Improving your engineering hiring process

1. NUCLEUS
PRECISION CONSULTANTS

2. Nucleus Precision Consultants 2
Introduction
Nucleus have a deep and long insight in to the precision engineering industry, we have interacted with
1000s of people in the industry in the last 8 years, helping hundreds machining company’s find the
right people so they can grow, and 100s more Business progress.
Companies Contents
► The Interview Experience
► The best way to make a job offer Making an Offer
► Covering the Counteroffer
► Attracting the top 10% or the KeyPillars Inductions
► If you're considering payingRecruiter, use a Recruiter
► The Importance of exitInterviews

3. Nucleus Precision Consultants 3
The interview experience
In this competitive employment market, finding the right people, or best performers on the market for your
machine shop has probably always been a challenge for you, when you interview a great candidate they may
have had several interviews or offers which you need to compete with, some of our most successful clients
who manage to get the highest percentage of offers accepted, we have worked with, they have found the
small things matter and perform a presentation interview, the candidate interview experience can really help
you stand out from the rest.
its not always about the money,
Do the simple things even if its busy, make sure you have no distractions, give them a sense of importance,
the small things matter, offer them a coffee or a drink.
The interview should be led by the person who can really sell your business best, a person who convey all the
unique selling points of your company articulately, don’t rely on any staff to lead the interview and to paint
the overall impression
Who’s Interviewing – can everyone who is performing the interview with you sell your business, the benefits
of working for your firm and honestly convey the message of why they should work you’re your business?
Shoe then or introduce them to the examples of the people who have progressed and developed in your
business, so they can see a progressive future with your company.

4. Nucleus Precision Consultants 4
Job offer
Thebest way to make a job offer
In this competitive employment market, finding the right people, or best performers on the market for your
Business has probably always been a challenge for you.
Some of our most successful clients who manage to get the highest percentage of offers accepted have found
although speed can play a part, its how the formal offer is conveyed that can work best.
How do you convey your offer, do you say it there and then after the interview, do you send an email directly
or do you use a recruiter?
In the day of email, text, most companies can shell out a job offer in seconds, a written offer letter, posted with
signed delivery can make all the difference in conveying to the candidate you don’t just whip out offers on an
email, you take the time to make a professional decision and present the offer formally, so they feel valued and
important.
This will make your offer stand out from the rest and can make all the difference.

5. Nucleus Precision Consultants 5
Counter offers are becoming far more common, you may experienced this a few times over the years, you make
a candidate an offer, there happy and ready to start, and raring to go, then suddenly they withdraw as their
current employer counter offers them, their loyalty can take over the rational in the decision, so the best way to
try and mitigate this is to cover it at interview stage and offer stage.
A good recruiter will hold these conversations with your candidate and advise them of the numerous reasons it’s
a bad idea to accept a counter offer, if you planning on making the candidate an offer you should also try and
bring it up to the candidate towards the end of 2nd stage interview.
And ask the question, For example mr candidate, you have been with your current employer a long time and
have some great experience and skills, im sure they wont want to let go and may offer you something silly to
stay, how would you respond to this mr candidate?
This way you can measure the candidates deeper motives and commitment, or perhaps how sold and committed
they are on your firm, and should a counter offer occur your better positioned to respond and swing things it
back round to what you have to offer ad why accepting a counter offer won’t benefit them in the long term.
We have some hard stats on why not to accept counter offers that you can us in interviews, let us know if you
want us to send them over.
Covering the counterOffer
Attracting the top 10% or key pillars
Attracting the top 10% and the people that can really take your business to the next level is a real challenge,
especially if you are still trying to develop your company’s Business infrastructure and key client base.
Some mid-level management or top machinists that have backgrounds working for some of the largest leading
engineering companies in the UK, that we have worked and successfully placed over the year, can commonly
crave a new challenge, they want to be part of something they that can challenge them in other areas and that
they can see grow, they know that have the value and knowledge to bring to a smaller business, and be part of
something more meaningful and crusading.
If you have ambitious plans and a clear vision and can convey this in the right way, you can play this to your
advantage and get the best most experienced people to work in your Business .

