Best practice in recruitment and selection: Do your homework!
Best practice in recruitment and selection: Do your homework!
http://info.profilesinternational.com/profiles-employee-assessment-blog/bid/59810/Best-practice-in-recruitment-and-selection-Do-your-homework
Check candidate backgrounds and research compensation levels to improve your hiring success
Although we’re seeing “job growth” in the aftermath of the recession, no one is rushing to herald a hiring boom. Rather, companies are adding jobs slowly and perhaps prudently while also taking advantage of filling jobs with part-time and contract workers.
If you’re lucky enough to be one of those companies that are hiring, be sure to follow a critical best practice in recruitment and selection: do your homework. Specifically, know what a job is worth by investing in compensation comparison data, and do a thorough background check on your candidates.
A recent study by Profiles International compared the opinions of c-level executives with non-executives regarding how their companies follow best practice in recruitment and selection, including the issues of compensation comparison and background checks. Here’s what we found.
Be sure that compensation is competitive and based on current market rates for the job
This was the question with the largest gap in the study. Seventy-two percent of c-level executives think they’re paying competitively, but far fewer employees (58%) agree. This difference is often the result of the c-level looking at the employee’s fully loaded costs and the employee looking only at their base salary.
Make sure that employees understand the full breadth of their total compensation package because base salary is usually only about 60% of this amount. Compensation commensurate to what employees can earn in similar positions is critical to keeping your workforce motivated and your ability to attract top talent. Organizations can compete in many areas—work environment, benefits, growth opportunities—but expecting top performers to stay with you because you offer these things is not realistic if they can earn significantly more money doing a similar job elsewhere.
And while you might think you can get talent cheaper in this employer’s market, the cost of having to rehire employees who leave quickly for more pay isn’t worth it. Invest in improving your recruiting process with sound (and up-to-date) compensation comparisons.
Conduct comprehensive reference and background checks on job candidates
This question yielded a modest difference in perception between our two groups—70% of c-suite executives versus 64% of non-executives. Leaders might view reference and background checks as a bother when they "know" someone is right for a position. But employment experts estimate that almost one-third of all résumés contain false or exaggerated information. According to a Purdue University newsletter, falsified information consists mostly of expanded dates to cover employment gaps.
Background checks are quick and inexpensive. And in this day and age where trust and integrity are so important to a high-performing organization, it seems inexcusable that anyone—especially those in the c-suite—would allow their organization to overlook this step.
Peace of mind and greater confidence in your hires, not to mention weeding out dishonest and high-risk candidates, are worth following this best practice in recruitment and selection.
Learn more
Want to learn more about best practice in recruitment and selection? Read more about Strategic Talent Management.
Edited by: Jeff Meyers
