The Ultimate Guide to Defining a
Successful Recruitment Strategy
Everything you need to know to maximise your chances of compiling an
excellent candidate short list for interview.
EXECUTIVE SEARCH & MANAGEMENT SELECTION

The more groundwork that is carried out before commencement, the
easier it will be to identify, search for and attract an appropriate shortlist
which will ultimately unearth the most fitting candidates for your
requirements.

• How to get all decision makers on board, prior to commencement.
• What criteria to consider when replacing existing personnel.
• What considerations to make when establishing a
benefits package.
• The benefits of psychometric assessments,
competency profiling & interviewing.
• What is the most appropriate recruitment
strategy for your recruitment requirements?
‘The Ultimate Guide to Defining A Successful Recruitment Strategy’ explores
every aspect of the recruitment process to allow it to run with maximum
efficiency.

Falling At the First Hurdle – Avoiding the Worst of All Business Mistakes
Why it is important to get all decision makers on board before commencing the
recruitment process.
There is nothing more frustrating than investing time in something to be told that you have been on
the wrong track, simply because you didn’t ask the right questions of the right people at the right
time. For example in 2014 one of the worst business mistakes in history happened at French railway
operator SNCF for this very reason. 2,000 new trains were ordered using measurements given to
them by the rail operator RFF.
Unfortunately, the measurements were only for those
stations built in the last 30 years. The trains were too
wide for many of the older regional stations to go into
use and $60 million of building work had to be carried
out to make all the stations wide enough for the trains
to pass through.
This same principle applies to the recruitment process.
Although the repercussions probably aren’t going to be
quite as costly, there can still be severe consequences
by not involving all stake holders at the beginning of the
hiring cycle. A bad hire can not only underperform in
their own role but also cause discontentment
throughout an organisation.

Falling At the First Hurdle – Avoiding the Worst of All Business Mistakes
Why it is important to get all decision makers on board before commencing the
recruitment process.
What needs to be considered?
When it comes to comprehensively sourcing talent
there are a number of aspects that need to be
considered, in order to ensure that all avenues are
explored.
• What are we hoping to achieve by employing this
person?
• Does a potential candidate exist within our
organisation?
• What is the culture of our organisation and what
behaviours are we seeking?
• Have we prepared a detailed job and person
specification?
• What are the competencies that are critical to the
role?

Falling At the First Hurdle – Avoiding the Worst of All Business Mistakes
Why it is important to get all decision makers on board before commencing the
recruitment process.
What needs to be considered?
• In what time scales do we need the person to be
employed?
• What is the individuals potential notice period
going to be, if they are employed elsewhere?
• Is the opportunity confidential?
• Is it likely that an individual of the nature we
require will be looking for a new career
opportunity?
• Is it likely that our competitors or organisations of
a similar nature employ individuals of a similar
nature?
• Are we remunerating the role appropriately?

Falling At the First Hurdle – Avoiding the Worst of All Business Mistakes
Why it is important to get all decision makers on board before commencing the
recruitment process.
What needs to be considered?
• What have we based the potential remuneration
on?
• What is the most appropriate recruitment strategy
to find the most relevant candidates?
• Who is going to decide which candidates are
selected for interview?
• What is the interview process going to be and
who is going to be involved?
• How will we ensure consistent selection criteria?
• How are the candidates going to be evaluated?
• What if we are unable to find an appropriate
candidate?

Falling At the First Hurdle – Avoiding the Worst of All Business Mistakes
Why it is important to get all decision makers on board before commencing the
recruitment process.
How do you get all stakeholders to dedicate
the appropriate amount of time and engage
from the outset in order to avoid
complications part way through the process?
Handling resistance
Demonstrating the time and investment required to
carry out the hiring process and how much
management resource will be wasted in the event
that it fails should help to secure buy-in from all senior
decision makers during the initial stages.
Also, demonstrating the value and impact that a
successful hire will have and the net result that will
have on them or their department will also be
important.

Falling At the First Hurdle – Avoiding the Worst of All Business Mistakes
Why it is important to get all decision makers on board before commencing the
recruitment process.
Agreeing documents
Ensure that all decision makers are in agreement regarding
the following (and it is documented):
• Job specification
• Personal specification
• Competency profile
• Induction objectives
• Interview questions and structure
Assessing candidates
By identifying the essential and desirable criteria from the
supporting documents and weighting them accordingly in
terms of importance will allow you to score and compare
candidates based on the required criteria and eliminate
personal bias.
The final hurdle
It isn’t essential that all decision makers are present at every stage of the interview process, though it is important
that they understand the role they have to play and when they may be required and the input expected from
them.

Strategic objectives
When it comes to any new recruit it is important to understand how the role will contribute to the
short, medium and long term strategic objectives of the business. The exiting manager may have
initially been, and continued to be, effective in delivering the strategic objectives at the time of their
appointment, but if these have changed then the job description and job advert needs to be
amended to reflect this to attract a person the skill-set to achieve the new objectives.
Equally when hiring a new person you should consistently ask, what is we are hoping to achieve with
this hire and how does this contribute to our overall business objective?
The wind of change
When a senior member of staff leaves it is a good opportunity to review the structure of the
business. You may find that the needs of the department and organisation as a whole have changed
significantly.
A resignation gives you the opportunity to contemplate whether the role is still fit for purpose or
whether the additional resource would be better allocated elsewhere in the business to achieve
strategic objectives.

