Recruitment and retaining the right staff can be a painful and expensive experience for any organisation. How can you reduce the risk of engaging the wrong person for the organisation? How can you nurture the right people so that you have an enthusiastic and cohesive team to facilitate growth and profitability?
There is an old adage, ‘Hire for attitude not skills’. But where does that attitude start? Is it commitment? Is it enthusiasm?
On the one hand, the organisation needs to recruit the right person for the role and, on the other, the candidate needs to understand the role and what is expected of them. Equally, for the candidate, the organisation might not be a ‘good fit’ for them and their values. There needs to be a common understanding right from the start.
Recently, I have heard employers in my business networks struggling with two key issues. First, to find the right candidate. Secondly, finding quite early into a new employee hire, that the employee’s approach or attitude to their new role does not ‘fit’ with the organisation they have just joined.
When you consider recruitment agencies fees, the cost of induction and the precariousness of the probation, the process is fraught with risk. Having a new employee leave for whatever reason can be expensive.
With that in mind, how can an organisation reduce the financial and time implications? There are three critical stages in employing a new candidate for a role and keeping them so that they become a productive member of your team.
- Hiring the right candidate
- Onboarding them so that they understand their role and the organisation they are joining
- Training, which is often costly and always time-consuming
Fairly obvious right? However, in my research for this article and indeed discussing projects with our clients, I have found that there is often insufficient preparation by the organisation in the groundwork needed to fill a role – largely driven by the urgency and need to fill a position quickly.
The ‘right fit’ for an organisation should be about attitude. However, you can only identify the right attitude if you know what you’re looking for in a candidate. Communicating the role requirements is vital, of course, but so is a clear definition of the organisation’s approach to its teams and operating processes.
This is where the organisation’s culture, its principles and values play an important role. Communicating these clearly from the outset is critical but often overlooked. In addition to defining the role, in briefing the recruitment agency and attracting the right candidate, culture and values will contribute to getting the right ‘fit’. It’s the starting point for any new recruit and it’s the only way to ensure longevity and the productivity of that candidate.
Documents, typically PDFs, are the first choice in delivering this information, but there is a much more efficient way, and it can be automated to save time and resources. Interactive video – it’s the apex communication tool now.
During the hiring process, interactive video can promote corporate culture, organisation values and principles, as well as definition of roles, and communicate them in a new and innovative way. Even automating an early process of candidate selection will ensure the right things are said, expected and required, right from the get-go.
Onboarding can be streamlined for candidates through a series of educative videos that have choices at strategic points, and candidates’ responses can be tracked. These videos can be triggered automatically at any point of the induction process. Role expectations, holiday policies, and health and safety are just three examples that can be automated and streamlined to save on resources.
Video has been used in training for a long time already but adding interactivity enables the training to be automated to a large degree. Tracking results and the candidates’ choices can either take them forward or send them back to certain points again within the training process. This saves time and resources for more critical aspects of the role training.
Clear communication and smart use of simple technologies can help an organisation to get their hiring, onboarding and training in good order.
Mike Hacker is the CEO of Prisma Broadcast, a video communication house based in Ashford, Kent. For more information, visit www.prismabroadcast.com or call 01233 511151.
