A – A to Z of recruitment and HR

A

In HR and recruitment, A can mean:

Administrator – the lynch-pin of the recruitment process in many an office. This is the support that keeps the whole thing afloat. This person, or team of people, keep track of candidates, log names and addresses in databases, maintain files and documents, answer the telephone and respond to emails.

You can have all the employer branding and technology you like but without administrators, you’re sunk!

Annual Appraisal – many organisations never conduct appraisals. And in those that do, the annual appraisal is often the only time detailed feedback is given to employees.

Unfortunately, many appraisal systems are badly thought through, clumsy and poorly implemented. Too much is expected of appraisals. The demoralising process often means Managers dread conducting them and employees feel worse once they’ve had one.

A better approach is to provide employees with continual feedback. At the start of each year, objectives and behaviours should be discussed and development plans agreed.

Instead of the ‘big event’ of an annual appraisal, there should be frequent informal meetings between managers and employees. As the year progresses, behaviours should be re-examined with notes taken at each meeting.

When the year is done, there should be a more formal review meeting that summaries progress made. This meeting should then act as the basis for the following year’s plan.

Attraction Strategy – for an organisation to be successful it needs to attract the right people in the right numbers.

Unfortunately, many organisations recruit in a haphazard way. They stumble from one recruitment crisis to another.

For many managers and bosses, the recruitment process only begins when someone hands their notice in to leave. This is far too late.

The sharpest organisations take a different approach.

They think ahead. They know where they’re heading and the people they’ll need to get there. And they plan accordingly.

These organisations know that they will only succeed by having the best people on board. But the best people are in short supply and lots of other organisations are after them too.

These canny organisations develop a candidate attraction strategy and play the long game. They know that you have to spend time and money if you’re going to get it right. But it’s worth it.

Ageing workforce – one of the most dramatic societal changes that are just starting to affect recruitment is the aging of populations in the developed world.

For example, in America, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the number of workers aged 55 or over will climb by 49% by 2010. In the same period, the number of workers between 35 and 54 will rise by just 5%.

Across the developed world, there is going to be a shrinking supply of talent to recruit from.

Although many older workers will choose to work on – indeed, many will be forced to by poor quality pensions – there is bound to be an impact on recruitment. Especially as, at the other end of the age scale, many younger workers are rejecting the traditional values of the workplace and have different priorities and expectations.

It’s clear that recruitment and HR are going to become increasingly challenging in the next 5 to 10 years.