Food for thought: bring the right people into your business

Written By Joanna Fraser

Attracting the right people into your team is key.

They are your ambassadors, innovators, coaches and cheerleaders and it’s your people that will help your business survive and thrive.

So when you’re recruiting, it is definitely worth spending a bit of time and effort in the planning to get the best selection of candidates.

Describing the role

First of all, do the groundwork: think about what people want to know.

You’ll be competing with other businesses in the food and drink industry and employers in other industries. You may also need to work on your attractiveness as an employer.

View it all as a two-way process and the most important piece of advice we can offer is to put yourselves in your ideal employee’s shoes.

What type of place would they want to work in, and what matters to them? It could be the pay, the hours and flexibility, the actual role and what they would be doing, and maybe the workplace culture, or the career opportunities.

Don’t just focus on what you need from them, remember they are also choosing whether to spend time with you.

You may not think the potential for flexible working matters but it might tip the balance in whether your ideal employee chooses to apply.

There are templates for job descriptions and applications in the resources at the end of the article.

Progress check:

  • This checklist from our recruitment toolkit can help you assess whether you have a great place to work.

    Click on the image to download.

Advertising the role

Then of course, you have to find them.

Where are they and how do you reach them? There are loads of platforms, so use the ones that are used by the type of people you’re looking for.

If you’ve spent some time thinking about the type of person you want, imagine where they look in their everyday lives. There’s no point in posting on national job websites because that’s what you’ve always done if that’s not the type of place they’d look.

Read the story

Bryce Cunningham of Mossgiel Farm had a eureka moment when he was looking to recruit workers for his organic dairy. Click to read more…

So now it’s time to start casting your net: and remember, be real, be honest, be you.

Selection and assessment

The applications come in, and now it’s time to select your candidates.

Here, it’s not just about the individual but also how they fit into the wider team.

This means that an effective recruitment approach needs to consider how you identify and recruit people with the potential for development.

There’s a vast amount of evidence showing that a diverse workforce can bring better problem-solving and innovation. When people bring different experience and perspectives to the table, challenges can be solved and great ideas generated.

“Diversity” is a term used all over the place, but what does it actually mean in practice?

It’s about much more than age and gender. And it’s about being inclusive as well as diverse.

In other words, your culture, physical premises and training provision, among other things, should bring out the best in a wide range of people.

Read the story

Michelle Maddox of dumpling makers Clootie McToot is a firm advocate of taking a “recruitment risk” and in this article, she talks about her “wild cards”.

If you’re looking for some tips on interviewing, you can find them here.

Investing time in your people is investing in your greatest asset. They are the engine that makes your business thrive and succeed so make your recruitment count.

Feeling inspired? Why not take a healthcheck on how you’re doing.

Progress check:

  • Should you improve your recruitment processes?

Click on the image to download.

Other useful resources

Scotland Food & Drink Partnership Recruitment Toolkit

Our Skillforce (Skills Development Scotland)

Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service): working to improve workplace relationships

CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development): professional body for experts in people at work

Joanna Fraser
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