This article is written by Uzair Elahi, pursuing M&A, Institutional Finance and Investment Laws from LawSikho. He is a Partner at GSU Associates, New Delhi.

A case study conducted in the year 2016 by MRI Network focusing on recruiter and employer sentiments showed that employer’s top concern is that they are not able to find enough suitable candidates to fill open positions. In fact, through a survey conducted by IBM Smarter Workforce Institute showed that 39% of recently hired would not be rehired by the company that means there are a lot of hiring mistake. Although, there are many factors towards not being able to get suitable candidates or making mistakes in hiring employees one of the major factors is not having proper requisition list maintained by recruiter or employer. A proper requisition list can help recruiters find befitting candidates suitable for the job and in fact attenuate the scope of mistakes that take place during the hiring process for new vacancies.

Each job requires different aspects to be examined by the recruiter to get befitting employee for that particular job. Often, a recruiter requires a list of documents from the candidate so that the recruiter can better evaluate the candidate in terms of the job. This, list of document, is most vital for any recruiter who interviews different personalities and determines who is best suited for the job. Following are the list of documents required for employment:

•  Education-related certificates: This include 10th Board exam and 12th board exam,  Graduation Decree and Post- Graduation Decree, Diplomas and Certificate Course, if any.
•  Experience related certificates: This includes certificates for various achievements in different fields, Certificate of excellence, Best employee award, Work-Recognition certificate, Performance Certificate
•  Identity Proofs: Aadhar card, Pan card or any other proof of identity
• Address Proofs: Any proof showing place of residence
• Photographs: Photographs must be recent and passport size.
• Medical certificates: This also an important document in jobs which requires medical fitness. Certain jobs require perfect eyesight or endurance. For example, joining the Indian army requires a high level of medical fitness.
• Reference letter: Certain job requires references from professors, scholars, deans or people in a good position in society. This document is required where recruiter wants to confirm certain qualities of a person.
• Payslips or salary slips for the last three months: Most of the recruiters ask for pay slip to ascertain the salary of person they going to hire in their company. This document is given to the person with the salary for future references.
• Employee Provident Fund account details: As per the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 a scheme has been created by the government wherein the employee has to contribute a certain amount of money towards provident fund and the employer shall also contribute an equal amount towards provident fund.
• Curriculum Vitae- This is a must-have document which categorically shows qualification of person, achievements, goals of a person.
• Character certificate: This document refers to the character of a person. A character certificate is issued by an authority like a dean of a college or previous employer. A good character certificate shows that the person to which character certificate belongs is a person of high moral value
• Relieving letter: For a person seeking employment, he must be released from previous employment. A release letter from the previous employer confirms that such a person has been released from the job or employment of the previous employer.
• Full and final settlement: This document shows how much final money is released to the employee before leaving a job. This document tells the package of a person.
• Job application form: A job application form shows the intention of a person to do a job in the company of recruiter.  This document is a requisite for application for a job.

Thus, the above said documents are documents which recruiter seeks from a candidate. However, there are some other documents which must not be missed in the list of document requisite for a job by recruiters. Such documents are of vital importance for recruiters

So, following are the list of documents a recruiter must also have:

Questionnaire giving insights about how much is the job seeker aware of himself

An article published by Forbes, acknowledging the book under the name and style ‘insight’ authored by Dr. Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, brought to light a shocking finding that as per the survey conducted by Dr. Tasha Eurich only 15% people are aware of themselves. It was further added that self-aware employees perform their task better at job.

Therefore, a progressive organization must have people who know themselves only then they can work most efficiently and effectively.

Having knowledge of oneself helps to figure out certain crucial qualities which can help a person to not only succeed but also to overcome any problems or obstacles coming in work. Such crucial qualities help a person to figure out answers to questions like what environment is most suited for him to work, how much content he must be in his life, where does a greater satisfaction lies etc. Answers to such questions not only help that person but also the organization he is working in. A self-aware person can see things around himself clearly. So, one of the most crucial aspects a recruiter should search for is ‘self-aware’ beings.

