What are some of the most common recruiting mistakes made by small companies?

Small businesses that are looking to recruit staff will naturally, in common with larger enterprises, want to use sourcing techniques that work – perhaps with the assistance of an agency such as webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk).

Another thing that small and large enterprises have in common is the great damage that can be caused by the wrong choice of candidate. However, the former may not possess the experience and wisdom of the latter to avoid the most basic errors in the first place, to the extent that certain major trends have emerged among the wide range of wrong steps that can be made.

These include:

·         Failing to be absolutely clear about the nature of the role. To begin to establish exactly what tasks your new recruit will be expected to do, consider what activities you are involved in right now that could be done quicker, more proficiently and less expensively by someone else – and how willing you would be to surrender such responsibilities.

·         Failing to identify the exact kind of person who would suit the role. You need to know what you are looking for in the first place prior to recruiting staff, and that means determining the exact skills, attributes, experience and/or training that will be required for this job. Try to consider a wide range of measurable characteristics in determining the right type of person, including values and attitude as well as skills and experience.

·         Failing to calculate the number of hours of work that the role demands. You don’t want to take on a full-time employee, only to then discover that they will only be needed on a part-time basis. As a result, it’ll be necessary to calculate the number of work hours that will be available, as well as how regular the work is likely to be, before choosing the most cost-effective staff recruitment option. It may be the case, for example, that you are better served by taking on a freelancer than a part-time or full-time employee.

·         Failing to be realistic about the time that it will take to reap the benefits. It is one thing to find the right person, but the amount of training that is required before they can start work and make those vital contributions to your business may render your staff recruitment exercise less than cost-effective. On the plus side, however, spending time and money at this stage on inducting the right recruit can certainly pay for itself many times over.

One look at this list shouldn’t surprise seasoned recruiters – but then again, it is precisely these elementary errors that can be so easily made by the inexperienced, while also being costly. That’s why it pays to make the right choice of recruitment agency – such as webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) – when you are overseeing such a delicate and crucial matter as sourcing and recruiting staff.

Editor’s Note: Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) is represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Please direct all press queries to Louise Byrne. Email: louise@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.