70 | MAY 2017
Recruitment
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
BUILD YOUR DREAM TEAM
One of the points on which successful business people agree is that getting the
right people into your organisation is fundamental. Here, business owner, author
and HR expert Kate Russell gives tips on how to recruit talented workers.
Holly’s
ambitions
are out of
this world
The reality is that find-
ing and attracting good
quality people is difficult.
Many business owners say
that the dearth of really
good people is a significant
impediment to their growth.
It is reportedly the single
biggest HR problem that
Britain’s business owners
have today.
These days, sales and
marketing activity is not
confined to bringing in new
business. You must sell your
business products and ser-
vices to the best employee
talent as well.
Every person you re-
cruit into your organisa-
tion will be in one of the
following groups.
The A team. They will
be really good per-
formers, needing little
management and with
the potential for develop-
ment and promotion. You
have to train, nurture
and engage with them,
but the returns on invest-
ment are substantial.
Most will be foot sol-
diers. Solid average per-
formers, they are not su-
perstars, but they’re reliable.
They don’t set the world on
fire but they are acceptably
competent most of the time
with the occasional blip
downwards. It takes some
work to encourage them to
perform to their optimum
but well-managed they will
do their best. Return on
investment is reasonable.
The last group is what I
call the Pareto Group. The
Pareto Principle (among
other things) that 20% of the
invested input is responsible
for 80% of the results ob-
tained. In this case the bot-
tom performing 20% of your
staff will take up 80% of
your time to manage. Often
they’ll be poor performers
and/or engage in repeated
Spirited Holly Nicholas
1. Build a strong
employer brand.
minor misconduct. If you
only recruit these people
you’ll work yourself into the
ground and still lose to the
competition.
SMEs start at a disadvan-
tage because they are less
visible in the recruitment
arena than large organisa-
tions. There’s plenty they
can do to compete though.
There’s no magic quick fix,
but you can start to develop
some realistic, cost-effec-
tive solutions over time.
The more of the following
steps you apply, the more
likely you are to attract and
be able to recruit the right
people.
There are a few steps that
business owners can take to
build their dream team.
Your employer brand is
what people say and think
about your business as a
place to work. An effective
employer brand presents
your organisation as a good
employer and a great place
to work and can help with
recruitment, retention and
generally affect market per-
ception of your company.
Work with your employees
to fix anything about your
employer brand that you
don’t like. Make sure your
employer brand message
is clearly and consistently
communicated internally
and externally.
2. Consider all
possible avenues
to source good
raw material.
There’s a wide range of
possible places to source
talent, including industry-re-
lated job boards, referrals,
ex-services people and
ex-offenders. Look proac-
tively at all the possible
sources of good quality can-
didates. Investigate growing
the skills and experience
you need by training raw
talent, for example, appren-
tices.
3. Think about how
you will attract
their attention and
engage with them.
Your employer brand can
help you sell your business
to prospective employees.
Using social media (includ-
ing Youtube), your website
and other relevant channels,
making
‘ a Consider
recruitment
video ’
focus your campaigns in the
places where your target
candidates go. Take inspi-
ration from creative recruit-
ment campaigns to make
your own campaigns more
successful. Consider making
a recruitment video, actively
build a referral programme
and measure outcomes to
see what works well.
4. Develop a time
and data-efficient
recruitment
process.
Interviewing poor quality
candidates wastes time, so
devise an efficient data col-
lection process. Develop an
‘attract the best, deflect the
rest’ mindset. Use structured
interviews which question
and allow you to probe into
the candidate’s competence.
Incorporate work-related
testing to capture and assess
relevant data. Let technolo-
gy streamline your process.
Treat all candidates cour-
teously, whether they have
been successful or unsuc-
cessful.
It takes time to find good
people. Keep your recruit-
ment process switched on
all the time, measure the
outcomes of your efforts
and you will recruit your
own dream team.
For Kate’s book ‘Build Your
Dream Team – How SMEs
Can Plug the Talent Gap’
go to www.build-your-
dream-team.com
is Pro Installer’s new account
executive. And she’s busy
psyching up for our Installer
Essentials feature in June and
July.
Holly, from Barnsley, is just
20 but has already worked
for two years on solar sales
and then in a business to
business (B2B) lead gener-
ation role for payment pro-
cessing company Worldpay.
She studied business
administration and did a cus-
tomer service apprenticeship
in a local retail shop straight
from school. Speaking about
joining Clearview Publishing,
Pro Installer’s parent compa-
ny, she said: “I liked the idea
of working for a publishing
company, enjoy sales, and
wanted something challeng-
ing and different to what I’ve
previously done.
“I’m enjoying it so far, have
settled in well and have all
the help I need around me.”
Outside of work, Holly
likes travelling to countries
she hasn’t been to before and
her adventures have already
taken her to places including
Amsterdam, Greece, Africa
and Thailand.
She said: “I also enjoy
going to music festivals like
BoomTown in Hampshire,
binge watching documenta