Recruitment is about finding the right candidate for the vacant position. Very simple, but not that easy.
There are many scare stories about the consequences of poor recruitment. It is costly financially, has implications for the failed candidate and causes frustration within the organisation.
One of the major sources of errors in recruitment is a lack of thoroughness. Often, insufficient time is spent on the initial phase. This means that recruitment starts even though we have not really established what is needed in the position in question, and what has to be done to ensure success.
When we urge you to switch off the autopilot when you start recruiting, it is to ‘force’ the hiring manager away from their ingrained assumptions and undertake a thorough analysis of the position – and then clearly define the tasks and responsibilities and what is needed to succeed in the job.
So, it all starts with a thorough and systematic job analysis. Here we need to identify the key competences for success in the job. The hiring manager should help to define the drivers that produce good performance, and those that produce poor performance.
The good drivers should be broken down into a few concrete skills or character traits that we can judge the candidates against on a purely objective level. We need to be able to compare the candidate against indicators of good and bad job performance.
This will allow us to make an ‘objective’ evaluation of the candidates based on a concrete assessment against clearly defined performance-critical criteria.
We help with the job analysis and producing the skills catalogue for the concrete position. This forms the basis for assessing the candidates when we test them later in the process. Here we use an internationally recognised and validated competence model, developed from extensive analyses of the relationship between the personal profile and a number of performance-critical competences.
This helps to ensure objectivity and also enables us to identify any development needs the candidate may have when they start work. The basis for the candidate’s potential and development needs have then been identified right at the start of their employment.
We achieve good results by supplementing the traditional recruitment process with head-hunting/search. Where traditional recruitment via ads addresses active job-seekers, head-hunting/search puts us in touch with the group of relevant candidates who may not necessarily be actively looking for a job. This group may be motivated to change jobs when they receive a direct approach.
Our researchers are experienced and among the best in the business. They have in-depth knowledge of companies and key persons in the different industries we work with. They actively use their deep insight and understanding to draw up the right search strategy for the recruitment exercise. They also have great experience of contacting the candidates in a motivating way, producing a high hit-rate among candidates in the process.
Our skill in professional research is one of the reasons for our success and high hit-rate. Our researchers naturally use LinkedIn as an essential tool in their work. They also have access to a number of industry-specific networks and databases and hence to a very large pool of candidates both in Denmark and abroad. But at the end of the day, it is their insight, discretion and ability to ‘sell’ the job that make the difference.
We are aware that successful recruitment is based in understanding of the client – their DNA, the sector they operate in and their current situation. We place great stress on the initial discussions – they are meant to ensure that we are equipped to represent the client in the recruitment process.
We need to establish a sufficiently deep understanding of the client to allow us to act quite naturally as their brand ambassador. We want the candidates to think that we work for the client.
We take an innovative approach and customise every single recruitment process to focus on speed and quality. There are two key success parameters. Our process can basically be split into the following phases:
We take our longstanding membership of the industry association Search Danmark and of VPP (Centre for Knowledge of Professional Assessment) seriously, and these memberships are our clients’ guarantee of high quality in the process and the service we deliver.
We use an impartial third party to evaluate our process on a regular basis by asking both clients and candidates for their opinion of the recruitment process. This provides us with valuable input to our efforts to sustain a high level and make adjustments where necessary. We also follow up with both the hiring manager and the candidate to confirm that both parties are happy with the appointment. The induction of a new employee takes time, so we follow up on a regular basis.
We give a 12-month guarantee on our recruitment jobs, which is among the best on the market. More than 98% of the candidates are still in the job at the end of the guarantee period and a good many have advanced to new areas of responsibility within the first two years of employment. We are proud of that.