HR Director – part 1

INTERVIEWER: Jurgen, you've worked in human resources for more than 30 years, including as part of the senior management team. I'd like to go through some key HR issues with you. We'll begin with recruitment. Can you talk me through a typical recruitment process?

JURGEN: Yes. It's a responsibility between the line manager who has the and the HR department. The four steps in the process are: first of all, to define the requirements of the job and prepare a job description, and usually it's the manager who'll do that because they know the job better than anyone in HR does. But HR has a role in making sure that all the and ethical requirements are met, so as not to discriminate - even unintentionally - on of race, gender, religion and increasingly age. The second step is to attract the candidates. You can go inside or outside the company, or both. The third step is to the candidates. You can go inside or outside the company, or both. The third step is to select the candidates. You compile a longlist when you've got the applications in, and then a shortlist. First consideration is normally given to internal candidates, because opportunities for promotion are an important motivating inside the company and it's important to grow talent within the organization. You'd soon lose your people if they can't progress and develop their careers within their own organization. But sometimes you're looking for new skills that your organization needs, or  perhaps new mindsets, or it might be a new location where your company hasn't previously operated and it makes more business sense to locally.