QUESTION: I am hiring an administrative assistant that will do part time recruiting and am putting together an onboard plan.  What are some tools I should include? – Jane, Chicago

ANSWER: Sometimes you can hire an administrative assistant full time that can do some recruiting part time.  For your new hire, I would first have them do a vision exercise.  After they are with you for 30 to 60 days, do a goal setting exercise.  Get them acclimated and understanding what it feels like to do the recruiting piece, and they will have a feel for what they want to do from a quantity standpoint on the recruiting side.  That is why I would wait probably 30 to 60 days for goal setting.

Daily activity tracking.  I would have them start tracking their numbers as soon as you have them start recruiting.  Track the numbers and have him or her submit them to you for the first couple weeks and set some minimum expectations. I probably would not put them into a metrics tool for about 2 to 3 weeks because the early numbers are highly skewed because people new to recruiting can be ignorant.  Whenever you hire a new recruiter, just measure key things such as recruit presentations, marketing presentations, and recruit presentations, but I do not necessarily want to put them into a tool such as RPM Dashboard, which is a great metrics tracking tool by John Bartos.

Weekly planning checklist.  I have a checklist that I use with my coaching clients, but you can develop one of your own.

When you bring somebody on for the benefit of everybody, I do not coach to bring on someone to do both marketing and recruiting as a new hire.  I usually tell you to pick a role and usually 80% of the time or more it is to bring on somebody just to do sourcing of candidates, recruiting of candidates, not just name and development, but going out and recruiting, finding passive talent and having them master that for a few months before you introduce them to the marketing piece.

I think what you want to include in the onboarding process is: (1) setting the expectations, (2) specific training on how to approach a candidate, and (3) how to take a thorough data sheet.  That is really all you want at first.  After a month or so, you can start training them on how to properly prep and debrief a candidate under your supervision.  Until somebody was on for a few months, maybe even a year, we never let them debrief alone.

Then every day sit down with them first thing in the morning, whatever that is for you, for about a half an hour and go through their day before.  Tell me about the people you talked with.  Show me the data sheets you took.  Tell me about the conversations you had.  Why did this person get off the phone?  Why did that person get off the phone?  Where did the call end?  Where did the call get stuck?  It is a repetition every day.  Obviously, we are never going to have 100%.  We are never even going to have 20% candidate submission to conversation, but it is really refining that.

Then, starting week 2 or later you want to start recording that call, if you have the ability.  Most of the phone systems today, even if you have remote people, have the ability to record calls.  Most recruiters will tell you in full integrity what they think happened on the call, and often it is not what actually happened on the call.  This is why I like listening to the recording because there is so much that happens, as tenured people know, in the tonality on the other side.  You will pick up on listening to them so you can do a great job coaching with them.  So that is what I would recommend there.