment success, but I have identified a number of stages that I have found critical in building a high performing team. You can use this information to develop a process suited to your organisation.
 
A Good Place to Start: Working Out What You Need
 
The best place to start is to analyse what has led you to the point of looking to recruit. If you want to fill a new role it will help if you think about the impact it will have on covering particular tasks and duties, and what other roles it can potentially affect. If you are considering recruiting because someone is moving on from an existing job, either because they are leaving or have been promoted, take the opportunity to consider whether you need a ‘like for like’ replacement. The vacancy could open up an opportunity to give more responsibility to someone already in your team, or to recruit someone with a different skill set.
 
Regardless of whether you are increasing your headcount or filling a vacancy, the next stage is to identify what needs to be done, what skills and experience you need, and how that person needs to fit into your current team. It will help if you engage other people in your team at this stage, including, if applicable, the person who is moving on, to get their thoughts about the requirements of the role. Their input can be useful in ensuring you recruit to meet the team’s actual needs.
 
Once you have decided on the details of the vacancy you want to fill, the next stage is to produce a job description. Over the years I have seen many different examples of what is typically called a Job Description, but can have various titles including Role Profile and Person Specification. There is no set format to any of these, and a search online will provide you with hundreds of examples. You can also find interesting articles and blog posts from people arguing that you don’t need to have job descriptions at all!
 
I am not going to debate here what they are called, what goes into them, or even whether you have them or not. It is for you to decide what is appropriate for your particular organisation.
 
If you do decide to write one then what I would say is: don’t be tempted to just copy a job description from elsewhere. Ensure that what you develop meets your organisation’s particular requirements and avoid the typical pitfalls that include:
 

  • It becomes a long ‘to do’ list.
  • It is so detailed that it is restrictive and could result in someone saying, “It’s not on my job description” when something doesn’t get done.
  • Expecting to recruit someone who will be able to meet the requirements of everything listed in the job description.

 
As an aside to job descriptions, I do advocate organisations not getting hung up on job titles. A job is more than a title and it is not possible to convey everything in a role using only a couple of words. If you are developing a role, remember that the majority of time should be spent on what it needs to cover, not what it is called.
 
I also advocate that organisations avoid the traditional organisation chart. I have lost too much time stuck in meetings trying to define a chart that rapidly becomes out of date. Time consuming debates have raged about what lines go where, if they are solid or dotted, how big the box is, and if it should it be higher on the page than the person next to them as they are more senior! I have also then had to spend more time resolving problems when they are published.
 
The traditional organisation chart can be replaced with a ‘who’s who’ and details about what people do, which is less contentious but is still very useful both for external stakeholders and for new team members during induction.
 
If you do produce something that defines the role, then you need to make sure it does not over or under sell it. Writing something based on how you want someone to develop rather than focusing on what you want them to do now, can lead to recruiting the wrong person.
 
Once you have decided on what support you need, the next step is to recruit someone to fill your vacancy!
 

Effective People Management is here!

It’s been a long time coming, but finally, my new book, “Effective People Management (What Every Manager Really Needs to Know About Building a High Performing Team)”, is here!

It is not a textbook that will tell you everything there is to know about the day-to-day practical and theoretical aspects of HR or People Management. It is a collection of insights into what managing people really entails – including the fact that the only predictable thing about people is that they are unpredictable. This book will show you the importance of taking an individual approach with every People Management situation that you have to deal with. It will encourage you to carefully think about your own approach and how to anticipate and prepare for a wide range of reactions from the different people in your team.

Click here to order your copy for just £11.99 plus £2.80 p+p.


www.PersonaPM.co.uk
Michelle.Prescott@PersonaPM.co.uk

Copyright (C) 2016 Persona People Management All rights reserved.






This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences
Persona People Management · Downsleah · North Fawley · Oxon, Oxf OX12 9NJ · United Kingdom

Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp