Hiring People_ Recruit and Keep the Brightest Stars - Kathy Shwiff [3]
Rudy Miick, founder of Miick & Associates, a restaurant consulting company helping Nick’s with staffing issues, says, “If we raise the bar of expectations, tell them clearly what’s expected, treat them with respect, and train them well, we end up with a waiting line of people trying to get in the door.”
Source: “Being the Boss” by Karen Springer, Newsweek.com (August 5, 2005).
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The job summary should provide the basic requirements of the job; it can be concise or go into greater detail depending on the space available.
Focus on the key responsibilities of the job, listing the ones you feel are most critical and at which a desirable candidate will excel. Use action verbs, such as “implements” or “oversees” at the start of each item, and also explain where and how often tasks are to be done. Include the range of responsibilities, including financial and budgetary ones, and be sure to mention if the job includes supervisory responsibilities.
Indicate what the minimum job requirements are for the position. These might include personality and character traits; minimum educational requirements; minimum amount of experience; willingness to travel; and special skills, including fluency in a language or familiarity with specific computer software. Try to frame your description in objective, measurable terms. An ad that fits this criteria might read, “Resourceful college graduate with two years of marketing experience to do complex spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel, some knowledge of Spanish a plus.”
If applicable, state your requirements for any certifications and licenses the job will require. Some industries are legally bound by licensing restrictions, so make sure you know whether a worker at your firm needs a practitioner’s license or a license to operate heavy machinery, etc.
Describe the physical requirements of the job, if any, such as lifting heavy objects or standing for long periods of time.
It’s important to include a disclaimer that clearly states that the description outlines only the typical responsibilities of the job, and not all the duties that the employee will be required to perform. Leave room for yourself to assign other duties if the need arises. For instance, you might write “Job involves an additional variety of tasks with plenty of room for growth.”
When describing required working hours and salary, specify whether a job is full time or part time, and detail the range of compensation. Don’t forget to highlight your company’s benefits plan and other perks. For example, “Full-time position, starting in the low $40s with full medical and dental coverage plus a 401K.”
ADVERTISING THE POSITION
Once you’ve decided what type of person the job requires, it’s time to start looking. If you’re lucky, the right person will walk through the door, resume in hand, hoping to work for your company. But it doesn’t often happen that way. Most likely, you’ll have to engage your company’s human resources department. If you handle human resources yourself, prepare for some decisions. Right off the bat, you have to figure out how to spread the word that you’re searching for a new employee.
There are so many places to spend your candidate-recruiting dollars that it’s hard to know where to go first. Traditionally, employers have used classified ads or staffing firms to fill hourly jobs; display ads in newspapers and industry-specific journals as well as staffing firms to fill low-to mid-range professional jobs; and executive search firms to fill senior professional and managerial positions. And these approaches still make a lot of sense. According to an article at Clickz.com, the statistics from a 2005 TNS Survey for The Conference Board suggest that most job seekers with incomes lower than $25,000 still rely on newspapers, and only half of them use the Internet. Therefore,