HR Toolkit Section 1: Recruiting Employees

Finding and keeping the right person with the necessary abilities and attitudes can be challenging and time consuming.

This section provides information and templates to support you to recruit staff that will be an asset to your company:

1. Recruitment process
2. Advertising a vacancy
3. Requesting a reference

1. Recruitment Process

Employing the right people is among the most important aspects of growing any business.

Recruiting people who are wrong for your company leads to increased staff turnover as they are unlikely to be happy at work or give their best. Ultimately, they end up leaving voluntarily, or in some cases involuntarily when their unsuitability becomes evident. This can also lead to low morale among your other staff and is particularly time consuming and costly to manage. The wrong hire can also impact the reputation of your business.

The Acas website includes sample template documents to help you navigate the recruitment process:

• Job descriptions
•  Person specification
•  Job application forms
•  Equality and Diversity monitoring forms
•  A recruitment checklist
• Example job offer letters
• Pre-employment checks

You should be mindful during any recruitment process not to discriminate against applicants based on the nine characteristics protected by the provisions of The Equality Act 2010.

It is also important that you retain all information/documentation associated with the recruitment process for a reasonable period and that it is handled and stored confidentially.

2. Advertising a Vacancy

It is important when advertising a vacancy to consider the best approach in terms of capturing your ‘target audience’ whilst also reflecting your budget.  There are many options for advertising, some of which are free and include:

• The Business Loch Lomond website
• Asking other staff for recommendations
• Social & Digital Media, such as your company website, LinkedIn, Facebook page or Twitter account
• Local Colleges and Universities
• Job Centre plus

3. Requesting a Reference

It is standard practice for employers to request references for potential employees following their interview. 

The following templates can be used to request an employment/professional reference or simply a character/personal reference.

It is important to seek the applicant’s permission prior to sending a reference request.