What does a good attraction process look like?
To help you understand how all the steps of the hiring process link together, three case studies have been detailed below to show how outcomes can change based on the hiring experience.
Case Study 1 - Needs Addressing
Description: Eleanor is an owner of a horticulture business who was looking for a role which requires around two years of experience.
Preparing: Eleanor wanted to hire as quickly as she could so she didn’t take time to understand what her business offered their employees or define what skills and experience she was clearly looking for.
Finding: An old job ad was used from three years prior when she was looking for a similar role to advertise the position. Even though some aspects of the job ad aren't accurate, Eleanor didn’t think it impacted too much on who applied.
She posted this ad across a few platforms.
Assessing: Eleanor was disappointed when only two people applied for the role. Even though neither of them had the experience or skill she really needed, she decided to interview them anyway.
Selecting: After a quick phone call with both applicants, she decided to hire Barry. Barry was the elder of the two candidates and Eleanor thought he would have more maturity. She figured out their ages by asking for their birthdays.
Hiring: Eleanor sent the employment agreement over to Barry the next day without completing any tests or checks.
Onboarding: When Barry turned up on the first day he was introduced to a few members of his team and given the equipment he needed to complete the job. He wasn’t offered any support on how to learn his role. Barry felt very stressed as he had no previous experience in the job as he had expressed to Eleanor.
Outcome: Barry ended up leaving the role after two months. He felt unsure on what was expected of him and how to do the job. Although Barry expressed his inexperience in the role during the hiring process, he felt he was not trained or supported to learn on the job.
What worked well:
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Posted the job ad across multiple platforms
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Used an employment agreement
What needs improvement:
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Did not define why an employee should work for the business
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Did not use an updated and accurate job ad
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Hired the better candidate who applied, but not the right person for the role. Eleanor should have redone the steps to get better experienced candidates
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Did not interview in-person
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Did not spend time getting to know the candidate and their experience
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Asked an illegal interview question about the age of the candidates
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Did not complete tests and checks
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Did not provide an opportunity to negotiate the employment agreement
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Did not provide a supportive onboarding experience
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Did not provide training on missing skills and experience
Case Study 2 - Doing Well
Description: Dale is a manager at a forestry business who was looking for a role which requires little to no experience as on the job learning is expected.
Preparing: Dale was able to successfully pull together the basic skills and experience he was looking for in the role. He also created a list of benefits employees get from working at the business.
Finding: Dale pulled together a basic job ad using online resources and posted this ad in Facebook groups and on established job seeking platforms.
However, as he was concerned that he wouldn’t get much traction for the role, he decided to flourish and exaggerate some aspects of the job ad to gain interest.
Assessing: Dale received many applications for the role, many which seemed to come from career changers.
He chose the top three candidates to interview by their writing abilities in the application form.
Selecting: As skill and experience isn’t a large requirement of the role, Dale opted for a casual interview style.
He chose Sarah as the preferred candidate as she seemed passionate about what the business could offer her in her new career.
Hiring: Dale completed important tests and checks on Sarah, including drugs and alcohol tests, police background checks, and referee checks.
Once he received the results and was satisfied he sent a draft employment agreement over to Sarah to look over and comment on.
Onboarding: On Sarah’s first day, she was greeted by Barry and her buddy for her onboarding, Shawn. Shawn was in Sarah’s exact shoes two years ago - new to the job with little experience. Across Sarah’s first few months, Shawn taught her everything she would need to know to do her role in forestry, with a special focus on health and safety. Shawn also made sure to introduce Sarah to all of the team as early on as possible.
Outcome: Although Sarah felt very welcomed into the role by Dale and Shawn and believed it would be the perfect opportunity for her career change, the realities of the job did not align with what she was sold in the job ad and interview. Sarah tried to stay because of how much she felt welcomed by the people, but only lasted 6 months before resigning.
What worked well:
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Defined the skills and experience needed
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Defined the perks of the job
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Created a new job ad
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Posted the job ad across multiple platforms
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Interviewed in a way suitable for the role
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Completed tests and checks
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Sent over an employment agreement for negotiation
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Welcoming onboarding experience
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Trained on missing skills and experience
What needs improvement:
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Did not define ‘fit’ for the role
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Exaggerated the perks of the role without acknowledging the realities
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Did not choose candidates based on what will make them successful in the job (i.e. based selection on writing abilities)
Case Study 3 - Excelling
Description: Trent is an owner of an apiculture business who was looking for a basic entry role.
Preparing: Trent understands how costly it is to constantly rehire and train new employees. Therefore, he spent time considering who would be suited to this role (fit)? What would they be looking for and act like? What key basic skills and experience would they have, and was this needed for an entry role?
This helped him form the basis of his job ad.
Finding: Using a new job ad, Trent made sure to highlight both the positives and realities of the role. He wanted to make sure he attracted a person who knew from the beginning what they were getting into.
Trent advertised using schools as he wanted to hire a recent school leaver. This was with the aim of attracting someone that could grow and was eager to learn.
Assessing: As Trent didn’t sugar coat the role and advertised to a smaller pool of people, he took a hit in how many applicants he had.
However, out of the three applications he received they all seemed of high quality and people who he would want to interview.
Selecting: As Trent was interviewing school leavers, he opted for a semi-formal interview style with some key questions he wanted answers to dotted throughout. He wanted the interview to feel like a conversation where he got to know the person. He also wanted the applicants to feel at ease as they likely had never done an interview before.
He decided to hire Jack who had a passion for learning and interest in apiculture.
Hiring: Trent completed basic tests on checks on Jack, including a police background check and referee checks.
When these were complete he sent the employment agreement over to Jack to agree on.
Onboarding: On Jack’s first day, Trent met with him and introduced him to his buddy Kyle. They both took him around the business and introduced him to the team. As it was Jack’s first ever job they made sure to develop a special training program which ensured he would have the basic skills and experience he needed for success within his first 4 months.
Outcome: As Jack understood what the role entailed, there were no surprises when there were parts of the job that were hard. However, having Trent and Kyle there to support him and teach him his role made him happy at work and excited to turn up each day. Jack is excited to have a career in apiculture and plans to stay with Trent until he is ready to open up his own business.
What worked well:
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Defined the ‘fit’ needed
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Defined the skills and experience needed
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Defined perks of the job
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Defined realities of the job
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Created an accurate job ad
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Posted the job ad in a way that target the people that were needed
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Interviewed in a way suitable for the role
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Chose the hired candidate off qualities important for the role
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Completed tests and checks
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Sent over an employment agreement for negotiation
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Welcoming and supportive onboarding experience
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Specialised training to gain experience quickly