REDEFINING
RECRUITMENT
Robert Kenward , Fitability ® recruiter at YOU Search & Select and founder of TheHub . Jobs , outlines his ideal recruitment manifesto
ecruitment gets a bad rep and , unfortunately , a lot of the time it ’ s deserved . I ’ ve devised a six-point manifesto to restore some credibility to the whole sector and , in turn , make life easier for everyone .
1 . Replace “ what is your current salary ?” with “ what salary are you looking for ?” It should be illegal to ask a candidate their current salary , period . Their current salary should not influence their worth to you . Imagine this all-too-common scenario : if your role has a salary bracket of £ 50-60k , and your chosen candidate is on £ 30k , you may be tempted to offer them £ 40k , because it will represent a nice £ 10k raise for them and everyone wins right ? Wrong . The job is worth £ 50-60k , so you would be underpaying by 20-30 %. If you are paying them 20 % less than the role
Left : Recruitment expert Robert Kenward deserves , does that mean you will also reduce the workload and responsibility by 20 %?
Of course you won ’ t . If you think the candidate can do the role , then pay them what the role commands . The gender / ethnicity pay gap is real , and this approach only keeps it there and widens it .
2 . All job adverts must have a salary banding Employers often cite they don ’ t want staff to know what their colleagues are on , but salary bandings make things so much more transparent and fairer . An ideal situation would be to use the local and national government approach which has grades and pay bandings , and clear levels within each grade laying out what the employee must achieve to reach each of the levels .
Salary bandings will also reduce the number of inappropriate applicants applying for a role , too .
3 . Recruiters must reply to all applicants Some recruiters or hiring teams have caveats on their job adverts “ if you haven ’ t had a response within 72 hours then you have been unsuccessful ”, or “ we only respond to successful candidates ”. I think that ’ s hugely unprofessional , and it can affect people ’ s mental health . Treat applicants as human beings . It ’ s easy to create an email template to respond individually , and if you ’ re getting a poor match of applicant , take a look at what you ’ re putting in the advert , include a salary bracket and see what you can do to hone down and ease your workload .
4 . If employers insist on giving the role to multiple agencies , ensure all agencies only submit applicants on the same day This will stop the mad rush to claim ‘ candidate ownership ’ by recruiters www . conference-news . co . uk