For many businesses having to recruit means that they are or soon will be short-staffed. In this situation, many small business owners find themselves struggling as they are suddenly drawn back or further into the daily operations of the business while simultaneously trying to run the business and of course, recruit quality candidates for the job.

Establishing and maintaining an effective recruitment process can decrease the amount of time it takes to hire new employees, increase the quality of new hires and increase overall employee productivity. Investing the time to develop an effective recruitment process will ensure that you, your existing employees and your business can realize the benefits that much sooner. Here are 7 tips to get you started:

Develop a job advertising database
Use a spreadsheet to track where and when you advertise/post job openings, numbers of candidate responses, deadlines, effectiveness of posting, etc. The resulting job advertising history makes a great quick reference guide for future positions and increases the effectiveness of recruitment advertising by enabling you to focus on using advertising methods that produce results.

Set time aside to review resumes & interview candidates
When recruiting, make time to review resumes and meet with candidates when you are not working in the daily operations. Choose a time when you can focus and give candidates your undivided attention. This will enable you (and the candidates) to have a more effective interview and increase your ability to effectively assess and select the most qualified candidate for the job.

Use a tracking form to keep track of candidates, qualifications and progress
This is especially useful when hiring for multiple jobs simultaneously to avoid losing track of candidates and to ensure that all candidates are equally considered. Develop and use a template form to keep track of candidate(s), the position(s) they apply for, their qualifications and their progress in the recruitment process. This at-a-glance form will enable you to see where candidates are in the process and can also help you keep resumes organized on file.

Cluster candidate interviews
An effective time management practice is to perform similar tasks together. Applying this method when scheduling candidate interviews will not only enable you to maximize your time and productivity, it also is easier to assess candidates when their interviews are fresh in your memory as opposed to taking place hours or days apart.

Use template letters that can be personalized
Communication is important to job seekers, however writing personalized letters can be very time consuming. Avoid reinventing the wheel by developing template letters that can be easily personalized for each candidate.

Build relationships with candidates
Just because a candidate doesn’t have the required skills, knowledge or abilities for the current job vacancy doesn’t mean that they may not be qualified for future job(s) with your organization. Taking time to thank candidates for applying and to communicate their status in the competition (see tip #5 above) will go a long way towards whether or not they choose to apply for future positions with your company.

Review, Follow up and revise the recruitment process
As with any process, it is important to review your recruitment process on an ongoing basis. How often you need to do this will depend on how often you use the process to hire employees. The goal of review and revisions is to ensure that the process is as effective as possible.

Taking time to proactively develop an effective recruitment process BEFORE you are in a position to recruit will enable you to attract and choose the most qualified candidate for the job. The more qualified the candidate, the less time it will take for them to get up to speed and the more quickly they will make positive contributions towards your team and business. Now isn’t that time well invested?

Articles related to 7 Tips to Establish an Effective Recruitment Process:

• How to Measure the Quality of Hire
• Setting the Stage for Successful Recruitment Interviews
• The Four Ps of Hiring: HR Takes a Lesson from Marketing

The post 7 Tips to Establish an Effective Recruitment Process appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

The purpose of a job interview is to meet job candidates as well as validate and perhaps seek additional information to what is provided within their resume in order to determine whether or not they are qualified and would be a fit for the position and the organization.

In Canada, provincial and federal human rights legislation protects individuals from discrimination and harassment. It is important to note that specific legislation does vary by province, so be sure to refer to legislation that applies to your location. In BC, the British Columbia Human Rights Code ensures equal access to employment opportunities and fair treatment within the workplace by protecting individuals against discrimination based on:
Race                                         Place of origin
Ancestry                                    Colour
Marital Status                            Family Status
Sex                                            Sexual Orientation
Physical or Mental Disability     Age (19 years & over)
Political Belief                            Religion
Criminal Conviction

In order to comply with this legislation, employers must ensure that employment decisions – who gets hired and who doesn’t – are based firmly on job related criteria and not discriminatory considerations.

So what does this have to do with employment interviews, you ask? Plenty! As interview questions are typically the primary means through which information is gathered in order to make hiring decisions, it is important to ensure that they focus on specific criteria required of the position and avoid the prohibited areas.

Questions to AVOID

Avoid asking any questions related to the protected areas (listed above) including, but not limited to:

• How old are you?
• Are you married?
• How many children do you have?
• What country are you from? Are you new to Canada?
• Have you ever received Workers Compensation benefits?

