Hiring the Right People

In the previous course (8.2 Virtual Team Members), we outlined some of the characteristics that make for a good virtual team member. Let’s now look at some of the ways to make sure that the people you attract to a role will meet the criteria you have set out.

Write a Clear Job Advertisement

Make sure that your advertisement is as clear and engaging as possible when advertising a job vacancy. Keep it concise and easy to read. Your job advertisement should include a short paragraph summarizing the role, a job description, a person specification, an application deadline and information about how to apply – including any specific forms or formats that you require.

Job Description

A job description outlines the role that is being offered. It will detail the responsibilities of the role, and any key objectives that are to be achieved.

Check out this article which contains advice on how to write a good job description:

Person Specification

A person specification describes the ideal person for the role. It will go into detail on the relevant skills, experience, or qualifications you are looking for, as well as any particular characteristics or personality traits that are desirable. This should be based on the duties required by the job description.
Pay close attention to laws around discrimination when putting a person specification together. For example, in many places you may not specify gender in a job role, except in very few exceptional cases where it is essential to the perform the duties of the role.

Advertise in the Right Places

Website Careers Page

Having a ‘careers’ section on your company website makes it easy for people who like what you do to bring their skills to the table. Keep this section current, and people will know they can check back for vacancies. Make sure this page of your site is optimized for search keywords relating to the kind of jobs you are likely to advertise. List the vacancy with a clear title, engaging summary and links to the full job description and person specification. Most importantly, make sure there is clear contact information for potential recruits to get in contact and apply.

Recruitment Specialists

Consider using sector specialist recruitment agencies for key hires. If they know your industry and your company well, they can help you zero in on the right kind of candidates to join your team. While there is a cost to working with recruitment agencies, rather than keeping it in-house, there are benefits to be had and savings to be made in terms of the caliber and relevance of the candidates that make it to the interview stage. Recruiters will do the first round of filtering for you and send forward only the most likely applicants for you to consider.

Job Boards Online

Finding an appropriate and reputable job listing site to advertise on can make sure your role is promoted to a wide and relevant audience. The more people see your advertisement, the greater the pool of potential talent you have to choose from. The downside of this can be an increased volume of applications to process. One advantage is that these sites often feature standardized forms and submission requirements to make sure that you get all the information you need to choose candidates for an interview.

Ask for Recommendations

Leverage Your Network

Your professional and personal networks know you and your company and are well placed to make connections with potential candidates or to share your job advertisement among their network. Make sure to make posts in your social and professional networks as appropriate, to let people know you have a vacancy and the kind of person you are looking for.
Personal recommendations can take some of the risk out of recruitment and also carry weight in terms of attracting people to your company. A job shared by a friend is likely to catch more attention than a random job advertisement on the internet.

Employee Referral Scheme

The same principles apply to your internal network. Employees are exceptionally well placed to recommend your company to others in their network and are also likely to have a good insight into the kind of person who would be a good fit and enjoy the role and company culture. Many organizations offer an incentive scheme for employees, where they are rewarded with regard to any recommended candidates that end up joining the company.