Recruitment in the Covid age

Vaccine mandates

With the lifting of some of the Government mandates that relate to Covid-19 vaccination, if your practice implemented a non-government vaccine mandate for staff, remember to undertake further health and safety risk assessments to ensure that your policy is reviewed and updated as necessary, and a further review date decided.

Employment NZ provides more information at this link Vaccines and the workplace » Employment New Zealand

Recruitment in the Covid age

Covid-19 has had many impacts on our lives and one that we continue to see is the impact on recruitment.  Closed borders have resulted in a smaller pool of qualified workers and it has also meant that your current employees may be tempted by workplace benefits offered by competitors.

Even though the workforce pool is smaller it is still important to undertake a thorough recruitment process. While acknowledging that staff are stressed and tired after 2 years of Covid-19, and currently finding staff is difficult, a wrong recruitment decision could cause more stress for everyone.

We have noticed an increase in questions about how to deal with new recruits who aren’t able to meet the expectations of the role and for those employers who are unable to use a 90-day trial period, the process can be long and convoluted.

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Some recruitment tips:

• Consider any learnings from the exit interview done with the previous employee if it was appropriate to have done one, see: Exit interviews (healthypractice.co.nz)
• Be clear about the role that you are recruiting for – is there an opportunity to expand the role to attract a broader number of applicants? Does the position description need to be reviewed? Read our Recruitment Process (healthypractice.co.nz)
• Our person specifications should help you decide on the key attributes needed for the role and self-skill assessments can be used with final candidates to identify skill gaps and training needs.
• Your advertisement will need to stand out from the others, create interest and desire to find out more and tell the potential applicant what’s in it for them. Common pitfalls are:
  • Not specific enough - may result in too many unsuitable applicants.
  • Too specific - may limit the number of suitable applicants.
• Ask your applicant to complete an application form this provides information about the applicant and the consents to carry out certain checks.
• Consider how you will carry out the interview process and who will be present with you at the interview. Ask questions that will require a thoughtful answer, rather than a yes or no. our question bank might give you some ideas Interview questions (healthypractice.co.nz)
• When you have found the best person for the role you are looking to fill, remember to check their references, but only with the referees that the applicant has given you consent to contact. Our content Reference checks (healthypractice.co.nz) provides helpful tips and the one question we would recommend asking, “Would you employ this person again?”
• Remember to respond to the other applicants – either thanking them for applying and advising they won’t be progressing to the interview process, and the unsuccessful applicants that have been interviewed.
• If you have fewer than 20 employees on the day they start work, you can include a 90-day trial period in your employment agreement.  This should be negotiated as part of the recruitment process 90 day trial period (healthypractice.co.nz) The clause must be included in the employment agreement and mentioned in the letter of offer. The offer and agreement must be signed and returned before the employee starts work for the trial period to be enforceable. The notice period can be shorter than the standard notice period and we would suggest one or two weeks.
• Our employment agreements are regularly updated so please download the latest version from the website Sample agreements (healthypractice.co.nz) along with the relevant letter of offer Letters of offer (healthypractice.co.nz) and position description Position descriptions (healthypractice.co.nz)
• The one mantra that we continue to share “Recruit for attitude, train for skills.” Most people with the right attitude can adapt to working in most places and can learn to fill most roles. 
• Enable your new recruits to succeed by providing them with a thorough induction programme, see: Induction (healthypractice.co.nz)