While I have witnessed some managers ask candidates whether or not they have children or where they are from purely in attempts to make light conversation prior to the interview, I strongly discourage this practice and recommend avoiding such questions all together. Remember, for the eager job candidate the interview starts the moment you greet them.

Questions to ASK

In some cases, the responsibilities and/or nature of the job may require that a candidate be of a certain age or require a lot of travel or flexible availability to work shift work. In these cases, employers are permitted to ask questions related to these areas however must still be careful in doing so. Here are a few examples:

If you were hiring for a Lounge Server position that is responsible for the service if alcohol. You may NOT ask the candidate his/her age however you CAN ask if they are of legal age in BC to serve alcohol.

If you were hiring for a Sales Manager position that required an extensive amount of travel and time away from home, you CAN ask whether or not they would be able to travel or work shift work however you may NOT ask any questions related to marital or family status (ie. whether or not they are married, have children or childcare arrangements, etc.)

While it is not unheard of for managers to have their favourite or preferred interview questions (ones that they have used previously and found to be effective), ideally a standard set of interview questions should be used for each position in the company. This will ensure fair and equal consideration for all candidates. Also, be sure to:

• Ask questions specifically related to the candidate’s knowledge,  education  and/or experience as it relates to the job they are applying for.
• Ask open-ended questions that will encourage candidates to answer with more than just a yes or no response.
• Ask the candidate to tell you what they already know about the job and company.
• Ask questions that require candidates to provide examples of their own past experiences and behaviours (these are known as Behavioural interview questions).

10 Interview Questions that Employers Can (and should) Ask:

1)   What skills and qualifications would you bring to this job?
2)   Tell me about a time when you… (choose an appropriate scenario that applies to the position)
…had to deal with an angry customer
…were required to reprioritize your work, based on a last minute request
…had to think outside-of-the-box in order to solve a problem
…had to make an unpopular decision
…took initiative to accomplish a project at work
– Were you successful? How do you know?
3)   Is there anything preventing you from meeting the commitments and/or requirements of this job?
4)   Why did you apply for this job?
5)   Why do you want to work for XYZ company?
6)   What do you know about the XYZ position?
7)   If I were to contact one of your references, what would they say is your greatest strength? Challenge/weakness?
8)   What are your career goals in the next 1-2 years? 4-5 years?
9)   What do/did you enjoy most about your previous/current job?
10) What do/did you enjoy least about your previous/current job?

Proactively knowing what you can and cannot ask in a job interview and then developing/using standardized interview questions will enable you to protect the rights of candidates and make sound hiring decision based on equal consideration for all candidates.

For more information about the BC Human Rights Code, please visit the BC Ministry of Attorney General’s website https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/justice/human-rights/human-rights-protection
Fact Sheet:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/human-rights/human-rights-protection/what-you-need-to-know.pdf

This information is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific human resources, business or legal advice. Readers should not rely solely on this information without seeking the direct advice of a Human Resources or legal professional.

Related to The Job Interview – Questions to Ask and Avoid:

• Why you need job descriptions
• Hiring – What not to do
• Interview Techniques

The post The Job Interview – Questions to Ask and Avoid appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

As the demographics of the workplace continue to shift with employees of the baby boomer generation quickly heading towards retirement, many organizations are struggling to answer this question. Succession planning is the process of identifying and developing internal employees with the potential to fill key or critical organizational positions. For some, succession planning was something that only larger corporations did; it didn’t apply to smaller businesses or not-for-profit organizations… until now. (https://perfumesample.com/) Consider this:

• Forecasts show that by the year 2012, the first wave of Baby boomers – individuals born between 1943 & 1965 and the largest generational demographic in today’s workforce – will start to retire.
• In 2009, the rate of retirement in BC among senior managers was 42 retirements per 1,000 people in the labour force, compared to 23 out of 1,000 people in the labour force overall.
• The highest retirement rates are in senior management positions and occupations requiring the greatest skill and experience. These occupations typically have an older labour force given the years of work experience and training required to fill the positions.
• In 2009, the average age of senior managers in BC was 46.6, compared to 40.7 across all occupations.
• Organizations that fail to prepare for the need to replace retiring employees could experience issues with productivity and product/service quality.

Unless organizations have programs and/or systems in place to ensure that corporate knowledge is not lost with departing employees, valuable time, energy and productivity will be wasted on re-learning processes and procedures.