It is difficult to understand how much a person knows about himself through Curriculum Vitae or Resume, Character certificate, Degrees etc. Therefore, a recruiter must be ready with a questionnaire which once answered can give detailed insights about a person’s knowledge about himself. Such questionnaire need not have direct questions but also situation based questions to analyze his confidence in picking an answer. For example:

How much time will you take to decide if you have got a job offer from a more prestige company than you are currently working at?

a)   Accept or reject job within no time.

b)   Will take 1-2 days to decide

c)    Will  you ask your close ones before making a decision

d)   Will  think for a week before taking a decision

Each option shows how much a person knows about him-self. Option (a) suggests that the person does not know much about him-self because he did not take some time to analyze how switching or not switching a job is good or bad for him.

Ideal for the recruiter shall be an option (b) because often some decision requires time as it is important to understand the suitability of the decision made on the person. This is the quality a self-aware person will have.

It is of utmost importance to understand that such questions must be framed by Organizational Psychologists or person who understands human behaviour.

Career portfolios

A career portfolio is a new concept which is in trend. A resume contains mere statements about work experience or achievements summarizing them in 2 or 3 pages whereas career portfolios show samples of work, skill, achievement of a person either in presentation form,  excel form or picture form.

Career portfolios are a detailed version of a resume which demonstrates each statement in a resume by an individual. These samples show the skills of an individual which is helpful for the recruiter in analyzing the quality of work done by an individual in the past.

A resume and career portfolio cannot be inconsistent with each other. Thus, it becomes an added checkpoint for a recruiter.

A career portfolio gives a greater insight to a recruiter about an individual through demonstration of skills, work and achievements of an individual.

Career portfolios also show the presentation skills of an individual through his demonstration. Such skill is vital for an organization

Fact sheet

According to Forbes, a candidate must have a fact sheet which contains the name of the company, it’s address and phone number and work dates for every job one has held. A fact sheet helps a recruiter/ employer in doing background checks before hiring a candidate. A fact sheet should only contain facts which are specific and not explanatory.

Benefits to include fact sheet in the list of documents are:

a)   Fact sheets are short and to the point. It contains one-liner only which lets a recruiter go through it fast.

b)   It saves time of the recruiter. A recruiter has to go through lot of candidates just to select very few. Thus, a fact sheet saves time of recruiter in seeing one page to the point description.

c)    Fact sheet aides in doing background checks of suitable candidates. It helps a recruiter perceive whether a candidate is honest in representing himself.

Employment Agreement

A recruiter must have an employment agreement handy with him while recruiting candidates. These employment agreements contain terms and conditions of employment which helps candidates to look into specific conditions attached to employment. An employment agreement may have lock in period or non-disclosure clauses or incentives and much more which candidate must go through before executing such agreement. Employment agreement is a base which creates a clear relationship between employer and employee. This agreement governs until the termination or resignation of the employee. An employment agreement may include notice period to be served before resigning or when an employee can terminate this contract. The draft of the employment agreement must be kept handy when interviewing a candidate.

Biography

Every recruiter must seek written biography from candidates. A written biography shows writing skills, presentation skills and detail insight of a candidate. Too many spelling mistakes or grammatical errors mean that candidate skips minute details in his work. Biography conveys more about a person’s reputation, his characteristics and attributes and much more. A biography gives a background of a person, his thoughts and ideas. Biography is a vital document a recruiter must seek for as more can be understood about a candidate from Biography then a resume. In fact, recruiters can question a candidate from the perusal of biography which ultimately gives insight about a candidate.

Thus, having aforementioned documents with recruiters not only saves time but also resources utilized for the hiring process. A hiring process is the most cumbersome and exhaustive process which can be a costly affair for a company. A recruiter needs to get most suitable candidate for a job and company who stays with the company for long and perform good to help in growth of a company.

“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence.”

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 Students of Lawsikho courses regularly produce writing assignments and work on practical exercises as a part of their coursework and develop themselves in real-life practical skill.