Would your Recruiting Process pass an audit?

Just as a financial audit assesses the checks and balances within your financial system, an audit of your recruitment practices can provide you with an evaluation of your recruitment processes.

Here are several questions to consider for a self-evaluation of your recruitment processes:

1. Are your job descriptions up to date?

Many organizations do not have any job descriptions; most aren’t up to date. Hiring to old and outdated job descriptions can lead to misunderstandings and bad hires. There are two types of job descriptions. One is the internal job description (very clear with respect to critical issues such as vacation, intellectual property, work hours, reporting structures, expectations, duties, requirements etc.) and the second is the external job description. The external description is written to attract the right fit culturally whiling addressing demanded experience to be successful.

2. Is your salary framework equitable and at market rate?

If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t attract talent, it might well be that your compensation framework is out of date. When was the last time you checked how your salaries compare to the marketplace or your competition?

3. Are you describing your jobs and work environment accurately?

Have you defined the unique benefits and challenges of your work environment? Why would someone want to work for your organization? What are the expectations of this opening in the first quarter? What are the challenges that lie ahead? What is the boss like? What are the advantages and disadvantages of working with this boss? If the environment is unstructured, say it! Never mislead anyone on what the challenges are for the position and/or the company overall.

4. Are your search strategies working?

Have you identified where your candidates typically come from? Are you advertising in the right places? Are you using a mixture of various search strategies? What is your success rate for each strategy? What is your retention rate from these strategies?

5. What screening techniques do you use?

What is your system for screening candidates? Are you using an ATS with Boolean search criteria? Do you have a checklist, criteria weighting and other measurements when searches are not giving you quality choices? Who is involved in the process and what are their roles? Is your ATS system successful in screening for top candidates? What check and balances are in place for reviewing all possible candidates?

6. How would you rate your interview skills?

How often do you update the interview questions for your job openings? Are you able to truly understand the candidate’s work experience and then compare this to what is demanded in your organization? Do you ask behavioral questions to address core values and culture fit? Do you ask for examples of their work related to the demands of the current opening? Do you ask questions of how they deal with difficult situations or people? Most importantly, do you listen when they are answering these questions? A great interviewer should be listening more than talking.

7. What steps are involved in your interview process?

Do you have a step-by-step hiring process? How many people are included in the hiring process? Is it difficult to have everyone on your hiring team actually interview the candidate too? Do you use SKYPE or other technology tools to cut down the expense of traveling for the interviewing process and reduce wait times between interviews? Having many people involved to get an in-depth understanding of the candidate can cause you to lose a great candidate if they can’t physically find the time to meet the candidate. Streamlining the interview process will make the process more cost effective on all levels of hiring.

8. What candidate assessments do you employ?

Personality, communication style, emotional intelligence and character assessment tools are widely used to understand the candidates better. What tools are you using and are they effective? Do your tools require you to rely on outside assistance or can you develop them in-house?

9. Does your employment agreement protect you?

Preparing an employment agreement requires significant thought and careful attention. Is yours up to date? Is the agreement very clear with respect to critical issues such as vacation, intellectual property, work hours, and reporting structures?

If you have identified any issue in this brief self-assessment, then you need to seriously think about conducting a professional recruitment audit. An audit professional will examine all of the activities related to your recruitment processes and identify areas of risk, especially with potential legal liabilities and legislative compliance.

Neglecting the importance of utilizing legislatively compliant recruitment processes in your organization can cost your organization thousands of dollars.