Articles From the Team

Making your mind up… before you engage a recruiter

Ok you're the boss and you've decided you need help to get through your daily workload, or you think your team needs help, or the business is moving into a different market (be that geographically, products, clients or customers). What do you do? Call a recruiter of course…………………………..Wrong!

No-one knows your business better than you and whilst a recruiter can certainly provide advice to help find the right person, you need to know what you are looking for first. Carrying out a few basic requirement checks will help the whole thing run a lot smoother, make you look more professional and save a lot of wasted time barking up the wrong tree.

So first and foremost, define the position; state the key responsibilities of the position. This will help weed out the people who are unqualified for the job’s responsibilities. Then list the essential qualifications & skills that you require for your team.

One of the most important things is always culture fit so try to define it and express the company’s ‘feel’; each company has their own atmosphere which is unique to it. Be sure to convey the company culture, so the applicant can get a sense of whether the company is right for them.

Assess the salary & benefits: This is crucial for setting the right expectations for the applicants. Leaving a broad band can lead to an inflow of applicants who might require a higher starting base and therefore you are wasting your time when HR turn around and say no later on.

Think about the process you will require to recruit them; how will you conduct the 1st interview and with whom? Do the same for the 2nd interview; are there any other steps? What do you need to setup before that employee comes in; what timeframe are you targeting? Will any longer term business plans affect the position; have you checked with your 1-up if there are any surprise restructures?

All in all, having a quick 10 minute think about the above before calling a recruiter will lead to much more desirable results; you can even do this with some work colleagues to get more buy-in and involvement from their side early on.

If, at interview stage, what you have originally set out doesn’t work for you then it is ok to change your mind but you have to have conceptualised something in the first place. You have to have made your mind up to change it.

For more information contact Mike Huggins at BCL Legal.