Employees are the lifeblood of a company, and an effective hiring process and employee retention is key to success in this area. The start of a new season offers an opportunity to assess what’s working (and what isn’t) in terms of recruitment, employment screening and hiring.
Businesses and HR departments should consider addressing the following five areas to improve the hiring process going forward:
1. Choose and Implement Strategies Intelligently
When making decisions about policies and procedures, employers should consider each component carefully. Each aspect contributes to the whole and could make or break the success of a recruitment process. All precedents and parameters should be carefully tested and discussed with management, from application content to employer interview questions to employment screening.
2. Create a Consistent Hiring Process
Recruiting and interviewing each applicant differently may seem like a positive and flexible thing to do, but it can actually lead to issues with legality and consistency. For example, looking at social media accounts to determine the character of some applicants but not others can lead to a lawsuit down the road. Inconsistencies like these can also result in improper screening across a range of applicants.
3. “Brand” Your Workplace
When a company gets a reputation as a desirable place to work, they will naturally attract a larger pool of applicants from which to draw. To this end, “branding” a workplace can be just as important as the branding of a product or service. Building in natural procedures for branding from the marketing and HR departments can revolutionize the hiring process from the inside out.
4. Recruiting By the Book
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires consent from job applicants to look into their backgrounds and take a credit report, so care should be taken that a signed release form is garnered. It is also illegal to discriminate based upon qualities like race, gender and age. If an applicant is passed by, the employer must be able to link the reason to their inability to adequately perform the job, and not because of a personal characteristic.
5. Outsource Employment Screening to a Professional
Trying to do all screening in-house can lead to a host of problems, including legal ones. Employers who are not experienced with proper employment screening methods may do so in a way that is inadequate or not in compliance. Outsourcing employment screening such as criminal background checks and credit checks to a professional screening service can assist with the hiring process and ensure that these important steps are conducted correctly.
The start of a new season is the perfect time for employers to take stock of their recruiting and hiring processes. Addressing and refining these five areas can lead to a stronger, more talented and more effective workforce.
Disclaimer Statement: All information presented is never intended as legal advice and is for information purposes only.
Leave a Reply