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Who to Employ?
The question of who to employ in order to achieve the business’s goals is absolutely fundamental. Who a business employs will influence the business’s structure, procedures and profit.
As businesses are increasingly faced with the need to be dynamic, the decision of who to employ becomes more complex. It is necessary to start by assessing what the business need is, and then identifying the job role, together with assessing what level of education, experience, skills and attributes are required to perform the role effectively, and whether the role is required short, medium or long term.
If the business need is created because of the need to find a replacement as opposed to a created position, it is important to still fully assess the situation to ensure that what the role required in the past, is still what the role will require in the future.
Of course due to the changing nature of work environments, the need to be able to change and be flexible in a variety of job roles is vital. Recruitment for such positions is particularly difficult as it is not necessarily objective criteria, such as the candidate’s education or experience, that are the determining factors as to whether the candidate is a good fit for the role, but rather an aptitude and personality fit. The candidate’s aptitude and personality will determine whether they are is able to apply their knowledge to various situations without becoming overwhelmed by the flexibility of the role and the related ever evolving requirements. Attracting a talent-diverse applicant pool in situations where there is a high need for flexibility in the role is always beneficial and you should aim for a variety of candidates with differing experience.
The availability of potential candidates and other relevant external factors must be properly considered in order to assess the expected time frame that it may take to find a suitable candidate and how to tailor the recruitment process to ensure that the right audience is targeted. Skills shortages may be a significant obstacle to finding a suitable candidate.
It is no longer common to have a job for life. With a higher level of staff turnover, and younger employees expected to stay in one role for no longer than 2 years, it becomes imperative for the new recruit to be able to be efficient at performing the role quickly, as spending considerable time on training is not going to be of long term benefit to the business.
The Human Resources departments and recruiters are required to be increasingly more skilled at attracting and assessing candidates in order to ensure that the question of “who to employ?” is adequately answered.
Should you require any advice in regards to Human Resources or Labour related matters, please feel free to contact our HR & Labour Consulting division.
Candice Eaton Gaul
Head of HR & Labour Consulting, Johannesburg