What is an appropriate level of salary?
When recruiting most companies will base the salaries they pay on internal factors, rather than on what the market
dictates. Circumstances and markets change, there may actually be less demand in the market place for the type of
candidate you are looking for so a lower salary may be acceptable.
Or there could be a scarcity of talent meaning salaries are higher than expected. Also, priorities of employees
change and therefore the benefits package as a whole needs to be considered. A lower salary may be acceptable or
even preferred in exchange for additional benefits such as private healthcare, remote working and flexible hours.

5 Alternatives
to Salary
When
Benchmarking
Your Company
Whether the aim of your organisation is to attract new talent or to retain valuable
members of staff, it is essential to have a good understanding of the attractiveness of your
business to employees in comparison to similar organisations within your sector.
It truly is a guessing game as to whether your company has the right strategy in place to appeal to appropriate
candidates without an awareness of where your company sits within the market place. Studying your competitors
and similar industries is essential, but money isn’t the only thing to consider. Here are five alternatives to salary
which can equally be important in order to attract future employees.

Flexible working
Long gone are the days when one
member of the family was typically
the bread winner and one member
looked after the home and children,
so the flexibility to juggling both
work and family life is increasingly
important in today’s society. Also,
technology has made it much easier
for employees to work from any
location. Tablets, laptops and cloud
based networks allow the capability
of working remotely and video
platforms such as Facetime and
Skype enables face-to-face
communications.
Giving employees the freedom and
tools to allow them to juggle their
home and work life more easily can
be a big draw to an organisation.
5 Alternatives
to Salary
When
Benchmarking
Your Company

Training
Self-development is extremely important to people who want to progress
during their career, so if a company can offer a clear training and
development plan then this may be more important to someone with a
long term career plan that a larger salary in the short term. This is
particularly applicable to candidates who are wanting to change industry
as the training is an essential part to allow them to get their foot in the
door.
How much training your company is willing to provide will depend on
resource and the needs of the company in terms of whether there is time
for a new employee to grow into a role or whether there is need for them
to hit the ground running.
5 Alternatives
to Salary
When
Benchmarking
Your Company

Benefits
A good benefits package can also improve productivity and staff retention, but it also has tax implications and will
add to the paperwork. It is also important to make sure any benefit is truly what your employees and the market
wants before implementation or there is a danger that it could create a great deal of work for very little return.
There are many alternative benefits to salary which a company can provide to attract talented individuals.
Pensions, healthcare, car allowances, bike schemes, childcare vouchers, an office gym, a free canteen are all
benefits which may reduce the living costs of individual employees, but may be more cost effective for a
company to provide that a higher level of salary.
5 Alternatives
to Salary
When
Benchmarking
Your Company

SMEs can have a big advantage over large corporations
in this area as a more supportive, progressive,
collaborative culture is much easier to implement in a
smaller organisation than within a large business. The
difficulty is demonstrating this company culture to
potential employees without them experiencing it for
themselves. Your website, blogs, tweets, LinkedIn posts
and PR are just a few external communication channels
where your company culture
can be demonstrated..
5 Alternatives
to Salary
When
Benchmarking
Your Company
It is more important to work in a pleasant working environment rather than ear
big salary to a lot of people. An environment where individuals can feel valued,
trusted and empowered to achieve in the jobs that they have been employed t
do can be far more desirable than more money.
Company Culture

Prestige
Your company profile will have an effect on the salary and benefits
package that will be required to attract the relevant type of person.
If you have a strong, recognisable brand some candidates will
sacrifice salary, benefits and will even put up with poor employee
engagement and a less than perfect company culture in order to
have your brand on their CV.
However, the opposite of this is also true. If a company isn’t
particularly high profile then it may need to compensate more in
terms of salary, benefits and company culture in order to attract
people to work for the organisation.
For instance, in the drinks industry it will be more desirable to work
for Coca Cola rather than Dalston Cola for some no matter what
they think about the quality of the products or the benefits
package that is presented to them.
5 Alternatives
to Salary
When
Benchmarking
Your Company

How Do I Access the Talent I Need to Achieve
Our Business Objectives?
Executive Search
Executive Search utilises a range of modern and traditional search techniques such as
‘headhunting’ and social recruiting, to proactively identifies, approach and delivers
exceptional candidates who fit the profile of your business requirements.
It is the best approach for confidential appointments, identifying high performing individuals,
specialist in demand skills and senior positions.

Management Selection/ Advertised Selection
Management Selection, sometimes referred to as advertised selection, targets candidates
who are actively seeking new career opportunities. There is a wide range of potential
channels for placing adverts that can be utilised from traditional methods like hard copy print
in national, regional and specialist publications as well as online job boards and modern
communications such as social media.
Search and Selection
Relying purely on a Management Selection will leave a whole section of the market untapped
and therefore a combination of Executive Search and Management Selection techniques is
recommended. However, there are some instances when placing an advert may be the most
cost effective and appropriate route to market, this will be driven by the nature and level of
the requirement.
Our guides outlining both proactive and reactive recruitment techniques can be downloaded
here.

Newman Stewart is a market leading Executive Search and Management Selection company
headquartered in Wetherby with additional offices in Leeds and London.
If you would like to receive further guides on resourcing, job advertising and interviewing then please
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EXECUTIVE SEARCH & MANAGEMENT SELECTION