If your organization is considering, or in the process of, implementing succession planning here are a few key points to keep in mind:

• In order to be fully effective, succession planning should be more than a stand-alone initiative.When developing succession planning strategies, they need to fit within the overall strategic direction of the organization in order to help strengthen the organization’s capacity for long term sustainability.
• Succession planning is not just an HR initiative. Senior managers need to be responsible for identifying strong leaders within his or her organization and to help them develop in preparation for the next step in their career.
• The “fear being replaced” is needs to be replaced with the “desire to be replaced”. Senior managers need to embrace the opportunity to mentor and prepare aspiring individuals prepare to step into his or her position. Even if they are not retiring, this enables them to perhaps advance into another position in their own career path.
• Succession planning may need to include looking outside of the organization. Although it is preferable to be able to develop individuals from within the organization, that is not always possible or realistic for a variety of reasons. In these cases, the organization may need to look outside of itself to recruiting new talent.
• Succession plans should be an ongoing process. Revisit succession plans regularly to ensure that they are being followed and make adjustments as required.

Whether or not organizations foresee a turnover of key leadership positions, implementing a proactive succession plan will help minimize the loss of corporate retention, increase employee engagement and ultimately strengthen the organization’s capacity for long term sustainability.

Related to Succession Planning:

• Four generations in the workplace
• Employee turnover – how much is it costing you?
• Effective mentoring – the structure of learning relationships

The post Succession Planning – Preparing for the Future appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.

When it comes to interviewing potential candidates, less talking by the interviewer is definitely more. The purpose of conducting job interviews is to learn more about each candidate’s experience and qualifications as they relate to the position for which they have applied. It is also an opportunity to validate the information that they have submitted in their resume. Two common mistakes that I often witness employers make when conducting job interviews are talking too much and asking leading questions, often unintentionally and without even realizing they are doing it. Here is an example:

I recently sat in on a job interview with a client while he interviewed a potential employee. During the interview, the manager dominated the conversation. Each time he would ask a question, he would then go on to explain why he was asking the question as well as give examples of situations that he had experienced in relation to the question. Not only did the interviewee do more listening than talking, when he finally have the chance to answer the questions he was able to tell the manager exactly what he wanted to hear. After all, the manager had just spent the past few minutes telling him.
At the end of the interview, the manager was convinced that the individual was the perfect candidate for the job. Unfortunately, he soon realized that during the interview he had fallen into the trap of the two common mistakes and had subsequently learned very little about the candidate’s potential abilities to do the job (other than the fact that he had excellent listening skills).
Eager to improve his interviewing skills, the manager asked for feedback on his interviewing techniques. Here were my suggestions to him, which you may also find useful:

1.       Remember that the interview is all about the candidate.
Talk less and provide opportunities for the candidate to share how their experience and abilities are a potential fit for the job.

2.       Begin the interview with casual conversation.
Most job candidates are nervous. Beginning the interview with light conversation puts people at ease and they will be more inclined to share information.

3.       Ask open-ended questions.
These are questions that will garner more than just a simple yes or no response.

For example: Instead of asking “Did you enjoy your previous position?” ask “What did you enjoy most about your previous position?”

4.       Avoid asking leading questions.
As in the situation described above, these are detailed questions that essentially lead the candidate into providing the information or answer that you want to hear.

For example: Instead of asking, “Do you always arrive 15 minutes early for your shifts?” perhaps ask them to describe how they would typically start their shift.

5.       Ask behavioural-based questions.
Unlike traditional interview questions which may be answered hypothetically, behavioural-based interview questions require candidates to provide information based on their previous experience in a similar employment-related situation.

For example: A traditional interview question about meeting deadlines could be phrased like this “How well do you perform under pressure to meet deadlines?” While a behavioural-based interview question about deadlines could be phrased like this “Tell me about a time in which you worked well under pressure to meet tight deadlines”.
When it comes to conducting effective job interviews, applying these five techniques will help ensure that you do less talking, more listening and avoid asking leading questions. Remember, the more you learn about each candidate during the interview, the better prepared – and able – you will be to select the candidate who is best suited for the position.

Related to When (Taking) Less. is More:

• Interviewing potential employees
• A Better Way to Give Feedback on Employee Performance
• Behavioural interviews | Interviews that review behaviour

The post When (Talking) Less, is More appeared first on BC Jobs Blog.