Managing the Risks of Recruiting

Introduction

On the 15^th of March 2014, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) carried out a pre-recruitment aptitude test nationwide. Over 500,000 (five hundred thousand) job seekers were attending these tests to compete for less than 5,000 (five thousand) vacancies. This means that the ratio of applicants to jobs was more than 100 to 1. At this test there were stampedes at several centres and as at the last count eighteen young Nigerians had lost their lives with scores wounded. Several others lost their lives in traffic accidents on the way to and way from the test venues. I surmise that there is a better way for the Government to recruit while managing the risks of recruitment.

The unfortunate stampede which led to the deaths of several job candidates seeking to join the Nigerian Immigration Service, is a tragedy on many levels and an avoidable one at that.

Firstly it is a tragedy for the families of the young men and women who died. Families that were hoping for these young people to come home with good news of a successful interview not to be called to identify their loved ones in the morgue.

It is also a tragedy for the image of Nigeria. The most populous country in Africa with the now (re-based) largest economy in Africa. It should not be seen to be failing to provide sufficient opportunities for our young people to be gainfully employed. The sheer number of candidates in the stadia was astounding and clearly indicates that a lot more needs to be done to create jobs for our school leavers. More importantly for the subject of this paper is the fact that the exercise was conducted without any regard for risk management.

I was moved while watching the news of this sad event to hear a traumatised victim asking why in this modern times the recruitment was done in such a manner. This is a question that is no doubt being asked up and down the country and lessons need to be learned.

Problem Statement

In the past government agencies and the Nigerian military and paramilitary services have seemingly held the view that candidates need to be seen to be screened. Note that I use the word screened (not interviewed). Following from this logic; to screen 500,000 you need to see 500,000 physically. The problem is that seeing 500,000 persons at the same time is a big risk. Asking 500,000 person to physically appear which involves travel even if not on the same day also involves huge risks. These are risks that the recruiter should manage and mitigate and not pass on to the hapless job seeker. The attitude of the Nigerian Immigration Service and its “recruitment consultant” seems to be “please come at your own risk”.

Previous Options

At this last screening and recruitment exercise the Nigerian Immigration Service actually used an online platform to receive applications and collect the application fee. After this the candidates were required to report at various stadia for written aptitude tests. The question is; “why stop the use of technology at application collection?” Why not use the online platform to organize online testing.

Clement Ashley Consulting's Solution

1. Use an online platform to collect applications- this saves time, manages the risks of travel as well as missing or misplaced applications as well as the risk of wrong recording of names and other candidate details. Also aids data mining and shortlisting.
2. Abolish the practice of collecting application processing fees from candidates responding to your job advert. This is not only unethical but abolishment also removes the risk of exploitation as well as profit induced risky practices and a risk prone mindset such as “the more the merrier”
3. Use online aptitude and job knowledge tests to screen and shortlist for further screening, this addresses the risk of looking further at persons who lack the basic knowledge and intelligence for the job. It also addresses the risk of travel, queuing and crowd control. Any concerns about the sanctity of online test can be addressed by Information Security methodologies.
4. Use online psychometric and personality tests to screen and shortlist for further screening and/or interview. This addresses the risk of looking further at persons with the wrong personality or mindset. It also addresses the risk of travel, queuing and crowd control and saves the time of the interviewers.
5. Use a recruitment software application to move candidates application down the recruitment funnel from one stage to another this saves time and money (the cost of personnel) and the need for physical file carrying with the attendant risk of manipulation.
6. Only invite candidates for final interview when the ratio is down to less than or equal to: five candidates per vacancy,, anything more than that is unreasonable.
7. Only carry out medical or other physical tests during or after the interview, if a pre-condition for employment then combine with final interview to minimize travel, cost of examination and queuing.

Clement Ashley Consulting recommends that job seekers be treated with respect. As part of quality control this proposed recruitment methodology should be audited regularly for compliance.

Benefit 1

Using this approach recruitment is faster. Marking of scripts that could take weeks will be accomplished instantaneously.

