A (practical) story about recruitment

The best way to bottle your purpose and strategy is with the right team

If you have ever worked with us before you know how much we love a good check-in question. The power of checking-in is not just to break the ice, give everyone an equal voice or to get everyone onto the same page at the start of a session — it is also an opportunity to allow room for different perspectives and thought processes you don’t always have exposure to in your day-to-day operations.

This check-in was one of those for me :

“If you had to bottle five things about your business (in its current state) to remember it forever, what would they be and why?”

The answers started a great conversation about longevity, the future and strategy.

We mapped these responses out to ascertain how to get a business’ strategy to live beyond the people currently driving it.

The answer, we discovered, is to build your team and find individuals who will drive your purpose as much as you do.

You might think: “Easier said than done though. Recruiting the right individuals takes time, a focused team and, and, and…” Well, it doesn’t have to.

Here are ten things we have learnt in the last few months while implementing recruitment processes for our clients that you can implement in your business.

Step 1 : Purpose. And why you need it for recruitment :

We always encourage a revisit or reiteration of the holistic purpose statement of your team or the business (depending on the size). Along with that, we encourage a purpose statement to lead recruitment projects that is aligned to the overall business purpose. Simple questions like: “Why do we need to recruit?” and “What is our growth strategy and how are we going to get there?” are keys to success.

If you need help with mapping out your purpose statement, have a look at our Purpose Template on Miroverse . This is a great framework for you to kick off with. It might take an extra 45 minutes of your time but when done right, this is half your work done because you are starting with a clear mental model. This way, you won’t have to second guess your decisions.

https://miro.com/miroverse/purpose-statement-journey/

Step 2 : After looking at your purpose, the next fundamental question to ask is: “Who are we looking for?”

This is like the start of a good old game of Monopoly… do not pass go if you have not done this part right!

Mapping this out visually is important. Leaning on character classes here can be very helpful along with questions that can lead you, such as:

• What traits does our ideal candidate possess?
• Is this role a reactive or a proactive role?
• What are the non-negotiables within this role?

Sometimes knowing what we don’t want in a person we are recruiting is as important as what we do. Never do this stage in isolation. Bring in other voices from within your team that are different to yours. Be very careful of recruiting in your own image.

Step 3 : Do a deep dive on your current team and lean on practical profiling

Who are the superstars within your team that can be profiled? How do you best understand their work style and attributes? Profiling removes bias and uses tools that allow you to be objective in your decision making. A great start is to profile these individuals with a tool like the PPA (Personal Profile Analysis). We love using the PPA because it provides an accurate assessment of how people behave in the workplace.

Read more about the PPA : https://www.kaleidoscopesa.co.za/post/let-s-talk-talent-the-ppa

Step 4 : Workflow. Wow, we love this word. It’s the simplicity of a rhythm that sets people apart from success and failure. And every failure we encounter could be avoided with this step.

Questions to guide you to establish success include:

• Who is the recruitment team?
• What is the internal recruiting workflow?
• How much time is this task team going to commit to working on recruitment?
• How often are we going to come together for an update and re-alignment?

A smooth workflow, regular check-ins, retrospectives, and updates are essential for a strong recruitment process. We strongly suggest that you use a dashboard and monitor progress from the metrics set out. Don’t underestimate this step. The devil is in the detail!

Step 5 : Identify the right tool to use

This one is a biggy! Let’s pause at this stage for a bit.

Empathy, understanding and applying judgement is a massive part of a recruitment process, but recruitment is also really taxing from an admin perspective. The right recruitment tool should:

• Reduce admin by enabling automations in the recruitment workflow,
• Save you time by generating the right dashboards so you can zoom out and have an overview,
• Give you the ability to quickly connect and update each candidate during their recruitment journey with you, and
• Provide the business with the right dashboards and insights at the click of a button.

With this out of the way you have more time to spend on the human side of recruitment.

We have been using Workable as a recruiting platform and it has been a game changer for us and our clients.

Read more about workable here: www.workable.com

Okay, we have successfully covered the first five steps in the process. What’s left?

Step 6 : Language. Empathy. Honesty.

After creating elements such as the job description, role overview, benefits and working environment, pause and put yourself in the shoes of the candidate.

Create an opportunity to be the person applying for this role and ask yourself the questions you would like answered :

• What do you need to know?
• What do you want to know?
• What will success look like within this role?

It is vital not to simply paint a pretty picture to attract who you are looking for. Ensure you add the minimum requirements that will assist in the first part of your screening process so you aren’t setting candidates up for disappointment or failure. Do this correctly and the rest of the usual talent management of your business becomes so much easier.

Step 7 : The Candidate Journey :

The recruitment workflow

What steps do you need in the process to best get to know the candidate and for them to best understand you as the employer?

It is important to make sure every candidate is given the same opportunity to present themselves, and for you to present yourself as a business. Here workflow will allow you to be consistent, non-biased, fair, and objective. A candidate workflow should be able to eliminate 50% of human error.

Step 8 : What communication does a candidate receive at each stage of their recruitment journey?

Step 9 : What is your regret process?

Recruitment is a very vulnerable time for the candidate who has applied. It is never easy, so it is essential for the recruitment team to remain human and empathetic during the process. Everyone needs feedback. If it is a no — use the opportunity to close off your relationship with the candidate in the right way. You aren’t just talking to a potential team member here but a potential customer and ambassador for your brand. It is never okay to be an asshole. And if you are, good luck with the future of your business!

The last thing you want is for someone to leave this process with a bad taste in their mouths. This step doesn’t get seen as having ‘bottom line value’ but trust us, word of mouth is a powerful tool within karma’s toolkit.

Step 10 : You’ve found a great candidate!

Make sure you finish up their recruitment process and don’t drop any balls! A great sign-up and sign-on process are vital. Read more about onboarding in this blog Carla Hill Lewis recently put together :

https://www.kaleidoscopesa.co.za/post/be-prepared-as-the-scouts-say

Ten steps. This may seem like a lot. It is. But it’s worth it.

If it is too much for you and your team to handle, you have people like us to help you get setup. So, feel free to give us a shout. Otherwise, believe in yourself and your team! You can do it!

Ah, before I forget, remember there are two types of businesses, and your recruitment process will clearly show this to you.

I’ve always loved this saying by R.W. Emerson :

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”

Allow vulnerability throughout your process, apologise publicly for anything you may have gotten wrong in the past as a recruitment team, and most importantly allow time for introspection and transparency. Take your future team seriously. These are the people who need to shine. These are the people who will help you and work with you to take all those items you’ve bottled and bring it to life. And add their own special ingredients to the bottle too!