6. Nucleus Precision Consultants 6
You find them man for the Job and he left 2 weeks in, Bemused, sometimes you can lose a great machinist in a
couple of weeks and the only thing that went wrong was, when the candidate commenced, everyone’s busy or
distracted, which is great the company is moving forward, but your new candidate is lost and unattended,
several other companies are still contacting him to see how its going or if he wants to go and work for them,
they gave him the attention and now he’s gone.
Some of the most successful companies we work with that strongly manage to retain new staff members and
avoid drop offs, have an appointed person induct them for at least the first month, going though companies
policy’s handbooks, introducing them to other people in the business and sit down and have a coffee or meeting
with them every week until they settle in and feel part of the company.
Ensuring someone in your business holds an induction, someone that represents your firms ethos well, and can
tell the stories of your company’s previous challenges and achievements is best suited, a person who knows the
history and where the company is going can help make all the difference in retaining a new member of staff.
Induction Meetings Pre-Weekly Settlement Meetings
with new starters
Game Changer Show you care

7. Nucleus Precision Consultants 7
You contact a recruiter, then you contact 3 others, then you start getting CV,s then more of the same CV’s,
then more duplicates, you wanted a Miller but they are sending you turners, there sending you someone who
wants night shifts and your role is days, you want someone who can programme Fanuc and there sending you
someone who programmes Mazak.
This scenario can get frustrating, the notion of most businesses is contact lots of recruiters you get more CV’s,
when the reality is you get more problems.
The recruiters can be sending you everyone who is on the market, not necessarily the best person aligned to
work on your machine, not the person with the best aligned motivations to work for your company long term,
so they end up leaving 6 months down the line.
You finally find that person and pay a fee to whichever recruiter managed to fill it, then they machinist leaves
after 6 months, or hes just not happy working those machines etc.
Use a recruiter and get your moneys worth, if you work with only one good recruiter that understands your
business you both layout expectations and an exchange of commitments, you will increase the accuracy of the
skills sent to you, the candidates are interviewed far more thoroughly to ensure there motives align long term
with your business, avoiding fall outs later on, a good recruiter working solely for you and representing you can
spend more time, marketing your role, and running deeper and broader searches in a shorter time frame than 3
recruiters competing to fill a “JOB”
Using 1 recruiter to aid your growth Succession Plans – USE 1 Recruiter to Develop a pool of talent for the
future, Use one recruiter to brand your business as a geat employer and generating a mid to long term pipeline
of people that could take your business to the next level
Get your moneys worth use 1 good recruiter
If you’re going to consider paying a recruiter –
get your money’s worth - Use A Recruiter

8. Nucleus Precision Consultants 8
Do you have exit interviews, if not you could be losing out on improving staff retention levels
Ask these questions before a candidate fully departs
Why did you decide to leave?
Were you unhappy with your pay/manager/role?
What could we have done to make you stay?
What would you have changed about your job?
What does your new job offer that we can’t?
Answers to these questions can all reveal important information about your workplace and organisational
culture. If leavers consistently complain they don’t have the tools required to do their job, for example, you can
change that — and improve staff retention as a result.
They can enhance your culture and performance
Exit interviews appear to be focused on staff who are leaving — but really, that’s a matter of perspective. Exit
interviews (especially anonymous ones) are also a great opportunity to gather insights about your company. Exit
interviewees are arguably more impartial too… because they no longer have to stay in your good books!
The Importance of exit Interviews – Reveal
the patterns of why staff leave
Ask open-ended questions about life at your company, such as:
How would you describe our organisational culture?
Did your job and the company deliver what we promised when we hired you?
What could the company do to improve?
What did you like most about your job?
In the long term the more positive the departure with your leavers, the more positive the stories of working for
your company can be and perhaps within your employment competitions businesses, which may have the next
person your business needs at some point.