Phase 1: Hiring Initiation Process

Too many hiring processes start with someone other than the hiring manager writing the job specification. Whether you’re advertising a role internally, externally or both, this isn’t the way to begin making a successful hire.

Reasons for hiring

We urge our clients to think about critical hires in the same way they would think about critical projects. The only reason for a company to hire anyone is for improved business results. So the first step must be to clearly identify the business results you want and how you expect someone to achieve those results. This effectively answers the question of ‘why’ you are hiring someone, provides context to your search and breathes life into your hiring efforts. If you miss this step, nothing else you do matters; your hiring efforts are doomed from the start.

Hiring Initiation Document

In the LBA Hiring Management System, we produce a Hiring Initiation Document (HID) which prompts hiring managers for this key information. In addition to documenting the critical business results you need, it provides background and context. It also enables you to:

• document a business case or ROI for your new hire
• anticipate the people involved in the hiring process and their roles
• have a high-level plan with details of tasks and timescales