Writing job descriptions

Some tips from HR works:

It should be an accurate, realistic and current picture of what is done or what is expected of the job incumbent.
It outlines the job’s location in the organisation, job purpose and content, the relationships involved, authority, controls and checks.
The incumbent and the supervisor must understand it equally well and must interpret it in the same way.
It must be able to be used as a selection tool and an interview guide when recruiting new staff.
It must be a guide for the incumbent and supervisor in establishing job objectives, standards of performance and assessing performance.
The job tasks must be listed in order of importance or in a logical sequence. Each task must state WHAT and HOW with enough detail to explain the HOW of the job i.e. IT MUST BE MEASURABLE.

The top ten workforce trends

GET FUTURE READY!

James Canton,Ph.D.,CEO and Chairman,Institute for Global Futures is well known for identifying top trends that will shape our future. In his book "The Extreme Future" he identifies the top ten workforce trends. Most of his insights are based on American and European markets, yet are relevant to the global skills shortage.

1. A global war for talent will be the top driver of competitive advantage,pitting nations,individuals,and companies against one another as talent grows scarce.

2.The future of the workforce should not be defined by geography,but by talent.

3.The ageing of the population in America and Europe will have dramatic effects on soceity and the economy.

4. Hispanics and women will dominate the future U.S.workforce.

5.Women will comprise a high percentage of new workers and leaders, forever changing the politics of boardrooms and markets.

6.Increased immigration will be necessary to enable available talent to keep up with the demands of business and soceity.

7.Finding high-tech skilled employees from a glabal talent pool will be the greatest challenge for every organisation and every nation.

8.Innovation will be the key driver of workforce skills,requiring the education system to be completely overhauled.

9. The domestic workforce will grow more slowly because of dangerously low fertility rates.

10.Workforce crises that arise in the near future will be traceable to the lack of skilled workers.

Recruitment of Foreigners

Having recently returned from Germany, it was interesting to find that companies there are also grappling with the same issues as companies all over the globe are viz. finding talent and skills for jobs. Economic prospects look good and most companies name the unavailability of talent as the most serious obstacle in ensuring growth. Recruiters are well aware of this and are becoming more and more innovative in sourcing the right person for a vacant position. E-recruitment and job fairs have been the norm for some years, but now there is another stream of passive candidates that are found on social networking sites. The popularity of MySpace and FaceBook is a recruiters pot of gold and any recruiter not utilizing Web2 technology will soon find themselves out of work.

What fascinated me personally is the huge discrepancies in earnings from continent to continent. Fairly well paid jobs in Germany are amongst the worst paid in South Africa. A German rubbish removal worker employed by the city of Berlin earns Euro 3250 per month( STERN 29.2007 ), a stark contrast to the ZAR that an equivalent South African earns. A German teacher earns Euro 3579, a person packing furniture Euro 2200, a sanitation worker Euro 2000 and a waiter Euro 2300. Much higher paid are Photographers, Marketing managers and Firemen. How then can South Africa tempt skilled employees to its shores? We can argue that the cost of living is not so high in ZA and our beautiful country and sunny climate compensates for the decrease in earnings. Let’s wake up and smell the roses. Money does talk and considering our crime rate, who wants to earn less, risk their lives in exchange for guaranteed sunshine and cheaper meat prices?

If South African companies are to grow and obtain necessary skills they need to ensure growth, they will have to offer attractive packages, including share options and guarantee personal safety.

The same scenario applies to government positions. We are sitting with hundreds of vacancies on governmental and municipal levels, the state has declared that they will grant 38 500 visa’s to foreigners to fill these vacancies, yet no one is biting. Our doors aren’t being pushed open by 1000’s of foreigners keen to take these positions. The same applies to the international drive to recruit Maths and Science teachers.

Our intentions are good, we are aware of the future, we have excellent policies and legislation that protect the workforce, but unless we “ Show the Money” our recruitment of foreigners will fail.

Induction

Induction is probably one of the most important steps in creating a favourable relationship between the company and new employee. The saying:” You only get one chance to make a first impression” rings true the very moment the new employee crosses the threshold into his new environment. Today’s talent needs a lot of information before they can integrate and become a productive member of the workforce. A favourable experience on their first day will make an impression on them throughout their working life. Sadly, this step is often ignored by companies and an attitude of “sit by Nellie” still prevails in most large and small companies alike.

Induction is about providing information on statutory requirements, company policies, introduction to management and team members, performance requirements, performance measures, logistics , training and coaching opportunities. A feedback and question and answer session is as vital to the process as is the introduction and giving of information. Any confusion about expectations is best cleared before it leads to formal disputes or even worse, lack of productivity and subsequent resignation.

