Before rushing to fill a new position, or one that has become vacant, it’s vital to prepare thoroughly for the whole recruitment process.

The planning stage for recruitment and hiring is important for many reasons, but it’s often tempting to fill a position quickly because someone leaves suddenly, creating a work overload, so the gap must be plugged as quickly as possible. Careful when the hurry is on to find a new person. We need to remember that, while it’s easy to say: “The job is yours,” it can be difficult and expensive to say: “We’re sorry, you’re not working out,” if you make a poor hiring decision.

Proper preparation and planning help to avoid poor hiring decisions and can save time, stress, and money in the long run. While it’s tempting to cut corners, you are more likely to be satisfied with the results if you take your time and work carefully through each step of the hiring process.

Understanding the process

The people you hire must not only be competent at their work, they must also fit in well with other staff and contribute positively. Hiring exactly the right person for a particular job is complex and thus needs to follow a systematic process:

1. developing or reviewing the job description
2. identifying relevant laws and regulations
3. considering the golf club’s culture and image
4. deciding whether to recruit internally, externally or both
5. determining where to recruit (and how for each option)
6. developing recruitment advertising
7. selecting the most suitable recruitment process
8. selecting the most appropriate type of interview process
9. identifying the interviewers
10. conducting quality interviews that net the best candidates
11. establishing criteria for evaluating applicants, and
12. establishing criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the recruitment system.

Developing or reviewing the job description

The first thing you should do before recruiting a new employee is to review the job description of the position you need to fill or, if a job description doesn’t exist, develop one for the position. The job description is the most important document of the entire hiring process.

• names the position and the department it’s in
• specifies whether or not it’s permanent, part-time or other
• presents an overview of the position and its responsibilities
• comprehensively identifies the duties and responsibilities associated with the position
• identifies the accountability and the supervisory responsibilities of the position
• lists the skills necessary to perform the position
• identifies the education and experience required to perform the work, and
• indicates the method of performance evaluation.

The job description is the basis for recruiting, selecting, orienting and training new employees, for conducting performance reviews, for determining promotions and transfers, and in some cases, for gauging whether or not to terminate an employee. (NOTE: it’s also beneficial to identify the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and characteristics of employees who have previously been successful in the position needing to be filled.)

Identifying relevant laws and regulations Before hiring anyone, you must consider labour laws and regulations related to employment, both federally and within your province or territory. Relevant laws and regulations include those governing:

• rights and freedoms (e.g., Charter of Rights)
• workers’ compensation, and
• employment standards (e.g., hours of work, vacation, overtime pay, statutory holidays, uniform costs, pregnancy leave, and workers’ insurance, etc.). You must also be knowledgeable about the human rights act for your province or territory and abide by it, both during the hiring process and during employment.

This article is from the textbook used in the Human Resources for Golf Clubs online course offered by the Golf Club Operations Online (GCOOL) Certificate Program, Selkirk College: GCOOL website