Benefit 2

Using this approach recruitment is cheaper. Only a few hands will be necessary to manage an automated recruitment process.

Benefit 3

Using this approach recruitment will be less risky for the applicants as travel, queuing and the need for crowd management will be reduced or eliminated.

Benefit 4

Using this approach the recruitment process will be transparent leading to more credibility for government agencies or other large scale recruiting organisations.

Summary

Technology based recruitment in the 21^st Century is a minimum standard requirement for large scale recruitments. Anyone reading this, will be forgiven for wondering why this paper is necessary.

Managing the Risk of Headhunting

Introduction

Eighty percent (80%) of business success is tied to people. Recruiting the right people, motivating the right people, training the right people, retaining the right people while releasing the wrong ones is the key to your success. Many business under-perform because they do not know to do this or they can’t do it well. Anything that can prevent us from achieving our objectives, is a risk that must be managed. Therefore if we want to hire the right people we must manage the risk of getting it wrong.

Problem Statement

Identifying the right talent is always a concern. Some employers figure- 'why try to reinvent the wheel'. If some other company is getting it right, then why don't we just identify the person responsible for success and get him or her to join our team

Previous Options

Current practice in most business organizations is that when they think this way, they turn to their HR manager or their HR consultant and ask them to head hunt a certain person occupying a target position in a target company. Many employers think that getting the person responsible for success at company 'X' will translate into success at company 'Y'.

This is not always the case. Let's look at a sample scenario to explain why. Company 'Y' identifies company 'X' as having the kind of market share and sales performance that they would like for themselves. They identify the Head of Sales and Marketing in company 'X' and decide that if they can just get to recruit him/her. He/she would in no distant time work his/her magic on their numbers. What they failed to realize is that the CEO of company 'X' is an excellent networker who is always passing qualified leads to his sales team. Eighty percent of qualified leads come from the CEO, in addition the head of sales and marketing has a couple of fantastic 'closers' on his team this duo have a conversion rate of close to 90%. Company 'Y' does not have this same ideal situation.

The new Head of Sales and Marketing resumes at company 'Y' his strength is in managing a sales process. He duplicates the exact same sales process he used at company 'X' but with dramatically different results.

Clement Ashley Consulting's Solution

Clement Ashley Consulting recommends a recruitment approach that takes account of the problems identified above. We recognize that in reality the success you see may be as a result of a myriad of factors, some inimitable; the structure, the processes, the people, the life cycle of the organisation, the synergy of a team etc etc.

This means that we cannot assume that because the Head of Sales and Marketing recorded success at company 'X' he will automatically record success at company 'Y'. We still need to investigate his performance and validate his results. A head hunting approach does not give us the opportunity to do this. The target always feels like the 'beautiful bride' ask him to take a test or survey and responds 'do I have to do that, you know I am a performer that is why you approached me'. The target gives you the run around, always playing hard to get. The meeting is less of an interview and more of a salary negotiation from his point of view. What you hear is “ I am very happy where I am, and if you want to get me to leave, you need to make me an offer I cannot resist” As a result you end up paying a salary three or more times what you would have paid if you allowed him to compete for the position.

Please read Bernard Marr's Linkedin article “Who's Been Paid $109 Million For NOT Performing At Their Job?” to learn how Yahoo Inc paid a whopping sum of $109 million for 15 months of non performance when they headhunted De Castro of Google. Please follow this link to read.Headhunting at Yahoo

Our approach begins with understanding in great detail who exactly the man or woman for the job is. We recommend that you elicit a very detailed job description for each position and then make a very detailed and thorough man specification for each job description Armed with this you are now in a position to write a compelling copy for an advert that is geared to attract only the people who are actually qualified and discourage speculative job seekers. Having attracted the right targets, you should now put them through a thorough testing process to validate their IQ, work skills, job knowledge, emotional stability and personality fit for the job. If you have any headhunting target in mind encourage them to apply in response to the advert. If your advert copy is well written, chances are they would already have applied if they saw the advert. Let him compete with other applicants. This gives you an opportunity to independently validate his claimed successes. It also gives you an opportunity to hold him accountable for results in order to earn whatever salary is finally agreed. As you know competition always brings prices down. The same goes for salaries.