Companies are therefore well advised to have a formal induction program supported by a “buddy system”. The process of induction only ends once the new employee is comfortable as a full contributor to the companies goals.

Making the Offer of Employment

Making the offer of employment is often the most important cornerstone of gaining the services of your identified candidate. Every individual has unique needs and wants and recruiters should gain insights into every candidates "sweet spot" to make the offer appealing to the prospective candidate. Remember, the best employee's are employed and they will only make a move if the offer exceeds their expectations. Some people want to work outside the cities, or work flexi-time, some only move jobs if there is a bigger challenge, or choose a specific team to work with to gain experience etc. Money is often not the deciding factor, although anyone welcomes an increase in earnings.

Getting the candidate to accept the offer of employment and its terms and conditions requires negotiation skills and awareness of expectations. It is always wise to ask the candidate during the interview process : " What if your company makes you a counter-offer?". This question will give you a lot of answers as to what motivates the candidate to leave or stay in his current employment. Sourcing and finding the right person for the job is often a costly and lengthly process. It would be sad if the candidate accepts the counter-offer and the employer is left back to square one.

Recruiters often try and push a certain candidate to just fill a position. In a commission driven industry this is very tempting, but a square peg has never fitted into a round hole, and if the match is not mutually beneficial the candidate will leave and the recruiter will risk a "Fall off". Not only is the recruiter responsible for a guarantee period, but incurs cost and a damaged reputation.

Reference Checking

When doing a telephonic reference always check the following:-

· Verify dates, salary, and reason for leaving.

· Research COMPETENCIES as discussed during the interview. Use the Behavioural Event Interviewing process for crucial competencies.

· Ask what significant contribution the candidate made to the company.

· Ask if there is anything a future employer should be aware of.

Remember, most previous employers are hesitant to describe unpleasant experiences or failures of the past employee. It is vital that you read between the lines and are alert to omissions. Be tactful and always state that the information is held in strictest confidence and will not be discussed with the candidate.

Often past employees did not perform satisfactorly because of their working environment or maybe because of an autocratic manager. Explore these possibilities with your candidate. Don't let talent slip through your hands because of factors that were not favourable for the individual to perform .

Formating a CV

Formatting a CV
A Curriculum Vitae means a ‘life profile’. It is a detailed outline of all personal details. A CV needs to include all the following details, and preferably in the order as stated:-
Personal Details
- Full Name and Surname
- Address : Telephone Numbers : Cell Number : Fax : e-mail
- Languages spoken

Personality Type and Competencies
- A short precis on personality description and strongest personal competencies (optional, but popular)

Education and Training
- Secondary Education - Highest Standard Passed - Year
- Tertiary Studies - College/University – Diploma/Degree - Year
- Any other studies

Personal Interests and Hobbies
- Only include these if they add to your CV i.e. played Provincial sport belong to Rotary, lead a church choir, play a musical instrument, etc.

Employment History (Start with the most recent)
- Position
- Dates
- Salary
- Duties and Responsibilities (In bullet format )
- Significant Achievements (within the job)
- Reason for Leaving

References (at least three)
- Name
- Company
- Position
- Telephone

Writing a Resume
If you are only required to produce a Resume which is a shortened version of the CV, then one includes Personal Details; Education and Training Details; and a one-line description of each job stating only Position Held.

Behavioural Event Interviewing

Having sourced prospective candidates, either through advertising or through a search exercise, you will now interview candidates who are most closely aligned to the competencies you are looking for. You interviews are based on the competencies listed on your job spec.


We are looking for:

Ø CA, CIMA

Ø Results driven

Ø Proven Business Acumen

Ø Team-player with good interpersonal skills



The qualification is self evident. The candidate either has the qualification - or if not, has sufficient experience to take the place of a qualification.


In terms of the second competency - Results Driven. Here is an example of Behavioural Event Interviewing for a Results Driven person:-

Ø What does Results Driven mean to you?
Ø Are you Results Driven?
Ø What kind of results were you required to achieve in your previous job?
Ø How did you ensure that these results were achieved?
Ø Did you ever fail to achieve the expected results?
Ø What did you do about it?


In terms of the third competency - Proven Business Acumen. Here is an example of Behavioural Event Interviewing for a person who has Proven Business Acumen:-

Ø What does Proven Business Acumen mean?
Ø Do you have Proven Business Acumen?
Ø Give an example from your previous work history where your Proven Business Acumen contributed towards success.
Ø Did you ever fail to use what is described as ‘Proven Business Acumen’?
Ø What did you do about it?


Behavioural Event Interviewing (aka Behavioural Based Interviewing) explores the individual’s previous BEHAVIOUR, and follows the following pattern:-

- The candidate’s understanding of the competency
- Whether the candidate believes he/she has the particular competency
- Previous behaviour displaying the competency
- A negative situation where the competency was not utilised or failed
- What the candidate did about it

What is a competency?

