5 Reasons You Need A Recruitment And Selection Policy

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Creating a recruitment and selection policy helps eliminate employee turnover, because it helps you choose the right candidate for the position. This policy should complement the core values of your organization.

In this article we will go over what a recruitment policy is and why it’s important, the reasons why you need one, and some steps to include in your recruitment and selection policy to help create your process.

Key Takeaways:

• A well-defined recruitment and selection policy will help ensure that you make the best hires possible and help to reduce bias in the process.

• Consistency in your policy helps you cover your company legally during the recruitment process and guarantee there is no discrimination.

• Policies should be clearly stated and available to everyone involved for maximum transparency.

What is a Recruitment Policy and Why it’s Important

A recruitment policy simply answers how you hire candidates. A recruitment policy should revolve around four cornerstones which include:

• Hiring philosophy. This should include your companies purpose as well as company values and ethics. The company values and ethics must reflect transparency an honesty.

• Hiring procedures. This will make up the bulk of your recruitment and selection policy. This will include the salary budget, who is responsible for the approval of new hires, and who is responsible for writing the job description.

• Hiring standards. This is where you embrace transparency, compliance, and adhere to labor laws and legislation. This section should also cover issues like hiring biases, illegal interview questions, and the confidentiality of candidate information.

• Hiring vision. This will be the conclusion of your hiring policy. You will want to think about where your company is headed and the kind of candidates you want to help you achieve your vision. This should complement your hiring philosophy.

When everyone within your company is using the same recruitment policy, there is a strong level of consistency.

Using the same process allows all of your candidates to experience the same process and culture. Using the same policy helps avoid any discriminations and keeps your hiring process credible.

5 Reasons For a Recruitment and Selection Policy

1. Suitability. Writing an accurate position description is an important part of the recruitment process. It describes the primary tasks involved as well as the core competencies required to perform the role.

   A good recruitment and selection policy would require those writing job descriptions to give precedence to the competencies that would make the most positive contribution to the organization’s business requirements.

2. Consistency. A good recruitment and selection policy will also require that hiring managers use pre-determined criteria at all stages of the recruitment process, thereby reducing the risk of bias or discrimination.

   In the screening stage, the key selection criteria should have been determined before the job was advertised and clearly displayed in the advertisement and job description. Each candidate would then be evaluated according to those criteria only. When interviewing candidates, the same interviewers should be present at each interview and a set of pre-determined questions asked of each candidate, allowing them equal time to respond.

   It should be noted that treating everyone consistently does not always imply fairness. If a candidate is at a disadvantage for any reason (i.e. has a disability), you may need to take their individual circumstances into account, so they are given an equal opportunity to present their case.

3. Legality. Privacy and equal opportunity legislation require that the recruitment process is conducted in a fair and transparent manner and a good recruitment and selection policy will always make this very clear to recruiters.

   During no stage of the recruitment process can there be any discriminatory behavior, based on a person’s age, sex, marital status, religion, nationality, sexual orientation or disability. A candidate may have recourse to legal action if they feel they have been discriminated against, so impartiality is not only the right thing to do, it’s also good risk management practice.

   Discrimination may be quite unintentional. For example, using terms in a job advertisement such as ‘young and energetic’ or ‘new graduate’ may seem harmless enough, but should be avoided as they are implying that you must be young to apply for the job.

   Privacy laws also require that a candidate’s application is treated confidentially. An example of a privacy breach would be a recruiter discussing the details of a confidential job application with their family or friends. A recruitment and selection policy that reminds staff about the implications of possible lapses such as these can go a long way towards ensuring they never happen.

4. Credibility. Not all job advertisements are genuine. Some are placed by organizations wishing to build up a ‘talent pool’ or to simply to test the waters and see what’s out there.

   If an organization calls for certain application procedures to be followed, candidates can feel confident the position they are applying for actually exists and that their efforts will not be in vain. Candidates can also see you are a reputable employer by the good practices you follow and are more likely to want to become an employee of your organization.

5. Transparency. By requiring transparent procedures at every step, the recruitment and selection policy ensures that all stakeholders in the recruitment process are able to follow the process and be confident of the outcome.

   Candidates should be kept informed of the status of their application and notified if unsuccessful. Reasons for decisions made during the recruitment process should be documented and a transparent appeals process put in place if a candidate is unhappy with the outcome.

Steps in a Recruitment and Selection Process

Companies usually develop their recruitment policies around these steps in a recruitment process to establish consistency and ensure that all candidates are assessed equally. The recruitment process will look different for every company, but including these steps in your process will help keep your recruitment policy consistent.

1. Internal recruitment. Many organizations choose to post their job listings internally before posting them externally. Hiring internal candidates is a great way to promote your top talent.

2. External recruitment. To recruit externally, you should post on different job boards for candidates to find. Using keywords and action verbs in your job description will help attract qualified candidates.

3. Screening applicants. This will usually be done be a set recruitment team and they will review the candidates applications. They will choose which candidates will move forward in the recruitment process base on the qualities needed. These will usually be laid out in the recruitment and selection process.

4. Phone or video screening. The candidates who fit the initial qualifications will meet with the recruiter for a phone or video screening. For some companies this is the first interview stage. The candidates who are selected will move on to meet with the hiring manager or hiring team.

5. Selection tests. This is not an uncommon step with some companies. This usually is a test to see the skill level and experience that a candidate has. This will help determine if any candidates lied about their qualifications on their resume.

6. In-person interview. After the initial screening and the selection tests, the selected candidates will meet with the hiring manager or hiring team to determine if they are a good fit.

7. Reference check. This is usually the last step before offering a candidate a position. This will help make a final verification that the candidates skill and experience are legitimate and help avoid fraud with the candidate.

Final Thoughts

A good recruitment and selection policy should be based on principles such as:

• Respect for diversity

• Ethical decision making

• Selection according to merit

• Equal treatment for all

• Procedural fairness

Adherence to such a policy will not only ensure job applicants are treated fairly, but will also greatly increase your chances of securing the best possible people for your organization.

Author

Taylor Berman

Taylor is a freelance writer from Pennsylvania. Taylor got into writing because she enjoys writing articles that help people and loves creating stories that inspire. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and public relations with an interest in communications media from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.