Employ and nurture people who have the skills you need and they will add value to your team and help your business thrive.

Employ the wrong people, however, and they could become your biggest liability – costing your business in all kinds of ways, from the expense of wasted recruitment to lost productivity from non-performance.

Of course, there’s much you can do to get the best out of people once they’re part of your organisation (having skilled management and clear communication for instance) but you need to find the right people first… and that starts with recruitment.

So, in a candidate-driven market, how can you ensure your company attracts the best talent?

All too often, companies lose out on first-rate candidates, not because they are considered a bad company to work for, but because their recruitment process lets them down. They may lack a clear vision of what they are looking for, have unrealistic expectations of potential candidates or simply miss the boat because they’re too slow to make a decision.

The good news is that you can avoid all of this!

Let’s assume you’ve decided to work with an agency to recruit to a vacancy. Here’s a run-down of some of the things you can do to get that recruitment process right, manage your expectations and maximise the benefit to your business:

Know what you want – The first step is to have a clearly defined job description and person specification for the role you wish to fill. Think very carefully here about the ‘must haves’ which you’ll use in your selection. Are the essential skills you need an absolute ‘must’ from the outset or are they skills that good candidates could pick up quickly? If it’s the latter, then taking it off your ‘must have’ list will expand your potential candidate pool.

Brief your agency well - As well as giving them the JD and PS, you might want to tell them about your company rules, values and business priorities so they can better select matching candidates.

Schedule the time you need – When you sign up an agency, immediately book in some diary time to hold interviews. Be sure to allow for some flexibility so you can see every potential candidate (e.g. schedule out-of-hours slots for passive candidates).

Work out ‘how you will decide' – Of course, you’ll be looking for those ‘must haves’ here (candidates’ experience, skills-set and qualifications) but you might also want to assess areas like attitude, values and aspiration. Using a scoring method can be a good way of coming to a quick but spot-on decision, especially useful when you have only seen a few candidates or have to decide between people of similar ability.

Be realistic – Right now, the security and facilities management sectors are working in a candidate-driven market. That means you probably won’t be able to choose from six perfect candidates for every role and at times may have to make some compromises. To stand a chance of getting the best talent, your company must be competitive and quick off the mark. So, when you see an applicant that fits your spec, don’t hold out just in case there’s someone else around the corner. While you delay, that candidate has most likely already gone elsewhere!

If all of this sounds a bit daunting, don’t worry! While recruitment should be approached as something of a challenge, it doesn’t have to be difficult. An experienced recruitment agency should be advising, helping and working with you at every step.

By working together, even in the toughest of recruitment markets, you can be sure your company gets the best possible result.