Recruitment has to be based on a person’s innate ability and potential in terms of competencies.

So what is a competency? A competency is defined as the innate ability to do something. A competency may be personal, managerial, clerical or practical. A competency is the result of experience or formal training. Examples of what we mean by competencies are listed in the following table:-


Personal: Motivated; Tenacious; Ambitious; Conceptual; Cross-Culturally sensitive

Management: Leadership Ability; Business Sense; Results Oriented; Organised; Quality Driven

Clerical: Computer Literate; Accurate; Alpha Numeric; Systematic; Inquisitive

Practical: Qualification; Language; Physical; Technical; Available (time and location availability)

The Job Spec

The most important part of the whole recruitment process is the job spec. It is vital that the job spec clarifies not only the requirements of the job, but the competencies required to be able to do the job. It is also important to know what other factors can influence the job and therefore, what criteria will govern the client’s final selection. If the job spec is not clear to both you and the client, and if you omit any details, you can end up spending a huge amount of time on recruiting candidates that are not suitable. This is the main reason why some recruitment consultants simply do not make it in the industry – they end up wasting more money than they make.

Taking the Order
The details required are listed below. It is important to note that these details are always outlined on a standard Job Sec Form . No recruitment consultancy operates without one.

Customer Details
- Name of Company;
- Type of Business (Manufacturing, Distribution);
- Product/Service;
- Staff complement;
- Physical and Postal addresses;
- Contact Details – phone, fax, e-mail, website;
- name of person responsible for the recruitment of this position;
- an alternative contact – name and position;
- who the account should be addressed to;
- reporting structure above and below the position;
- working environment; hours; days; transport; parking;
- canteen facilities; facilities for disabled; other general.

Maintaining the Information

If you are using a manual system for recording information re your customer base, you need to have a standardised form which allows for the recording, and more importantly, the asking, of all relevant data. Your targeted customer list should have a corresponding manual card system with all contact details for easy reference. If you have access to a computer, then this information is obviously all on computer, and always accessible to you at the press of a button. If this is not so, then it is imperative that you maintain a manual card system for easy and quick reference to customer details

Establishing the customers need during the visit

Always have standardised questions ready when you visit a prospective customer. Using this questioning method is known as Consultative Selling. Examples of Consultative Selling questions are:-
- What are the major problems you experience with regard to labour and your workforce?
- What are the areas of concern in terms of your staffing requirements i.e. technical, unskilled or semi-skilled labour, management, computer, etc?
- How do you prefer to do your recruitment? What problems do you encounter in your recruitment processes?
- What are your ‘if only’s in terms of recruitment and labour broking?
- How many positions have you needed to fill during the last six months?
- How much does an incorrect labour selection and placement cost the company?
- What cultural issues, if any, interfere with your company productivity and/or company culture?
- What are your company objectives during the next six months? What staff related factors could prevent you from achieving these objectives?
- Etc.

Handling Objections to Initial Visit
Common objections to initial contact include the following:-
- I’m not interested!
- You’ll be wasting my time and yours!
- I don’t use Recruitment Agencies!
- I’ve had a bad experience with Agencies / Brokers
- We do our own labour recruitment consulting
These objections can only be dealt with professionally if you understand and accept that
- you are a professional in your own right,
- you are interested in his/her business;
- you will be a permanent resource for them;
- you want to discuss their Labour Recruitment Processes with them;
- you want to explore their problems and needs; you highly value their input in view of their experience and knowledge

Research

Research
Before taking the time and going to the expense of visiting prospective customers, you need to establish certain details that would confirm that they are indeed prospective customers. Using the 180 (or more, or less, depending on your product, targets, and customer need) names of companies you have identified, draft a short questionnaire you will use in an initial telephone contact call to obtain the following information:-
- Their product and how long they’ve been in business
- Number of staff employed
- Preferred method of employment of staff
- Important contact names (attached to positions held) – and receptionist’s name! You need the receptionist to become an ‘ally’ as many managers want their calls screened.
If the company appears to be a prospective customer, then you use the contact names you have already established and make an appointment with the most senior or most likely contact, i.e. the person responsible for recruitment.





Initial Contact
To make the appointment, always do the following:
- Set a clear objective for the call - i.e. to make an appointment, to introduce yourself and your company, to gain information, etc.
- Say where you are from and why you are calling.
- ALWAYS have questions prepared
- ONLY be interested in the customer at this stage.
Know that you will encounter NEGATIVITY. No one is ‘waiting’ for your telephone call! You are interrupting their day! Be patient. Make sure that your interest is truly in the customer’s need and make that clear. Reaffirm your interest and ask for an appointment

Identifying Prospective Customers

Before you can sell anything you have to understand 2 things:

- what you are selling

- and why a customer needs it, i.e. why a customer will buy your product.

