Effective Recruitment Strategies for Business Growth

1. Recruiting V1.2 IN-DBL 2001 Lars Monrad-Krohn, UIO IN-DBL2001 LMK

2. Before deciding to recruit • Several people on a team can get more work done than one person, but is it really necessary to have one more, or have a new person for this function to be filled? • Could this task be given to an existing employee, who might be relieved of some work • Could this task be automated? • Could this task be outsourced? • What is the consequence of not filling the postion? IN-DBL2001 LMK

3. Before deciding to recruit 2 • Can you recruit someone you have worked with before, thus knowing strengths and weaknesses of the person? • Do you need someone working in an existing group environment, or someone with a new and different “attitude”(Like in a Quality Control function for production, or Sales function for developers. If so make sure he/she will be supported) IN-DBL2001 LMK

4. Before deciding to recruit 3 • Is the new person to be hired according to the BusinessPlan ?, or will you have to change it ? • Can you define the goals to be achieved for this new person, in relation to the existing people? • Normal recruiting time could be as much as 5 months IN-DBL2001 LMK

5. Before deciding to recruit 4 • Salary and benefits. • Can you design a result dependant salary? (Needs a good business plan) • A high salary should not be the motivator • Fringe benefits are highly effective use of company money, be innovative!! • Budget with 10% of salary in job qualification and educational programs. (Life-long learning) • Find a list of popular fringe benefits in “Finansavisen” 2000/2001 • Check out for possible tax repercussions, have a defense strategy • Don’t use false car-travel reports. (Too obvious and also habit forming) IN-DBL2001 LMK

6. Before deciding to recruit 5 • Virtual organization (almost) • Advanced philosophers (unorganized.net) claim that people in the future will have several paralell careers and will be loyal only to their profession, not their employer • Having most people on a consultant basis will decrease fixed costs and make easier rapid change or contraction in the organization • Outsourcing of services, even customer relations, are increasing and will lower fixed costs and increase fleksibility IN-DBL2001 LMK

7. Before deciding to recruit 6 • Hiring personell gives you responsibility for both people and the payroll • You need to have a personell policy and execute it • Unknown author: “Running a business would be simple, were it not for the people involved” IN-DBL2001 LMK

8. Recruiting time-lag • Decide on new person, plan reoganization, with modified budget and get approval from BOD, make advertisement;4 weeks • Advertisement time: 2-4 weeks • Selection of candidates, interviewing, decision, negotiations:3-4 weeks • Waiting for person to become released from previous job: 12-16 weeks • Sum:21-28 weeks,= 5-6 months IN-DBL2001 LMK

9. Growth of organization • For an organization there are three alternatives: • Growth and expansion, making it possible to keep good people by giving them new and increased responsibilities as time goes • Stagnation and death, keeping only people that works for the salary needed • Project-oriented businesses, to be terminated • Put high growth very near the top of you list of goals for the company! IN-DBL2001 LMK

10. When recruiting • Probability of getting right person is about 50%, what is you plan B? • It might take a year to find out! • What career plan can you offer your new employee? • Could the new person be tested out as a consultant to be hired temprarily, before offering him/her the job.? (Will need more cash outlay, but could be less costly considering the probability of getting a non-functioning person) IN-DBL2001 LMK

11. Finding the “right” person • You will never find the “right” person ! • The best you can hope for is finding a good person for the organization. • Prepare for the interviews! (Several books written on the subject) • Only reasonably safe method in evaluating a candidate is to evaluate past performance! IN-DBL2001 LMK

12. Growth from 1 employee (yourself) • Most difficult recruiting is the second employee, who will double the staff. (And have a lot of influence) • Early employees (or functions) should include the controller, given that yourself is not an economy fanatic • Decide very early on a modern organizational infrastructure making extensive use of internet, intranet, ERP, CRM and automation so that the new people will be recruited to use efficient information handling, instead of having to introduce ICT to people already having settled on some manual routines • If you can have a well known team with you at startup or waiting for engagement, you can save lot of work IN-DBL2001 LMK

