• Step 2 - Finding the right person for your vacancy

      So once you’ve decided who you want, what you want them to do and what you’re going to give them in return, you now need to select a means of sourcing the best individual. 

      Advertising
      This can be the most time consuming method of recruiting and has no guarantee of success but firstly you need to actually write the advert.  There are books and books on this subject but for some general guidance you could have a look at the following link how to write a job advert to give you some guidelines.
       

      You then need to decide where you’re going to place the advert – local press, national newspapers, specialist trade magazines or websites, generic job boards online etc.  The more specialist the role, then the more specialist the place where you should advertise – and as a general rule of thumb, the more it’s going to cost! 
       

      So once you’ve placed the advert, sit back and wait for the response to come in.  The level and quality of this can vary immensely – if your description is too broad then you may be sifting through hundreds of CV’s.  Likewise, if it’s too specific, you might get nothing, in which case you’ve lost your money and have to start all over again.  At the end of the day though, you only need one CV – as long as it ticks all the boxes of course!


      Recommendation
      This could be worth doing even if you decide to use one of the other methods as well – after all it is free to simply ask colleagues if they know of anyone who might be right and interested in the position. If necessary, you could always offer them an incentive to ask around – the level of these can vary from a couple of hundred pounds to a luxury weekend break!


      Internal promotion
      Who knows, the ideal candidate could be right under your nose or within the same company as you?  Their knowledge of the company, and perhaps the role, is obviously several steps ahead of any external candidate.  You would also be able to get an immediate and accurate reference from their current line manager – although that might of course be you!


      Using a recruitment agency
      Recruitment agencies come in all shapes and sizes, but essentially they can be split into two – generic and specialist. 


      Generic agencies are typically found in a “High Street” location and deal with local jobs across a wide variety of sectors.  They will have both permanent and temporary candidates but are unlikely to have many “specialist” people on their books – although you never know!  Their rates will vary but are likely to be lower than a specialist recruiter and they will also probably be the best source of semi- and un-skilled labour.


      Specialist agencies can be located anywhere and typically specialise in one or two market sectors.  If you’re looking for someone where your requirements are specific that require a certain degree of experience, skill or qualifications, then this is the right agency to use.  They should know their onions when it comes to your industry sector and the sort of person that you’re after.  If you have good job and person specifications then this will hopefully make it a very straight forward and painless procedure – by rights they should provide you with a short list of quality candidates for you to interview.   They will charge more than a generic agency, but then you are getting a much better quality of service and standard of candidate.
       

      To find out more about which agency to select, please see our guidelines what to look for in a good recruitment agency Remember though, the agency won’t charge you a penny until the day a candidate starts, so essentially they are a totally free service up to this point, except headhunting of course, which is another ball game altogether!  Agencies will also provide some sort of safety net in the form of rebate should the person not work out – these vary widely and you should agree these terms and also fees before engaging them to source candidates. 
       

      Something to note here is that the one thing you should do is to make sure that the agency speaks to every candidate about your role before sending their CV to you – many will simply find a suitable CV by whatever method, send it to you without talking to the candidate to make sure that they are interested and then only contact the candidate if you are interested.  This in the recruitment world is called “not doing your job properly” and leads to all sorts of hassle – beware!  You can find out more about this sloppy practice in this excellent blog – what frustrates me the most about recruitment consultants

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