Part II – What is important when a recruitment process starts

In the first part, I mentioned a few important hints for an entrepreneur before starting a recruitment process. This time we focus on the preparation for the recruitment process. Every owner of small or medium-size companies will get a helpful check list. 

1. The first point is to define a candidate profile. WHO are we looking for?
   a) The candidate profile is created based on the answers to the following questions:
   – what are the necessary qualifications for a job? i.e. what hard skills does the candidate have? For instance, if he or she has a MAG 135 welding licence or a category B driving licence, or a job code regulated by the Regulation of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy of 7th August 2014 concerning the classification of professions and specializations for the use in the labour market and its scope of application (Poland’s Journal of Laws, 2014, item 1145)
   – what are the required qualifications? e.g. MSc/Bachelor degree in mechanics or related subjects
   –  what is the required experience? Is it necessary or not?, e.g. minimum 2 years of relevant working experience in team management
   – what are the soft skills? For example a fluent level of English, both written and verbal; B2B sales skills
   – what are the candidate’s interpersonal skills or soft personal skills?, e.g. being open to change, accuracy, reliability, responsibility, commitment
   b) The job title needs to be defined. To stay with the current job title or create a new one associated with the candidate profile? – this is a question to the employer.
   c) What are the work terms for a new employee? i.e. the employment contract, time duration, the salary/wage, the scope of duties and responsibilities, a commission or bonuses.
   
2. Preparing a job description consists of the following elements:
   – the requirements linked with the candidate profile described in point 1
   – the company’s description (the industry, the number of employees, what is the company’s profile?, how long has the company been on the market? etc.)
   – the scope of duties and responsibilities
   – what does a company offer to the employees?, e.g. what are the social benefits, additional tools at work, working hours, employment forms? etc. 
   – who is the contact person for the recruitment process or what is  the company email for submitting the applications?
   – is a cover letter obligatory apart from a CV?
   – we should also remember to ask the candidate to include a relevant personal data protection statement.
   
3. Choosing the methods and channels to reach the prospective candidates. How will we do that?
   – is it a blue collar worker or a specialist or a manager? When we know what the job is, we can select tools and channels like social media, job search websites or we should cooperate with a recruitment agency or external headhunters.
   
4. We need to recognize what resources we have at the moment and what or who we can involve. i.e. the people, the budget, the time etc.
   – who will be responsible for the contact with candidates, what is the marketing department responsible for, what is the maximum budget and what is the deadline of the recruitment process?

If we have all the necessary information and answers to the above questions, we can start the recruitment process. Good preparation is the key to the success i.e. getting appropriate candidates for the job titles according to the requirements. Thanks to this we save time and it allows us to move to the next step of the recruitment process – the selection of candidates, which I will write about in the next article of the time2work series.