This article is my effort to share my experience with the fellow recruiters.

After spending around 6 years in Staffing and Recruiting for IT, Software and BPO companies; I learned that attrition rate in all the companies are increasing day by day. The managements of many companies are not being able to retain their permanent employees and it results in decrease of the overall performance of the organization.

After thinking on this issue, I came to one conclusion: The attrition or turnover of the employees start from the very first step and that is Recruitment. If the recruitment is not right, there are more chances for an employee to leave the organization in a very short time.

One should take a lot much care while recruiting a permanent employee and should not only emphasize on technical skills. Even if one has to compromise little with the technical skills of a candidate to make sure he stays with the company for a long time, he should do that.

There are n number of factors which can give the hint whether the person will stay long with the company or he will run away soon!! Based on my experience, below I am listing few points which should be taken care while recruiting a permanent employee. These are my views and opinions based on my experience and readers are welcome to comment or criticize..:)

7 Steps for Right Recruitment

1. Understanding the Requirement

Make sure you have understood the requirement very well. You should not only look at the technical requirements but also try to understand the entire environment and situation of the vacancy. Why the vacancy is there? Is it a new vacancy or a replacement? If it is a replacement, what are reasons the previous employee on that position left the job or shifted or promoted?

2. Analyzing the position and team situation

After understanding the requirement, make sure you analyze the team environment and situation where the vacancy is open. Figure out the size of the team one has to work with. For example, if the team size of the position is 10 people, and if the incumbent has never worked in such team size, he wont be able to get adjusted easily. There are people who only gets adjusted with small teams and there are also professionals who can only work in big teams. This is the case with leading and management positions as well. If you try to hire a person who has led a team of 100 people and if he has to lead a team of only 5 people, there are always chances that he will be not satisfied and not get adjusted in the environment.

One also needs to check what kind of person the incumbent has to work with. Who is his supervisor; what kind of attitude he has and so on. In most of the cases, the study has found that an employee leaves because of his supervisor. Ultimately, the supervisor is the person who deals with him directly!!

3. Sourcing the right person

After analyzing the above two steps, now is the time to look for a right person. Match the technical skills, match the above two criteria and then call him for the interview. Salary is always an important criteria so never forget to match what he expects, what he has drawn, what is he drawing and what you can offer.

4. Gathering basic information

Many recruiters find it silly to gather the basic information about the candidate. However, this is where they make a big mistake. Basic information like birth place, current location, family background, marital status, hobbies etc. make a big difference. These are the details which can help a recruiter to figure out the candidate’s current situation, his attitude, his hidden talents and skills and many more.

For example, if you have sourced a candidate who is female, recently married; there are chances for her to ask for maternity leave and the organization has to suffer. If you have a candidate who is relocating himself from his native location to a distant place, there are chances that if he gets a good opportunity in his native, he will accept it and run away. Similarly, if you find out the hobbies of a candidate you can figure out little about his attitude. If a candidate has been a soccer player in past, he may prove to be a good team member. If he is tennis player, he may like to work independently and so on..

So next time you interview someone, make sure you gather the basic information.

5. Interviewing

I will not discuss about the common things we ask while interviewing a candidate. Most of the recruiters or interviewers know what he has to check. But there are some other factors which need to be considered while interviewing. These are not the questions but hints we can get while interviewing.

• Body Language
• Facial expressions
• Speech
• Attitude
• Habits

6. Presenting profiles to management

It is very important for a recruiter to see how he is presenting the profile to the management. Once a recruiter has shortlisted one profile, he should wait for few more to get shortlisted. A recruiter should always give choices to the management and not just one resume. The management should have a chance to compare at least 3-4 profiles for a position. So make sure, you always present at least 3-4 resumes for a position to your management.

7. Recruiter as a sales person

I always consider a recruiter as a sales person. He is actually selling jobs to a right candidate and again selling the right candidate to the management. The sales always include after sales service. Always make sure you update the candidates and management about the latest status and keep both of them updated and posted.