Project Management is an integral part of any progressive organisation and as such bringing in new talent should always be at the forefront of your mind. There are many means of finding new potential employees for free through the use of social media such as twitter, LinkedIn, and personal websites. Therefore I don’t suggest you only look for fresh talent when a requirement becomes apparent in the business – you should look to get ahead of the game and anticipate where individuals can fit in to your strategic plan.

However once sign off for a new position has been made you should look to take a structured approach to attracting applications as well as going out to individuals.

• First of all you need to understand what key skills are required for the role – by writing a job description from scratch rather than using old descriptions, you will start to form a clear list of needs. Avoiding an extensive list which may put potential talent out of the running when you don’t actually need particular (old) skills.
• Then write a balanced advert which really attracts people to want to apply rather than being put off by everything you need from them – what can you offer them, this doesn’t just come down to remuneration. Think outside the box, such as training, coaching, work environment, social activities etc.
• Advertise – as popular as your company website may be, you need to reach out further afield and attract talent in through job adverts. There are PM specific job boards which don’t cost the earth to advertise on and will bring in the right talent as they are specific to the PM field. Also think about putting the feelers out on LinkedIn and on twitter etc.
• As hiring manager – you manage the application process.
• Once the applications start coming in – don’t work with a list of tick boxes as this could quickly discount a number of potentially great candidates. CVs are supposed to include all details but if your advert and job description aren’t clear enough or an application was made without tailoring to your role you may miss out. It is easy to say that the candidate does not have sufficient buy-in but at the end of the day there is little assistance for professionals to really understand what is required of them in a competitive market. Therefore the best CVs are getting all the attention not necessarily the best candidates.
• Work out an effective filtering system – even if this is an email response with specific questions to the candidate to answer, clearing up any missing details. Telephone interviews and skype interviews are a great way to filter out any uncertainties without using up precious time and resources.

Make sure you know from the outset what it is you really need and use your gut instinct when reviewing CVs, by introducing a filtering process in the initial stages you can really start to get together a strong shortlist of candidates for interview and ensure you are seeing the right people.