Benefit 1

Using this approach you greatly reduce the run around you get from headhunt targets.

Benefit 2

Using this approach you will not get hood winked by successes for which the candidate is not solely responsible and therefore cannot replicate

Benefit 3

Using this approach you are able to negotiate a competitive salary and hold the candidate accountable for results and not pay three times what the candidate is worth for success claimed elsewhere.

Benefit 4

Using this approach you do not limit yourself to what you think is available but create an open playing field that enables you discover other potential talent at a reasonable price.

Implementation

Implementation involves designing recruitment policies and procedures that standardize these best practice methodologies .It involves recognizing what personalities suit what jobs and identifying the right tests to administer. It involves understanding performance measures for each job position. It involves advertising for all positions; headhunting just becomes one approach of sourcing applicants to apply.

Summary

Hiring the right staff is the best thing you can do for your organisation. Jack Welch says 'Get the right people in the right jobs – it is more important than developing a strategy' The eighty-twenty rule recognizes that eighty percent of business success is tied to people but only twenty percent of organizations get it right. You can be part of that top twenty percent.

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Getting the Right Staff for your Business

Introduction

Eighty percent (80%) of business success is tied to people. Recruiting the right people, motivating the right people, training the right people, retaining the right people while releasing the wrong ones is the key to your success. Many business under-perform because they do not know to do this or they can’t do it well.

Problem Statement

Current statistics say that the unemployment rate in the educated and productive age group of the Nigerian population is now close to 45%. With this large pool of job seekers one would assume that filling vacancies would be easy for employers and prospective employers. This is however far from the case. Due to the falling standard of education many young graduates are barely employable or are out-rightly unemployable. Another factor making life difficult for employers is the erosion of values and work ethics in the present generation. The get-rich-quick mentality means that many young people are not willing to put in the effort required to grow and improve.

Previous Options

Current practice in most business organizations is that when a vacancy arises, they turn to their HR manager or their HR consultant and ask for CV's. Many employers think that having a large pool of CV's to choose from directly improves their chances of finding the right candidate. This is not usually the case.

The high rate of joblessness in the market itself has spawned an industry helping job seekers window dress their CV's, to put their best foot forward. Many times a large pool of CV's only means a lot of man hours going through the pile and interviewing the prospective candidates only to discover that no one makes the grade.

Recommended Solution

I  recommend a recruitment approach that takes account of the problems identified above. At our firm we recognize that in reality there are never that many suitable candidates to choose from Our approach begins with understanding in great detail who exactly the man or woman for the job is. We recommend that you elicit a very detailed job description for each position and then make a very detailed and thorough man specification for each job description Armed with this you are now in a position to write a compelling copy for an advert that is geared to attract only the people who are actually qualified and discourage speculative job seekers. Having attracted the right targets, you should now put them through a thorough testing process to validate their IQ, work skills, job knowledge, emotional stability and personality fit for the job.

Benefit 1

Using this approach you greatly reduce the number of unqualified Cv's that you have to sieve through.

Benefit 2

Using this approach you will not get hood winked by a window dressed CV or a bogus qualification that was awarded but not earned or deserved.

Benefit 3

Using this approach you are able to identify and disqualify the people that seem qualified and even look good on paper, but who do not have the right attitude, personality type or motivations for the job content.

Benefit 4

Using this approach you are able to attract persons who are naturally motivated by your mission and vision and who naturally have goals that are congruent with that of your organisation. These kind of staff do not need external motivation to make them put in their best and your organisation is the better for it,

Implementation

Implementation involves designing recruitment policies and procedures that standardize these best practice methodologies .It involves recognizing what personalities suit what jobs and identifying the right tests to administer.

Summary

Hiring the right staff is the best thing you can do for your organisation. Jack Welch says 'Get the right people in the right jobs – it is more important than developing a strategy' The eighty-twenty rule recognizes that eighty percent of business success is tied to people but only twenty percent of organizations get it right. You can be part of that top twenty percent.

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