I'd rather tidy my sock drawer

​Having a structured recruitment process in place helps filter out unsuitable candidates before they’ve taken up much of your time.

A client of mine told me about a recent narrow escape. He’d just first interviewed a number of applicants for a key role he was recruiting for and shortlisted a handful that he felt showed potential. These candidates he invited to attend a second stage, designed to investigate further some of the key skills and qualities required for the role. They were asked to take part in a written exercise and a presentation.

He was surprised at two rather disappointing reactions. One was that ‘my circumstances have now changed and I won’t be pursuing this opportunity.’ The other was consistently no reply.

They might as well have said ‘I'd rather tidy my sock drawer.’

Wow, he said, I could have easily hired one of these people.

Both candidates were clearly put off by having to complete these job-related tasks.

We can only assume that:
a. They didn’t really want the job that much after all.
b. They didn’t feel confident that they could do these tasks.
c. They have lots of socks.

The good news is that my client had a newly designed, recruitment process in place that prevented him from hiring one of these individuals who had performed so well in their first interviews.

Needless to say he was extremely relieved and delighted that he had invested in this multi-staged process.

Many small businesses still rely on interviews only which is a very risky practice. When you’re growing your business, you’ll want to hire great people.

A talented team will help you deliver a continuously improving service or product to your customers and expand your reach, revenue and profit.

Choosing these people is a huge responsibility. Getting it wrong can be a time consuming, expensive nightmare.

There are three things to think about when setting out to expand your team:

✅ Are you on the radar of great candidates?
✅ Does your website sell you as an employer?
✅ Do you have a warm, friendly but structured recruitment process?

If you can say 'yes' to all of these, great, keep doing what you’re doing.
If you can’t, you’re in danger of hiring sock drawer tidiers and you need to call me on 07971511731 or email ali@aliwatersassociates.co.uk for a chat.