Creating a Robust Recruitment Process in Your Tradie Business

Creating a Robust Recruitment Process in Your Tradie Business

In this new normal of business today, more than ever it is essential that you have a robust recruitment process documented, templated and ready to use at a moments notice.

Recently, I was coaching a tradie client through the recruiting process and it quickly became evident that the business did not have ant form of recruiting process in place other than recognising a need that they needed to employ someone quickly.  Their process was reaching out to anyone that they knew of who might be looking for a job and then when they did identify someone having a 10 to 15 minute informal discussion, disguised as an interview, then only asking about what experience they had.  Then they decided to hire because they had 2 arms and legs and could, maybe, do the job.

How often have you followed this process in your business, to find out a little down the track that you made a terrible mistake and should not have hired that person?

Unfortunately, I see this all too often occurring in businesses ,with it costing business owners significant amounts of money in the form of work not completed properly or having to be redone, lost time due to poor quality workmanship, unfair dismissal payouts, I think you get the picture …

In the qualified Trades Sector, a labour shortage has been looming for a long, long time due to younger people electing to take up opportunities in new technologies associated with the Information Technology Sector, rather than pursuing a career in developing a trades skill.  Therefore, the pool of available “Qualified Tradies” is becoming smaller and smaller year on year. 

So, what to do?

Develop a Robust Recruitment Process 

It is important to realise and understand that Recruitment MUST be seen as an Investment and not as an Expense for the business.  It may even mean investing on a job ad bi-monthly to test the market for who is actively seeking a position or career change.

A great team is one of the best assets an owner/operator can invest in for their organisation.  The way in which organisation's find or “recruit” team members is important as excellent people can only enhance the running, systems and profit center’s of the business.

Here are the key Steps to developing your own robust recruitment process:

Step 1 -   Identify the positions you want to recruit for

• Create an Organisational chart, looking out 5 years, with every position in the organisation
• Create position titles
  

Step 2 -   Create the position description(s)

• Identify what each position is responsible for, the desired outcomes to be achieved and how you will measure achievement of the desired outcomes
  

Step 3 -   Create the person profile

• Identify what the ideal person skills, abilities, personality traits that are important for the role (Utilise the principles of DISC for this part of the exercise)
• Make a list of everyone you know that you would like to join your organisation
  

Step 4 -   Create the Job Ad

• Base the ad around the PD and person profile for every position in your organisation (once you create a template, only minor tweaking will be required for each different position)
• Include the good and bad things about the job
• And something that is attractive about the local area and the lifestyle, attractions and facilities that the area has to offer
• The job ad is as much about attracting the right person to the job as it is about having the wrong person for the job deselect themselves before applying (and wasting your time)
• Consider using a third party recruitment agency to find the best people on your behalf
  

Step 5 -   Advertising the Job

• Identify where you are going to advertise the job
• Seek and/or Indeed, Facebook Business Page, Linkedin, Instagram, Newspaper, Radio TV, other social media platforms
• Advertise internally on your notice board
• Encourage your team members to ask good people they know if they are interested in applying
• Let your suppliers know you are recruiting with the specific details of the ad
• Network with your acquaintances, industry associations, sporting groups
  

Step 6 -   Shortlist applicants for interviews

• When you have received a number of applications create the shortlist of candidates that you will interview
• Seriously consider interviewing immediately if a candidate’s application meets all of your criteria
• Remember, they may be applying for other jobs as well, you cannot afford to miss an opportunity to employ the right candidate because you were to slow to conduct an interview

Step 7 -   Conduct interviews

• Ideally, conduct a group interview if you have more than 3-4 candidates, this will save time and you will get to see how the candidates interact together
• Create a list of relevant questions to ask in the interview that:
  • What is about the position that has interested them
  • Identify the candidates goals and ambitions in life and career
  • Identify the relevant experience they have for the position
  • Identify how the deal with pressure and/or a conflict situation
  • Identify specific examples of how the may have used their initiative, used their problem solving skills and how they deal with change
  • Why do they think they are the right person for the position and what else can the offer to the business
    

Step 8 -   Shortlist 1-3 candidates for final interview 

• This is a critical step that often gets missed
• Get the candidates back for a second/final interview so that you can get to know more about them, you will have more questions, they will want to know more too …
  

Step 9 -   Have candidates complete the DISC & Motivators assessment

• The DISC assessment will enable you to identify observable behaviours and emotions, how these may change from normal circumstances compared to when they come under pressure
• The Motivators assessment identifies the values that drive their behaviour and emotions
  

Step 10 - Conduct final round of interviews individually

• Use the DISC & Motivators report to seek clarification on things you would like to explore deeper
• Dig deeper on any areas that you would like further clarification on in respect of their experience, interpersonal interactions, expectations from the job and/or the business
  

Step 11 – Conduct Reference checking with nominated referees

• This is another critical step that often gets missed
• Create a templated questionnaire for interviewing the candidates referees
  

Step 12 - Create employment contract

• Prepare an employment contract that formalized all the details of relevant discussion during the interview process and that capture the requirements of Fairwork Australia Act
• Agree the start date and salary conditions with the candidate
  

Step 13 - Make a job offer

• Make the job offer and have the candidate sign the employment contract and return as a matter of priority
  

Step 14 - Let other candidates know that they were unsuccessful

• Only after your preferred candidate has accepted and returned the signed contract of employment
  

Step 15 - Start employee with an induction plan

• Create an induction checklist/plan for each position
• Getting new team members off on the right foot will pay dividends in your organisation
  

Developing your Recruitment Process well ahead of the time you are ready to recruit is that part of working “ON” the business as opposed to working “IN” the business. Preparing the templates and other recruitment systems ahead of when you are ready to recruit enables you to react quickly to any positive changes that occur in the business and helps you avoid having to scramble to pull everything together at the last minute, when you urgently need to recruit someone. 

In the New Normal of Business today, everything is happening at a faster pace, both positively and negatively, which means that businesses MUST be prepared to act swiftly and decisively, so they can make the most of any opportunity that arises.  Not only will you demonstrate professionalism in your business and industry, you will boost your reputation that will lead to you becoming an employer of choice with quality candidates seeking you out to come and work with you. 

In the field of Tradie Industries where the reality of suitably qualified candidates is diminishing, having a robust recruitment process and policy that you can pull the trigger on quickly when you need to recruit, will put you in a much better situation in your quest to find and recruit the best people into your organisation 

If you have any further questions, please email me at philbadura@actioncoach.com …  I am here to Help …!