Payroll news

Recruiting New Staff 23.09.2009 Recruiting is one of the most vital areas of any company’s activity; and payroll is of obvious importance. So is this importance reflected in the time employers devote to payroll recruitment? If your organisation was spending £75,000 on a new IT system, how much time would they spend to find the right one? Employment is up to 2.44 million, inflation has remained to 1.8% - a little higher than than expected – companies and some major economies are reporting signs of recovery and the housing market is seeing signs of improvement over the last three months. With the future looking a bit brighter and the need to recruit new staff more of a reality than it has been over the last six months. Maybe now is the right time to review your recruitment process. Do you devote enough time when you are recruiting staff? When recruiting a payroll administrator at a salary of £25,000 this represents £75,000 over a three year period. If your organisation was spending £75,000 on a new IT system, how much time would they spend to find the right one? How many people would be involved in making that decision? Would they hold a number of blue sky meetings to discuss what is needed? If a member of your team has resigned have you carried out an exit interview as to why they left? Holding an exit interview may help you recruit the right person for this role. If someone states they are leaving for money this is generally not the case there are usually underlying reasons. Employees leave because there is a lack of support or supervision. There is lack of clarity of their role and how they are supposed to work. There are no training or development plans or there isn’t a chance of promotion. Holding exit interviews maybe painful but in the long run may save you time, money, improve staff retention and have a happier team. When you last recruited did you invest enough time to think through the skills, attributes and behaviours you need for your new team member? If you have a team it would be worth while evaluating their skills individually and behaviours with their colleagues. If you are looking to create a senior role instead of recruiting externally you may find an individual at this level within your team. Promoting within your team not only gives you someone who already understands your payroll and company culture but it also motivates your team and saves you money! If you do not have the luxury of finding someone within in your own team consider the skill set that you require for the role, personality and behaviour. In many cases I have found that personality is more important to the recruiter than skill set. If the candidate has the right personality to suit the team then the skills can be learnt. Ensure that you have a detailed job description, person spec and a clear idea of what you want the individual to do. When interviewing the candidate ensure that you carry out a payroll test even if they have already been tested by the agency. Do you need to consider carrying out a correspondence or excel test? It is always advisable to carry out a first and second interview. If the individual is working within the team introduce them to the rest of team before an offer is made. By involving the team in the recruitment process will give them some responsibility over the new recruit. Once an offer has been made ensure employment references have been gained. Ensure that they have all the tools that are needed to carry out their work. I am aware of candidates starting on their first day who have not had a desk to sit at or a PC. This has caused some doubt with the candidate as to if they have actually made the right decisions. Ensure that they are aware of the company rules and maybe assign work buddy who they can ask questions ie where are the toilets, what time do people go to lunch? Ensure that you hold weekly meetings with the new employee and then extend it to monthly meetings. The first two weeks of a new role are always the hardest whilst they are getting to grips with their duties and company culture. If you can set relatively easy targets in their first few weeks this will give them work satisfaction and will retain new employees.