Blog / Leadership
Mandy Wurth, Preparing for the marathon
Industry leader Mandy Wurth believes that recruitment is a marathon, not a sprint, and it takes time to get good people and effort to retain them. She’s developed a six-step process to help you find the right people for your business.
1 Identify your target market
Mandy sees recruitment as an opportunity to stop and really evaluate what you need. She says, “When people leave, we just go into a panic and become desperate to hire. And that’s the worst thing we can do.” She recommends stopping to think and asking a series of questions such as, ‘Does that position really need to be filled? Is it a full time role? Is it a part time role? Can it be shared? Can it be absorbed back into the business? Am I just putting a bum on a seat because that’s what’s always happened?’.
She suggests:
- Work out exactly the kinds of tasks a person needs to do
- Develop position descriptions
- Think about whether you are hiring for the future or the present
- Determine whether you wish to provide a career path
- Decide if you are going to go in house or externally.
2 Set up recruitment infrastructure
Once you have identified the skill set you are looking for, Mandy believes that it is important to have the right recruitment infrastructure in place before you start the recruitment process. Mandy says, “Do you have a careers page on your website? Are there development clips that candidates can look at on your webpage? A careers page allows people to go and learn about what you do, and also allows potential candidates to send in their resume.”
Further, Mandy believes that, “There are many other ways to attract people to your business: a carefully planned careers night and other staff can be a good source. You can also use social media sites such as Facebook or Linkedin, your window displays and the newspaper or seek.com.”
3 Evaluate & interview
Mandy says that, “Once you get thousands of resumes in, what do you do with them? You’ve really got to take your time and go through these resumes, pick out the ones that resonate with you and your business, and show the skill set.” Once you’ve done that, Mandy recommends a telephone screening interview first as this will cut down the time you spend interviewing face-to-face by half.
Some of the questions you could ask over the phone might be: ‘Why did you apply for this role? What motivates you? How would you describe the environment you currently work in? What’s your perception of our real estate brand? What are your main responsibilities in your current role? And what do you look for in a job?’.
Cull the list and identify who you would like to come in for a face to face interview. Whoever is unsuccessful, Mandy recommends, following up with an email letting them know they were unsuccessful this time. And if they are successful, phone them and send an email registering the time you would like them to come in for an interview.
4 Meetings
Mandy says, “Just remember when you bring these people in for an interview, they’re going to be nervous. So give them a little leeway in the beginning. But you must be prepared for this meeting and have a framework of questions you are going to ask. Take them through the questions; document their answers, ensuring that you’re getting the best possible advantage of what they can bring to you. Once you’ve done that, thank them for their time and send them on their way. Don’t get caught up in, ‘I really like this person; they would be great in the job’. They may be great in the job, but follow the process first, so you can really ensure you’ve got the right person.”
Some questions you could ask are:
- What are your major responsibilities?
- Do you have anyone who reports to you?
- What do you do during the course of your day?
- What typically does your week look like?
- Tell me about the best customer service you have delivered and why?
- Do you get any feedback from clients? How often do you receive testimonials from people?
- Tell me about a client that received poor service and complained. What did you do about it?
Mandy says, “You’ve really got to make candidates think about their responsibilities and how they’ve acted in certain situations.”
5 Results
Mandy says that if you find someone you like, “...call to offer the person the role and then send that person a letter of offer. Once the letter of offer is returned, it’s time to get ready.”
Mandy believes that how a person starts in a new business will determine how long they will stay. She says, “Once that letter of offer is returned, you would then prepare their contracts. Get their business cards ready and a welcome pack. It gives them an idea of what they’re in for once they get started. It sets you up as saying, ‘This is how we are within our business - we want you on board with us. This is our welcome to you’.”
6 Welcome to the team
Mandy is of the view that sometimes we recruit and then we forget that we need to retain them. She says, “A new recruit’s first day should be the day that they go: ‘This is the business I want to stay in’. So ensure you have your infrastructure system set up. So they’ve got their logins for their Outlook and their database; their phone’s set up; their desk is ready; they’ve got their business cards ready to go; they’ve got their profile ready and already printed out, because you would have gained that information from talking to them.”
What you want to demonstrate is that you have a really fantastic on-boarding program which includes information about the office’s policies and procedures that is going to take them through the next 90 days, and set the scene for the rest of the time they are at the office.
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