Define your product. In the Labour Recruitment Market, recruitment consultants sell the following:-

- SKILLS in the temporary and labour outsource contract business

- STAFF in the permanent placement division

- CONSULTING in the staff development, industrial relations and training

Labour Recruitment is a service to customers because of the following factors:-

- Customers can concentrate on their core business and not waste time on recruitment

- Recruitment is conducted by trained personnel using professional selection methods

- Customers are able to access skills without the added cost of carrying permanent staff which necessarily carry hidden costs

- Customers have access to the best person for the job, and not only the best of a small selection (own advert)

Once you have defined your product, then you can begin to identify WHO in the market will need your product / service.

To identify who will need/use your product, you first have to look at the corporate and industrial companies operating in your area, and then make a subjective judgement call on who could need what you have to offer. The actual list of prospective customers is drafted from a combination of the following activities:-

- Use a local business directory

- Use the Yellow Pages following industry type

- Conduct a Visual Survey (a physical look) throughout all local business blocks, and look around local corporate and industrial areas recording what names of companies you see and which of them appear to be likely prospects.

- Search the Internet to identify companies within your area, specific area of expertise and to obtain their background and product range from their website.

Target yourself to identify a set number i.e. 180 names of prospective companies.

Having identified a specific number of clients whom you believe will need and use your product, you need to establish a plan for approaching them.

Log on next week for more. In the meantime here is an activity to get you started.

ACTIVITY

1. Describe a particular corporate or industrial target market i.e. who needs the product you are selling?

2 Identify 180 prospective customers using all resources available and compile a client list. Select the customers according to your preferred specialist or generalist ‘desk’.

Introduction

Greetings fellow recruiters. You are in an awesome industry. Worldwide, the only industries that are consistently showing growth is in services. The trend to outsource non-core functions will continue as companies are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of focusing on their core business.

The recruitment industry brings with it another major growth opportunity. The opportunity to grow yourself! Human interaction and the sheer fact that you are matching talent with opportunity requires that you look beyond just the job specification. A deep understanding of the individuals attitude, motivating factors and ability to deal with adversity, for example, are just some of the aspects of the human self that needs to be explored. The organizations culture, leadership styles, methods of rewarding people and stimulating projects on hand become non-negotiables in determining who you send forward for the interview.

Only if you can understand yourself can you understand others. It is through this interaction with both candidates and clients that you learn to take a look inside yourself , identify your core values and with compassion and a deeper understanding you move to make the decision of who will be the right fit for the company.

Compassion is the key element to understanding. The opposite would be judgement. Yes, we do need to assess a candidates competencies and the clients needs, but we do not need to judge. If we judge, we generally have closed the door on potential. If we assess, we open the door for further exploration on living to one’s further potential and ultimately purpose in life.

Remember, people come to you, from all walks of life, sharing their experiences, good or bad. They place their trust in your hands. They look to you as a professional who can assist them in not only finding a job, but in finding an opportunity that allows them to grow and be stimulated. More and more the reward does not necessarily lie only in the amount of money they receive at the end of the month , but also in recognition, projects, fellow employees, further training and career advancement.

This blog is to help the new recruiter to become a professional in the recruitment industry and should be viewed as a toolbox for success. The checklists serve as guidelines in the recruitment process. Too often experienced recruiters take short-cuts and wonder why their perfect candidate quits the job after only a few months or why the client is dissatisfied with the performance of the individual. In a production environment short-cuts spell disastrous results in quality of product. In a human resource environment, short-cuts affects the lives of others and their families and can have serious repercussions. Can you afford not to be a professional?

It has been said that every individual should have had 12 mentors in their lives. Mentors are individuals that are either assigned to us, enter our lives by divine intervention or people we approach to assist us in our careers and personal development. They could be mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues, leaders etc. Don’t be afraid to approach people and ask them to be a mentor. Most will be honored to serve in this role. There is enormous knowledge and experience present in these individuals. I like to refer to it as “oldie power”! I would like to thank my mentors. They know who they are. It is they that released within me the energy to propel myself to great heights.

The blog is aligned to unit standards in the National Certificate Labour Recruitment Consultant NQF4. Any information over and above the minimum standards are the collection of knowledge and experience that I have gained during my years of recruiting. The assignments are voluntary. Should you wish to do them, build yourself a Portfolio of Evidence and have them assessed by an accredited assessor in the Labour Recruitment industry. It could gain you credits towards obtaining the National Certificate.

You will be getting weekly chunks of learning. Every Monday a new lesson will be posted and last post will be your check list.

Lastly, I would like to add the wise words of Socrates:

“I cannot teach anybody anything,I can only make them think.”