In this episode of our podcast, we explore some more HR mistakes you could be making…without even knowing it!
The 5 things we discussed all happened to be around recruitment and induction:
it’s so easy to think you’re doing the. Right thing and you’re just getting.
Well, this is here. Has everyone wants to do the.
Right thing. Of course. Yeah, of course. But yeah, it’s worth knowing what you don’t know. You don’t know is it’s it’s worth pointing it out.
What do we mean by internal talent? We mean the people that are already in your team, already working for you and might have been for a while.
When you first brought them into your business, you no doubt had a very specific idea in mind of what you needed them to do. But does it need to stay that way forever?
So as your business changes, and grows, look first at your team for who can be grown into a new role or engaged in a different way. It also makes a career in your business more attractive which will help you when you go to recruit outside your team.
There are definite inappropriate interview questions to ask, which you will hopefully avoid. But are the questions you do use giving you the information you are looking for?
You’ve only got 45 minutes to an hour with someone in an interview, so they are not going to tell you everything you need to know about them. But the way you phrase your questions and the types of questions you ask, will send the conversation in a certain way.
Be strategic about the types of questions you’re asking, to get the right sort of information you’re after. Using behavioral style questions as opposed to questions that only elicit a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer can be much more helpful. A well crafted behavioural question will provide a concrete lived example answer where the candidate not only confirms their skills/aptitude/ability but context of when/where/how they used it (a great candidate will frame their example in the context of what would be asked of them in your job!).
Challenging questions can also dig deeper into a candidate’s opinions, ethics and values and allow you to see if they are aligned with the values of your business.
Think of the way that you might converse with someone from a different culture or a different gender than you or different age than you. Do you make assumptions? Do you change your approach?
Bias fundamentally comes from our background, our upbringing and could be argued as involuntary – you’re not really aware of it unless you’re thinking about it.
In our earlier blog we shared a link to an online test where you can find out what your biases are like. These questions are able to pull out biases that you may not be aware of.
And that is the key here, being aware of them then gives you the power to interrupt your thoughts and make adjustments if needed.
It can feel comfortable and safe to hire family or friends, or someone that you know. But long after their first day, things can get hard. Think about when things go wrong and navigating boundaries.
Or if you think about promoting people, it may feel safe to promote the employee who’s been there the longest, or you get on the best with, but are they the best equipped to handle the new responsibility?
It’s all about balance and navigating the difference between:
“Do I like this person? Can I work with them? Will they be good to have around in the team?”
and
“Are they competent? Will they do what they say they’re going to do? Will they perform well in this role?”
Likeable is a comfortable decision and can feel easier, but not necessarily easier in the long run.
In the current recruitment market, candidates can have multiple job offers on the go, it can be quite competitive.
But a lot of systems offer automations so keeping candidates aware of where they are up to in the process, even just an email if not a phone call but keep a candidate interested in your role and not take another instead.
It’s also important to think about it from a candidate’s perspective. They may not end up being your new team member at the end, but they will walk away having experienced your organisation and they can either tell their friends a good or bad review.
When you’ve done the hard work in recruitment and you’ve chosen your person…then what?
Onboarding needs pre-planning, intention and thought. In the first few days/weeks/months of a job your new team member is not only meeting your other team members and clients/customers, but they are coming up to speed with your procedures and history of their organisation. There is a lot going on.
You may feel like you’ve given them all the information they need and they can just get on with the job, but is it different to what they do need?
We know, as a manager you are time poor. But there are other strategies available to you like another employee shadowing them, buddying up with or doing online training. Leaving them alone is not always a good thing.
It just shows how critical that first little period is.
If you think about your goals you might set for yourself or for your business, they’re often smart goals. They will be measurable and objective and specific.
It’s the same for expectations.
It’s easy to slip into assumptions that the person will know what you mean or too cautious not to overstep. But not being specific opens the door for miunderstanding.
We’d recommend having a schedule, planning it ahead and thinking about what what you want to achieve in that time. We discussed this more in episode 2 in season 2.
I wonder what you might do to improve your recruitment & onboarding process?
Let us know in the comments. We’re always happy for feedback.
Thanks for listening!
