What NOT and what our Human Resources Department will do

This week we learned from the INCIBE (National Institute of Cybersecurity) that massive fraud is taking place on behalf of the people who make up the Human Resources departments. In this case, the author of this post, as part of the HR Department of Environmental Ideas, wants to send you this very powerful information to, first of all, to get rid of the terrible “phishing” to which your personal data may be subjected and, second, to make known what we do in a selection process within a Human Resources department such as Ideas Environmental.

The scam, the phishing, what we will never do

We are not going to explain to you the malicious modus operandi that we want to warn you about because it does it perfectly at INCIBE in this article: Has a human resources department contacted you to offer you a job? Read it carefully and you'll know what we never do

Our Selection Process

But if we are going to tell you what a selection process carried out by the workers of a Human Resources department is like in a “rough” way (in short, there can be a lot of derivatives). Usually, we have several phases that follow one after another.

The nominations

It usually starts with an analysis of needs within the company's internal framework to proceed with starting a recruitment. We identify what is needed, under what type of contract and we develop the different strategies that will be followed to find applications (if we are going to make the offer both internally and externally, social networks, employment agencies, public employment portals, and a long list of communication channels that may appear at this point).

For the reception of applications, we can also receive the different requests through multiple existing communication channels and here comes the big difference with these “phishing” and that is that when we contact an application by telephone we will identify ourselves as working people that we are.

In our specific case, I usually use my name and my team and company as a cover letter: I'm Eva Suárez from Environmental Ideas Human Resources Department or I'm Eva Suárez from Ideas who is part of the Human Resources department together with my colleague Marga...
I won't sound robotic at all in my intonation, because I tend to smile a lot behind the phone when I pick up (many years ago I did a Customer Service course in which I said that these things are also perceptible through our doorbell, so it will be easier for you to differentiate myself from automation).

In a phase of evaluating applications or curricular screening, the applications received are reviewed and the skills and competencies of the applications contained in your CV, in your profile of LinkedIn or in their cover or motivation letters. We can also initiate reference checks of the information contained, which can be extended to the next phase -if information is expanded in the personal interview-.

The personal interview

If this prerequisite is passed, personal and personalized interviews are usually cited, that is, the selected applications are personally interviewed by the team that intervenes (it may vary from one process to another) and in this phase the question is to determine their suitability and expectations for the position.

Then, an offer of employment is made to applications where the terms of the contract follow one after the terms of the contract, including salary, benefits and working conditions, if this person decides to continue on those terms in the selection process.

Since a contract always contains acceptance by both parties, if this point has been reached, the famous “onboarding” occurs, or we would also say a moment of integration: that is, once the application has accepted the offer, they are initiated into the dynamics and culture of the company: it includes orientation, training and the assignment of their work responsibilities.

For those who did not reach this stage but participated in the process, feedback is usually given on improvement points if they reached the interview phase, because surely after passing a curriculum screen it is very likely that these same applications will be thrown away again in future processes where they have been nourished by such feedback or, if they did not pass the curriculum screen, thanks for their time and for being part of a base of applications that could pass into the future.

Hiring

We also need to have a process of evaluating the selection process that we have carried out, whether it has been fruitful and has ended up in hiring, or if it has been unsuccessful and the position is left unfilled. In other words, it will take a Human Resources Department to have our own evaluation of it, to decipher both a global market level and also a more detailed level of identifying areas for improvement to ensure that our processes are effective and efficient.

All these phases are only possible with the participation of the people who make up the candidacies, which is why it is so important to protect your trust and I hope that this post will be useful to you.

I say goodbye smiling like it can't be any other way 🙂

Eva Suarez Hernandez. HR Coordination and Environmental Ideas