The importance of effective and compliant recruitment practice
Jane Watson: HR and Employment Law Consultant
In my role as HR Consultant at Quantum Coaching and Consultancy Ltd, I’m often asked about the validity of conducting exit interviews. Employee turnover rates remain costly, timely and challenging for many UK Companies, as is finding high quality, qualified, skilled replacements. Getting it right first time is not always easy and makes a huge difference to productivity, results, morale and time.
Exit interviews, if managed correctly, can be a highly effective way of identifying hidden problems or challenges in your workplace to improve the hiring process and improve staff retention.
During the exit process I tend to meet those I categorise to three groups.
The first are employees we would like to retain but have decided to move to perceived better opportunities. As responsible employers our aim is to develop our team to gain new skills, coach to become better at what they do, to be the best for self and our organisation. A consequence of this development is employees sometimes outgrow current roles or aspire for opportunities we can’t provide. At such times we shake hands, thank them for service and bid fond farewell.
I also meet with those who simply want to a career change or to take a new path. Again we wish well and part on good terms.
The last group is where I want to draw attention and can often take a disproportionate amount of our time and can impact resources.
Those in this group have often become disengaged or disillusioned with their current role/boss/company. The bad news is this cohort makes up a disproportionate number of departing employees.
Employment surveys state just “13% of UK employees are engaged in their role”
More worryingly “24% are actively disengaged and seeking change”.
Take some time to reflect on this… consider your own team. Can you identify the engaged and those who have become disillusioned or disengaged?
During exit interviews we take time to explore the recruitment process, the employee’s development plans, the relationship with peers/ line manager and expectations of both parties. We often identify a misalignment going straight back to the initial interview stages.
Expectations of both parties were simply unrealistic, never agreed and personal values and goals misaligned.
Developing a more effective recruitment process is the first step to ultimately saving you and your company time, money, resources and importantly positively impacting company perception and brand to potential employees and customers. After all customers like a familiar face and often see change as a negative and not many talented people seek work in an organisation with a reputation for high turnover.
Looking forward
As leaders we want to recruit and retain the best talent for our organisations and in doing so it’s essential we do so in a fair and compliant manner. In our eagerness to fill vacancies the potential legal pitfalls of recruitment are often forgotten.
It is essential to have an equitable, fair and compliant recruitment process to help recruit, retain and motivate the highest quality of candidate and to ensure the persons responsible for recruiting have the skill set to do so.
Many employers remain unaware that discrimination legislation protection in the UK is afforded to all job applicants. Employers can and have been sued for discriminatory practices in recruitment including inappropriate interview questions or unfair selection processes. Challenges & disputes are time consuming and in the event of negligibility are costly.
It’s important that you ensure your recruiting managers have received Equal Opportunities training and training on Appropriate Interview Questioning to source and retain the best potential talent.
Once the interview has taken place, we also need to have adequate record keeping. Copies of the interview form and candidate information (including selection scores, questions asked and answers to questions) should be kept for around 6 months. This ensures your organisation can demonstrate compliance in the unfortunate event of a case being brought against you in relation to candidates successful or not.
Having now conducted an effective legal and compliant process and sourced our ideal candidate, our minds turn to the on boarding process and ensuring we have a valid personal development plan, a coaching/mentorship programme and motivational working environment to support the new employee in role.
Contact us on 0800 612 7781 or email info@quantumcoaching.uk for more information or to book your place.
Should you wish to discuss any of the issues raised in this article or another HR related matter please do not hesitate to contact Jane Watson, HR Consultant, by email at info@quantumcoaching.uk