While you may want to move quickly to fill a vacancy in your department so workflow isn’t disrupted, you should recognize a key fact about recruitment: A job interview rarely lasts longer than an hour, but its consequences may last for years. So you need to be sure that you hire someone who not only fits the job but also is a good fit within your work unit.
How do you begin?
Review your job description.
The first step is to have a timely job description that reflects the job now and, perhaps, in the near future based on future department plans. If you are filling a new position, you will have to write one. If you are filling a current position, you need to review the current job description.
What changes should you make?
To answer that question, you should talk to the current jobholder. If you have others in a similar job, watch them at work to see if critical aspects of their work aren’t included in the requirements on the current document. Talk, too, to people with whom the jobholders interact—co-workers and customers. The more you know about the job, the clearer you are about key responsibilities, the types of problems jobholders need to solve, the interactions they have with others, the most difficult part of their job, and the skills and abilities necessary for success.
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