Steps To Attracting The Right Staff and Dealing with Language Barriers
By
Gina Lutz | Hr Advisor
Business Improvement Human Resources News
Finding the right staff can be very difficult right now, and it can be quite costly to your business if you don’t get the recruitment process right!
The more prepared you are during the recruitment process, the more professional your organisation will appear to the potential employee. You will not only demonstrate best practice, but you will also attract quality applicants that can be greatly beneficial to your organisation in the long term!
Sometimes the right person for the job might already be in your organisation. Looking at internal staff first might lead you to find someone who is already trained for the new position.
Some questions to ask yourself before you start the recruitment process:
- What position are you looking to fill or replace?
- Why are you looking to fill this position?
- Have you planned and budgeted for this role?
- What skillset/competencies do you require for this role?
- What are your desired behaviours for this role?
- How much are you willing to pay the right person?
- Do you have a clear, precise position description?
- Do you have an induction process/plan to ensure a successful start?
- Do you have an action/performance plan linked to the position description?
- Do you understand that the right process may take 6 to 8 weeks, especially if you go out to market?
Language Barriers in the Recruitment Process
Have you ever conducted an interview where the candidate seemed to have a language barrier? But you take a step back and realise this candidate has exactly what you’re looking for. What do you do next?
When you map out the requirements of the role, you should determine whether or not the position requires a person to be verbal? If the answer is no, and the candidate has everything you are looking for, don’t hold back! It is proven difficult to find a suitable candidate for any role in this market, so jump at the opportunity if you have one.
You should also consider that the candidate may have been nervous, which affected their confidence. Give the candidate another opportunity to display their communication skills. Give them a call, talk about something that comes naturally, even if it’s as simple as ‘how is your day going?’.
Most importantly, it is essential to recognise and accept if a language barrier is going to affect the role in the business. If the role is heavily verbal and requires constant communication with the customers, this particular candidate may not be suitable.
All in all, you need to weigh up your options. The recruitment game is a hard one to win at the moment. I would take a long hard look at the functionality of your business to see if someone with a language barrier can be placed.
If you need assistance with managing your recruitment process contact Key Business Advisors and one of our helpful HR professionals would be more than happy to assist.
Free Information:
At KBA we are a team that is very passionate about taking businesses from good to great. If you need help with recruitment or managing staff then contact us today on 1300 4 ADVICE.
