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Recruitment

Recruitment

20 June 2025 (Last updated 3 Dec 2025)

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When assessing potential candidates for your advertised job, it’s important to go beyond their qualifications and experience. One effective way to gauge their suitability for the role is by asking behavioural interview questions. These types of questions can reveal how the candidate has handled certain situations in the past and give you insight into their problem-solving skills, communication abilities, and work ethic.

Underpinning the recruitment process in New Zealand is the Employment Relations Act 2000 which provides minimum standards for how to conduct standard job recruitment. The process is designed to ensure you can obtain the most suitable candidate, but that this is done with fairness and without discrimination.

What to include in an ad for job recruitment

When advertising a position, it is important to engage the largest number of potential employees and hook them in with interesting content. Besides making the job advert exciting the recruitment process is clear in what needs to be outlined in its content.

Recruitment efforts should include the location of the job, being specific on regions in big cities like Auckland. Although, if you choose to be broad in region be prepared for applicants to have questions around this flexibility and where the job is actually based. The job title and outline of work is one field where accuracy is important. In every point of the recruitment process the job title must reflect the level of the job, meaning if there is no management duty in the role don’t list this in the title. There is also no need for a whole job description in the advert but enough to outline to the candidate what they can expect following success in their application.

The skills required should be listed, and a brief outline of why someone would want to work in your organisation. Importantly, including contact information for you or someone in your organisation is an easy way to ensure those interested can engage with you directly.

Legal requirements in recruitment

The private sector is different to the public sector in job recruitment as there is no legal requirement to advertise for a job, unless it is stated in employment agreements or workplace policies. In the case where some firms have additional requirements, it will often be in a policy that a job must be advertised internally before it is advertised externally.

It’s important to note that some companies may offer a 90 day trial period as part of their recruitment process, which allows both the employer and employee to determine if they are a good fit for each other.

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Recruitment

How to Write a Job Description

A job description is a written document that clearly states the required duties and responsibilities of a specific role, including the essential skills, education and experience required of a successful candidate. Writing a good job description can help streamline the recruitment process and increase the chances of attracting more suitable candidates. By keeping the description relevant and up-to-date, they can also be used to measure performance standards during performance appraisals. What to Include in a Job Description As the first piece of information a potential candidate reads before they apply for a job, the job description must clearly describe everything the candidate wants to know in a few brief paragraphs. First, let us take a look at the basic details you should include in your job description: Job title Duties and responsibilities Type of employment (full-time, part-time, casual or other) Required skills, education, licenses, qualifications and work experience Location Weekly work hours and days Type of remuneration (wage, salary, commission or piece-rates) Who the candidate will report to Brief background of the company If needed, any physical requirements While it is important to include these details, they are not enough alone to write a convincing job description. Today’s job seekers have access to a range of online job platforms so they are able to access numerous available positions each week. For a successful recruitment process, the job description must go further and really sell the benefits of the position itself. Describe in detail what it is like to work at your company and who would be suited for that role. Is the position suitable for someone wanting a fast-paced yet rewarding environment, or a self-motivated person who prefers working by themselves? By helping candidates draw a mental picture in their head, they can decide if they want to apply for the position. Types of job titles Aside from having a well-written job description, the role must be neatly summarised into a job title that clearly describes the position. To make this process easy you can break down job titles into two types: Titles that describe what the person does (e.g. mechanic, accountant or chef), and titles that describes the responsibilities of the role (e.g. executive, manager or director). In some cases a combination of both types is acceptable. If you are unsure on how to title a certain role, look at similar roles in the industry and use them as a reference to create your own. Duties and responsibilities This section clearly explains the tasks, duties and responsibilities that come with a specific role. When writing job duties, ensure the tasks are specific and relevant to the position. For example, instead of saying one of the tasks is to ‘review financial records,’ say the job requires candidates to ‘analyse data collected from internal records and customer invoices to assess the company’s financial position.’ If the position is a managerial role, explain how much authority the employee has over their specific department or the company itself. Do they have to maintain work schedules? Are they responsible for the Health and Safety of a department? Be specific about these details. For positions that are relatively new or niche, you may need to research online and seek out valuable insight from industry experts to learn about the kinds of tasks, duties and responsibilities that come with the role. After gaining this information you can personalise the job title and description to suit your specific business needs. General skills General Skills are also known as transferable or employability skills and do not fall under a particular role or industry. Instead they are general competencies that can be used to complement the role-specific skills you already possess. Examples of general skills include: Communication Teamwork Problem solving Planning and organising Self-management When writing a job description, you should specify what kind of general skills you are looking for. For example, if the job is for a retail position, you can specify that candidates must have strong communication skills and previous experience in customer service. Types of employment Each type of employment has different rates of pay and entitlements. The types of employees in the workplace you choose will depend on the needs of the business, the industry standards of that particular role, and your budget. The most common types of employment include: Full-time Part-time Casual Fixed-term Shift workers Daily hire or weekly hire Regardless of which employment type you choose, the terms of the arrangement must be outlined in the job description. End-to-end HR support Peninsula offers complete HR support for businesses right from writing job descriptions to recruitment and even termination. We are with you at every step of the employee lifecycle. Call us today on 1300697028 to learn how we can support your business.

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