Key areas in which to sharpen your in-house recruitment in 2014

If you'd like to spend 2014 less dependent on recruitment firms and with a more effective in-house recruitment process to take advantage of the relevant talent continually entering the market, you'll need to focus on various aspects of how you recruit within your company - including having the appropriate brief, ensuring the right character fit and many more vital steps.

When writing a job specification, for example, it is essential to fully understand what your business requires at this stage of its development. The desired recruit's technical skills, character and development potential will all need to be factored into the final job spec, and the offered salary will also need to be competitive with the market. If it isn't, you'll need to consider areas in which you are willing to compromise in terms of the quality of candidate, potentially training and developing a candidate internally.

Recruitment firms know that as a company evolves, there will be a need to target different types of people in their advertising. Good 'small company' people are those who can quickly learn new skills and take responsibility for a range of tasks as part of a disparate team. But with the company's continual growth, there will be a greater emphasis on processes and procedures that can feel restricting to those more suitable for smaller firms.

Also appreciated by good recruitment firms, but not necessarily by too many in-house recruiters, is just how crucial it is to look in the right places for the best candidate. Advertising plays a central role in attracting those who are actively seeking a new challenge, but many of the best people are too busy doing a great job for their companies to put themselves on the market - necessitating more proactive methods to lure them, potentially encompassing social media.

Employer branding should be another key consideration for in-house recruiters. After all, an affinity with an employer's brand can be enough to attract and retain talented workers even if they are not rewarded as highly as they ought to be, whether in financial or non-financial terms. You can also significantly lessen your recruitment costs by creating your own talent warehouse, made up of those who may not have been the best technical fit when they first got in touch with you, but who may nonetheless be the perfect match for a later-available role.

The interviewing, offer and on-boarding processes also need to be right, and can be refined by the most diligent in-house recruiters in so many ways. Your interviews, for example, should reflect an in-depth understanding of what you want the eventual recruit to deliver in the role, rather than a dependence on what may be ill-informed 'gut instinct'. The best recruitment firms would also advise in-house recruiters of the need to make the new employee feel welcome, from the moment it is decided that they will join the business, such as by sending out the contract promptly.

Editor’s Note: Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.