Cast your recruitment net wide to future proof your business

When businesses need to find new recruits when someone resigns, it can be easy just to think you need an exact replacement for the person who’s leaving. Taking this approach though may reduce the candidate pool and organisations will be missing out on a more broad and diverse set of candidates who can bring something new and different to their business.

For Egremont-based technical and engineering recruiters NRL, they’ve seen first-hand how companies can future proof their business when they cast a wider net and consider a more diverse range of candidates – as Director Rebecca Graves explains.

“When someone resigns, it can be easy to panic and try and instantly replace them like-for-like. What’s important though is taking time to consider what other skills and experience could be brought to the role to ensure it continues to be successful well into the future.

Are the key skills from the original job advert still required, or have these now been established more widely in the business? What does the future development look like for that role and department – are there new skills that someone could bring into the business to help with strategic growth?

The same is certainly the case when increasing headcount. If the business requires additional resource in a well-established department, could someone from a different industry sector bring a fresh perspective? Or could the role be redeveloped into a more junior position with structured training and support put in place? This provides a great opportunity to attract more people into your business and industry, and can be rewarding for other colleagues to help with mentoring and career development.”

With hundreds of candidates searching for jobs each week, NRL know it’s also important to ensure that job vacancies are well positioned. Whilst this includes key information about what the candidate will do in the role, its crucial job adverts aren’t an extensive list of desirable knowledge and skills, that narrows the talent pool as people who don’t tick all of the boxes are deterred from applying. Adverts also need to demonstrate why someone would want to join the business – what training and development is available, what benefits and employee care are in place to ensure colleagues are well looked after and feel appreciated. Finding the right balance when it comes to refining the job advert, is something the team at NRL are passionate about, understanding the important role it plays in attracting the best talent.

Looking for recruitment support for your engineering organisation, then get in touch with Rebecca on rgraves@nrl.co.uk

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