The Resume Shuffle

Its a new year (at least it’s a new Chinese year) here at RightSite.Asia, and we are getting ready to tackle one of our major priorities for the next few months — recruitment.

While economic downturns suck for those of us running businesses, one way in which they definitely do not suck is in recruitment.  Finding staff in 2009 should prove to be much easier than it was in 2008 or 2007, but this change in environment, also means that we will have to change our approach to recruitment.  Unlike a year or two ago, start-ups like RightSite no longer have to romance candidates to get them to join.  As one of the relatively few companies hiring at a time when many companies are laying off staff, we have the luxury of choosing from a number of qualified applicants.

However, this increase in applicants also means that a small company like RightSite needs to develop a more sophisticated recruitment process if we are to find the best candidates and make best use of the opportunities currently available.  With this in mind, we have developed a new process for recruiting, interviewing and hiring candidates.  While I am sure that this process can be improved upon, it represents a big step forward for us.  We invite your comments on contributions on the process, as well as your questions.

RightSite Recruitment Process
Pre-Interview Stage

• Post job — we post our jobs on Zhaopin.com
• Receive resumes
• Review and sort resumes to find best candidates — we use the free online service catsone.com to assist us with this
• Contact short-listed candidates for initial interview/start application process

Intial Interview Stage

• Application form – applicants need to fill out a detailed form about their personal histories
• Cognitive Aptitude Tests — we use intelligence tests provided by JWGrace Consulting to test the aptitude of applicants
• Computer Skills Tests — since we are an Internet company, we want to identify people who live online
• Interview — this is an intial interview by our HR Representative
• Review
• Recall

Second Interview Stage

• Interview by manager
• Request References
• Review

Post Interview Stage

• Reference Check
• Offer Letter
• Contract
• Tests

We hope that by following this structured process we can identify the candidates that best fit our company’s needs.  Our goal is to complete the entire process in 30 days from the time the job ad is initially posted for entry level positions.  For management level positions, the process should not take more than 60 days.