Five Good Recruitment Practice Tips for Employers

When recruiting, you want to recruit the best talent. Nowadays, technology allows employers in the hiring process to reach out far and wide for potential candidates, giving you access to a diverse pool of talent. It is therefore essential to carry out good practices when recruiting staff for your company. This article will explain five good recruitment practice tips. 

Treat Your Potential Recruits Well

When you require new staff, you effectively carry out a marketing process each time. So, if you create a poor image of yourself as an employer, it could detract from potential candidates during the recruitment process and for further recruitment exercises.

Treating your potential recruits well is therefore a key aspect of good recruitment practice. It enables your potential employees to obtain the best image of your business. How you treat your potential recruits should be similar to how you treat your customers and current employees. You should:

• respect the time they are making for your business;
• act professionally;
• demonstrate a courteous attitude;
• show hospitality during the interview to enable them to feel at ease; and 
• be helpful in terms of answering their questions during the recruitment process. 

Draft Effective Job Descriptions

When recruiting staff, you need to write a job description. The job description for your role is probably the first thing your potential candidates will read, so ensure this is specific to the job as possible to entice them. The job description is your selling tool for the position and your business and a key feature of good recruitment practice. 

Job descriptions between 700 – 2000 characters are likely to receive 30% more applications, so keep your job description concise and to the point. However, you should include all of the essential parts of the job role in the job description, such as the day-to-day activity and qualifications needed. What is in your job description is likely to be the basis of your offer letter and employment contract.

Also, ensure that your job description is accurate in terms of spelling and grammar otherwise, it looks unprofessional and gives the impression that you are not well organised.

Create an Employee Referral Scheme

Creating an employee referral scheme means encouraging your current employees to recommend and suggest others to apply for the job vacancy. You can reward your employees by giving them discretionary bonuses for their efforts.

It is likely that your current employees will only recommend those they believe are capable of the role. Likewise, a potential candidate will think more highly of a company whose employees recommend working there. 

Avoid Discrimination

The law forbids discrimination during the recruitment process. Unlawful discrimination involves treating anyone with prejudice on the basis of a protected characteristic such as race, sex, or disability. 

You must therefore select your potential candidates fairly and for the right reasons based on their ability to do the job. You should carry out the same process for all applicants and not favour one or assume they are the right one, for example, because they are a friend of one of your staff.

Ensuring that you avoid unlawfully discriminating when recruiting new staff members includes what you ask your candidates during the interview. You should ensure that you do not ask stereotypical questions based on the applicant’s characteristics rather than questions directly relating to the job and how they may perform it.

Offer the Position With Care 

When you reach the end of your recruitment process and decide who you want as an employee, offer the candidate the role with care. This means you:

• pay attention to the detail of your candidate’s current job package to provide a competitive package to replace it;
• consider bonuses, pensions contributions and training allowances; and 
• ensure you present the offer professionally. 

Key Takeaways

Whilst good practice, in general, is not a legal requirement, certain elements arise when recruiting such as not unlawfully discriminating against a potential candidate. 

If you need help with your obligation towards candidates in a recruitment process in England, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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