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Quick Guide to Recruiting the Best People for your Team

Posted in Employer Update, Quick Guide

Published May 2024

Struggling with Recruitment & Turnover – Read this!

Over the past few years, the search for top talent has become a significant problem across all industries. As the Covid-19 lockdowns ended in late 2021, job vacancies surged across Australia highlighting crippling staff and skill shortages. The reopening of the borders was expected to be important in offering a solution, and now immigration is reviewing its quotas and skillset required for the Australian workforce future.

Fast forward to 2024 and 100% of Edwards HR’s clients are still experiencing some difficulties. As a result of the skills shortage during COVID, a term, the “Great-Resignation”, was brought about to describe an employee’s deep dissatisfaction with previous employment situations back in 2022.

This dissatisfaction is thought to be caused by the ongoing global pandemic enabling workers to rethink their careers, work/life balance, long-term goals, and working conditions. All over the world, we are now seeing workers ditching pre-covid conditions like long hours and burnout and pursuing better work-life balance.

Employers are now facing a different job market landscape, with companies needing to “sell” career development, hybrid work, working from home options, and other flexibility and benefits to attract workers as jobseekers are now looking for a more fulfilling work-life balance. This is a challenge across all industries. However, it’s important to rethink the status quo.

For employees, this is being seen as the great times for flexibility with employers offering more flexibility than ever before.

1. HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCESS

As you rethink the status quo, it is important to remember that there is no silver bullet, or one size fits all approach to recruitment. Following these tips and tricks will allow you to reassess and hopefully improve your recruitment, onboarding, retention, and benefits strategies.

a) Hiring for Potential

There are several groups of workers who can be overlooked when it comes to recruitment, but we encourage you to consider these!

b) Graduates: Take a moment to consider everything you can gain by recruiting a graduate including:

An affordable employee who’s excited about their first job;
Eager to make a strong impression;
Equipped with an up-to-date education and;
Ready to absorb whatever training you can offer.
Come with a real passion for the role they have studied

These points considered, they get an opportunity to launch a career in the field of their choice and you get an opportunity to plan the future of your organisation by moulding a graduate in your company’s image, values and culture.

c) Marginalised Workers:

Marginalisation occurs when certain people, or, in a workplace setting, employees are treated as invisible, and their talents are unwelcome and excluded. Examples of marginalised populations include groups excluded due to factors such as race, sexual orientation, age, language and immigration status.

It is important to conscientiously create opportunities for individuals from marginalised populations. Considering alternative hiring pathways could benefit your organisation in multiple ways including;

Meeting the skills and competency levels necessary for the future of work;
Access to previously untapped talent to meet evolving workforce needs;
Enhanced performance and;
Attracting and retaining top talent.

Actively engaging marginalised populations will allow for a more engaging, diverse and resilient organisation, helping to not only improve outcomes for these individuals but for the organisation as well.

d) Hiring for Attitude:

While talented employees may possess the ability to pick up new skills with ease, it doesn’t follow that they will always make the effort. Individuals possessing a less natural talent, but who have the willingness to work hard, can acquire skills through their sheer effort and determinations. The difference between those two candidates is the attitude.

2. OTHER TRICKS FOR IMPROVING RECRUITMET PROCESSES

a) Pre-recruitment: Before starting the recruitment process, know the purpose of the role, and the types of skills and personal attributes needed in an ideal candidate. Then, clearly outline these points in the job ad and use them to devise interview questions that will enable you to determine each candidate’s suitability against the requirements for the role.

b) Company Values: Remembering your company values, adhering to them, and discussing them in the interview is another way to ensure you are hiring the right candidate that align with the company’s values. For example, at Edwards HR, one of our values it that we ‘deliver on time, every time’, so we always ask candidates about this during our interviews.

c) Pay Transparency: Talking about pay or listing this info on an ad was historically considered bad form – but it could end the gender pay gap, help improve workplace culture and assist in removing unjustified, and potentially unlawful pay discrepancies. Consider greater visibility about wages and creating a new status quo around remuneration.

d) Remote, Working from Home and Hybrid options: If you offer working from home in any form, be sure to include it in the ad – after all ‘working from home, ‘remote’ and ’hybrid’ are searched more in job ads than any title or location! You can read about this in our ‘Is WFH an Entitlement’ update here.

e) Consider Pay & Benefits: Considering and offering a competitive wage will also be of use when seeking top talent however, not everyone is motivated by money. So, it is worthwhile considering other benefits you could offer such as flexibility with hours, working from home, bonuses, health care benefits and structured career programs just to name a few.

