Recruiting good staff.

Recruiting good staff remains challenging and time consuming; to do it well, effort is required.

Go with the gut, utilise leading-edge technology or stick with ‘old fashioned’ methodology? Kevin Kevany’s been checking out some of the latest developments relating to employee recruitment and management.- NZ Business Magazine May 2015.

If you talk to the average small business owner manager about the issues which drive her/him round the bend, inevitably ‘HR’ – and everything which goes with that – follows immediately after the dreaded,seemingly-endless ‘tax process’. Yet in the next breath, they will tell you how important their staff is to the success of the business.

Recruitment is a particular stumbling block for so many business owners. Disturbingly, most seem to ‘rely on their gut’ to make their choices, simply because of the time it takes to get to, and then go through, the interview process.

So, is there help at hand via the cloud and all that the modern digital world delivers? The ubiquitous Skype perhaps?

NZBusiness first sought the views of an experienced professional – the managing director of O’Neil’s Personnel, Annette Sleep, who has worked on the agency side of this challenge for more than 20 years.

“While technology helps to manage our workflows better, do not rely on it to produce quality employees,” she says. “Recruiting good staff remains challenging and time consuming; to do it well, effort is required.

“A throwaway comment made by a candidate I interviewed recently was an accusatory: ‘Your
recruitment processes are old-fashioned.’ I suppose, in the context of social media sites, job boards and Skype interviews, you might think that. In terms of consistently producing quality employees for harried managers though, you may want to stop and reflect on the following:…

“I have come to the conclusion that no matter how wonderful smart technology becomes, it cannot replace the keen insights offered by a structured face-to-face interview with an experienced recruiter,”

says Sleep.

Sleep went on to clarify how to judge the quality of candidates:

POOR QUALITY CADNDIATES are cursed with poor memory.  They never remember the dates they worked for a company or even who they reported to.  They have ‘busy CV’s’ – the candidate has moved about, not staying with any employer for long.  Their reasons for leaving are always vague and upon further questioning they quite often become defensive.  When pushed to give the name of a verbal referee they will often claim their referees are busy senior managers and are not prepared to give permission until they have a job offer.  It begs the question; have today’s candidates become so accustomed to ‘living online’, they struggle with the concept of real time face-to-face interviews?
GOOD QUALITY CANDIDATES have nothing to hide.  They answer questions spontaneously and with good attitude.  no question is too difficult for them to answer and they ‘remember’ the names of their former managers and supervisors – all of whom will give you a glowing reference at the click of a mouse.

To read the rest of this list, view the full article from NZ Business magazine here.