Following these best practices for employee recruitment will pay off in workers’ comp rates

Recruitment – hiring and training new workers, along with managing and retaining them – is a growing challenge for many employers. Four generations are active in today’s marketplace, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z’ers, each with their own traits, values and mindsets. Your recruitment and management practices should encompass these widely disparate groups. (A bit like herding cats, you’ve no doubt expressed to a colleague.)

With that in mind, we’ve compiled a high-level list of best practices for employee recruitment from a number of resources that may help in your quest to acquire and retain productive new employees…and help keep your experience mods low for your workers’ compensation premiums.

Clearly define job requirements

Define the role’s essential job functions, noting physical job demands.
Define performance requirements, basis for evaluation and salary range.
Identify important values required for culture fit.
Specify the necessary education, skills, certification, experience and equipment required.

Establish recruitment procedures

Ensure recruitment practices provide a consistent process for attracting, qualifying and selecting candidates that reflect the available qualified labor pool, demonstrating compliance with ADA and other employment laws.
Document procedures for securing confidentiality of private information and restrict access to sensitive information to limit allegations of misuse.
Whether online or hard copy, ensure job application forms include appropriate disclosures and conditions, acknowledgements and authorizations (permission for background check).
Ensure all screenings and verifications comply with employment regulations (authorizations, disclosures, timing).

Post the job

Ensure that job ads comply with non-discrimination laws.
Include workplace policies (e.g., substance abuse) to support candidate self-selection.
First advertise the opening internally, offering a referral bonus to current employees if applicable.

Screening

Pre-screen applicants via phone interviews, about 30 minutes in length; ensure that the same set of questions is asked each time.
Quickly filter down applicants to the top 4-6 that you want to call in for first round interviews.

Interviewing

Provide a brief but accurate portrayal of the job and its contribution to the organization in each interview.
Use behavioral questions and applicants’ past experiences (“Describe a time when you”) rather than hypothetical situations (“What would you do if”) to assess potential job performance.
Ensure that all candidates are treated uniformly in the recruitment, screening, interviewing and final selection process.
Complete remaining steps in the hiring process (testing, reference and background checks, education and employment verifications). Never skate over these important steps.

Job offers

Provide a written job offer including the job description, salary and next steps.

Orientation

Obtain new employee acknowledgements of company policies (benefits, attendance and leave, performance standards, substance abuse).
Include notice and acknowledgement of personal and workplace safety requirements, injury reporting, use of designated medical providers (where permitted) and return-to-work policy.
Provide training on workplace and materials hazards, safety program and incident reporting, including a visual demonstration of safe work practices.
If the new hire is a manager, provide training on anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and privacy laws and regulations, plus procedures to handle disability accommodation requests.

Mentoring

Assign a supervisor or experienced coworker with time to mentor the new hire until he or she is safely integrated into the workforce.
Ensure management and coworkers share responsibility for new hire safety.

Please Note: Information contained in this article is not intended to constitute legal advice; you should consult with your own attorneys when developing programs and policies.

This article originally appeared on Arrowhead’s Tribal blogpost. It has been updated and modified to better fit the needs of Valiant’s producers and their clients.