f) Where to Advertise: Be sure to advertise only on reputable platforms such as LinkedIn and Seek (depending on the role) as these will generate results that platforms such as Facebook and Gumtree will not. Advertising should not be your only avenue when sourcing candidates; more targeted headhunting is strongly recommended.

g) Explore Networks: Another great way to explore your existing network is to share vacancies within the team and encourage them to seek candidates through their networks. You could even consider a ‘Referral Program’ that offers an incentive to your employee if a referral is hired.

h) Practical Tests: For some roles, it can be useful to ask the candidate to complete a practical task as part of the interview. For example, a Boilermaker could complete a welding test, or an Administration Officer could be asked to identify errors in a document or navigate a system. This can be very helpful in determining an individuals’ depth of experience and standard of work.

i) Move Quickly: You’ll need to move as quickly as you can through the recruitment process to secure new talent and potential. There are many jobs available in the market and candidates are often interviewing for more than one role simultaneously, so be sure to act on applications you are interested in pursuing.

j) Consider External Support: The team at Edwards HR are the heavy industry experts, so give us a call to discuss how we can support your team.

The world has changed in the last few years and the recruitment process is now not only about how you interview the candidate but also finding out what the candidate is looking for in a job and whether you align with their needs, values, and goals.

3. HOW TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES & REDUCE TURNOVER

Now that you’ve recruited someone, the fun doesn’t stop there! It is equally important to continuously seek ways to retain top talent and keep your team members happy and engaged. Here are our top tips:

a) Solid Onboarding & Induction: You only have one opportunity to make a good first impression. You can do this by having a solid onboarding and induction process so that your employees are given all the right tools and information required for them to carry out their role and learn about the company culture from their very first week. Take a look at our Quick Guide: How to Nail the Onboarding Process for New Employees for more guidance.

b) Ask the Team: Remember, not every employee is motivated by money and the flexibility to work from home. Sometimes the best insight about how to make your workplace a better place to work is by asking your team just that – you might be pleasantly surprised by some of the unexpected responses.

c) Celebrate: Always make time to celebrate the wins and acknowledge both team and individual achievements.

d) Consider Benefits & Flexibility: Not everyone is motivated by money so it is worthwhile considering other benefits you could offer such as flexibility with hours, working from home, bonus/incentive plans, additional paid leave, health care benefits, novated leases, staff discounts and structured career programs just to name a few. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at our tip called ‘Ask the Team’ above to find out what’s important to your team.

e) Growth Opportunities: It is also beneficial to give your employees the chance to continue to grow in their roles by looking at training opportunities such as on the job training, cross-training, new licences and by promoting from within the company. This allows your employees to feel motivated and look towards the future at the company.

f) Leadership Training: Consider investing in training for top-down leadership that teaches them to encourage employees and make them authentically feel there’s an urgency in the work they’re doing. In other words, an employee should be made to feel their work is important and their manager trusts them. That kind of training for managers should be executed consistently throughout an organisation, from top line managers down to front-line managers.

g) Communication & Reviews: Making the effort to encourage employees and checking in regularly to see how they are going will give you an idea of employee satisfaction and their workload management. Alongside this, completing regular performance reviews, usually every 6 months or annually, will help your employees understand how they are travelling in their role and how they can potentially improve. Performance reviews are also a great way for your employees to feel encouraged to provide upwards feedback to their Supervisor or Manager, have their achievements acknowledged and address any concerns.

h) Always Address Concerns: It is important that any concerns are addressed in an efficient and timely manner and communicated openly, honestly, and consistently. Remember, not everyone is intrinsically driven, so by asking the employee what would make the workplace better, will give you an opportunity to accommodate to their needs and ultimately, create a happier workplace.

i) Consider External Support: The team at Edwards HR are the heavy industry experts and we work alongside businesses with and without HR teams, no matter their challenge, so give us a call to discuss how we can support your team.

4. WHAT'S NEXT?

Change is inevitable and constant. Looking towards the future by assessing your recruitment, onboarding, retention, and benefits strategies will allow you to remain competitive and gain long-term top talent.

Recruitment and retention have continued to pose considerable challenges for businesses, when attracting the right candidate, ensure you post your role and list all the details (selling points) discussed in this article.

With retention, ensure there is open communication and check-ins with your employees regularly to foster engagement and job satisfaction.

Edwards HR is running a training session on Culture and Retention Strategies, inc. Spotlight on Employee Wellbeing on the 3^rd of June 2024 where you will learn how to develop tailored retention strategies for your organisation. You can find out more about our workshops here.