13. Using a “head-hunter” • A head-hunter will have a no-cure-no pay attitude, and have many candidates in a database • Price for one employee could be ½ years salary • Beware of companies selling the same person over and over again from their candidate-base • You still need to do your own interview and evaluation! IN-DBL2001 LMK

14. Using a recruiting bureau • A recruiting burea will offer their best services, and be paid for the process, and you decide to accept a proposal. (If you do not accept the proposed candidate, usually you will pay less for a second round) • Degree of participating in the recruiting process will be your decision, with costs matching involvement as negotiated • Task: Get an offer from one and compare IN-DBL2001 LMK

15. Personal profile • Recruiting bureaus often use a systematical way of evaluating the candidates personal traits, profile and “personality”. Best known might be the “Meyer-Briggs” personality classification method, classifying a personality with some 4-8 parameters.(Task: find out more) • As theory goes the personality-parameters should match or supplement those of his/hers coworkers, boss and subordinates (Which again needs to be evaluated) IN-DBL2001 LMK

16. Your own interview • Make candidate at ease • Remember you might meet this person in the future as a customer or otherwise! • Most motivated people can keep a “Façade” for 5-10 hours in a single session, not to speak of 1 hour! Try to “level” with the candidate • Be positive • Get numerical facts, not subjective opinions. (Subjective evaluations may vary wildly from person to person) IN-DBL2001 LMK

17. Your own interview 2 • Have a common objective of the interview with the candidate on neutral ground. This could be: • Clarifying his experiences, successes and failures relevant for this job, position and goals • Use “brain-storming” and put a priority on what comes up • Use a flip-over • Task: Make an interview! IN-DBL2001 LMK

18. Møteplan for Intervju • Ønsket Resultat = Felles forståelse for kandidatens yrkeserfaring • Spørre om aksept av ØR • Agenda • Legge fram agenda-forslag og spørre om aksept • Brainstorm om yrker og jobber, lage liste • Prioritere mest relevante yrker/jobber, f.eks. 3 • For hver av disse få stikkord på erfaringer, • For den viktigste få stikkord for mål, resultater, lært, relasjoner, deloppgaver • Evaluering • Referat IN-DBL2001 LMK

19. Agenda for Intervju: 30 min. IN-DBL2001 LMK

20. Some advice • Always check thouroughly and candid references to get past first pleasant superficial reference reponse. Here is where you find “gold” that is valuable for you whether he/she is hired or not. (Remember that you need to know as much as possible about you coming employee to make both of you happy with his work) IN-DBL2001 LMK

21. Some advice 2 • Never settle for a mediocre employee! • Have a written short contract, not forgetting: • Time of salary adjustment and obtaining shares (yearly on date of starting work) • Confidentiality clause and software licensing rules surviving employment termination for some time, with mentioning of possible damages • Possible insider share trading rules mentioned • Notice-time for quitting and firing, beeing short (2 weeks) for “trial period” IN-DBL2001 LMK

22. Candidate Fact-finding • Name, Age, Domicile, Telenumbers, When available for next interview • Previous education and work periods (Are there any “holes” not accounted for) • Present tasks, (and previous), travel time, salary and benefits, notice time • Why this job? • Why quitting present job? • Ambitions for the future, including salary expectations/demands • Hobbies and leasure time usage • Family situation • Military service? • Languages • Health • Certificates IN-DBL2001 LMK

23. Recruiting companies • Styre Info as, Oslo for Board Members • Mercuri Urval, OsloInternational Selection and Counseling • AETAT, Governmental, Locally placed offices in Norway • StepStone, Internet-based • NIF, Recruiting database IN-DBL2001 LMK

24. Temporary personell for hire companies • Manpower, Oslo • AETAT offspring = ? • Datavikar ? IN-DBL2001 LMK

25. Recruiting Board Members • Styre-Info /Gunnar Eckbo IN-DBL2001 LMK