Drive Your Recruitment Wheel

By Author: Jai Prakash Srivastava
Total Articles: 198
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How good are you at recruiting? One way to find out is to give yourself a score out of ten for the eight key points that I believe should feature in every dealership's recruitment strategy, using the ‘recruitment wheel' (see below left for example).

1. Culture and values. Review your existing brand values and make your current and prospective employees aware of them. Include them on your website and in all recruitment advertising.

2. Always be looking. Hold an open day for people to find out more about your business and what you do. Always be on the lookout for good people, whether you think you need them now or not, and build a network of talent.

3. Word of mouth. This can work externally as well as internally - for example, if you're interviewing a manager and can't agree on the reward package, try asking them if they know others like themselves and get their contact details on your database.

The key is to openly say to people: this is our business, this is what we're all about and these are the kind of people we want - if you hear of anyone, let us know. Reward them with M&S vouchers ...
... or an i-pod, etc, for sending good candidates to you.

4. Widen the net. Set up Facebook and Linked-In company profiles, and build a community you interact with on a regular basis. Use Twitter as well, and search the internet for niche job boards that could be useful to your business.

5. Psychometrics/assessment centres. If you already use psychometrics, make sure you're up to the mark with how you interpret the data you get back. Look at other providers too. There could be a more appropriate test out there.

If you're recruiting, say, two new sales execs, you'll need to see at least eight or ten people. If you interview them all face-to-face, it will take you a couple of days. But with a one-day assessment centre, you can see everyone over a longer period of time, and see how they react in different environments, rather than just for 40 minutes each.

6. Competency-based interviews. Rather than just talking through a CV and asking some immediate response questions - eg, how long have you been a sales manager? - drill down to find out about the challenges they've faced, how they dealt with them and what the outcomes were.

7. Job spec. Review your job specs to see if they are still relevant. Get your management team involved with what each role should be delivering, especially when somebody leaves. If it's a sales position, do you need someone who can spend more time on telemarketing, for example, or someone who can liaise with your service dept a bit better?

8. Database. Build a database in Outlook of prospective candidates and all ‘maybes' that you've interviewed to stay in touch with and get referrals from - especially those who scored well on the testing that you did. Email them once a year at least, to update their details and let them know your future plans.

Mark yourself on the wheel in each of these areas, set a clear action plan for how you are going to improve, and - as with any action plan, set a review date for it as well.

CAPTION FOR CHART:

Rate yourself on the recruitment wheel

PULL-OUT QUOTE:

Always be on the lookout for good people, whether you think you need them now or not

SEPARATE PANEL:

Your action plan
Score yourself out of ten for each spoke
Mark your performance on the lines
Make a plan to improve your weak areas
Set a 30-day deadline for implementation

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