School leavers, Grad jobs, first jobs and second jobs. These positions can all add great value to a business. The reason many of these roles don’t work out is they are often rushed into and changes are not made in the recruitment process compared to when they are hiring more experienced people. The outcome is often these entry level positions don't fulfill their potential so the company can often loose good people as they didn’t thrive.
The first thing to be aware of is hire on attitude not behaviour. If they are applying for an entry level position they tend to not have the correct behaviour or experiences so instead look for the right attitude - the attitude that will fit your companies culture. You might even need to spend some time before starting this recruitment process to write up what attitudes you are looking for!
The second thing is a 60% fit is good. We are not going to get a 100% fit here. Often we set our expectations too high and then every candidate falls below the bar we have set. To find out the 60% fit, develop a score card for each job role so you can compare candidates like for like.
So if you have found a good 60% fit, what next? Have a development plan. When we hire entry level positions, we are hiring potential that needs to be grown. The recruitment process does not finish when they accept the job, the company needs to have an agreed programme that will develop this new recruit from 60% to a greater fit.
Success at hiring entry level positions can be yours if you follow our simple steps above.
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