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Toolkit for Recruiting Association Executives
1. Develop Recruiting Plan
Guidelines
The purpose of the recruiting plan is to keep your search focused on key areas such as the future direction of the Association, position competencies, budget, and timeline to ensure the best candidate is hired within your Association’s resources.
Search Committee
The Search Committee plays a key role in managing the recruiting process. The roles and level of involvement of each committee member should be determined at the beginning of the recruiting process.
The Committee should make the following decisions at the beginning of the search:
- Reach consensus on the future direction of your Association. The Committee needs to reach consensus on the direction of your Association so that you can clearly communicate and discuss expectations with prospective candidates. The REALTOR® Association Models is a guideline for volunteers and staff leaders to assess current operations and determine where they aspire to be in delivering value. The Models are a planning tool that can be used to identify your model of choice based on your Association’s business philosophy, member needs, and preferences.
- Determine the budget for your search. A recruiting budget is a guideline for making decisions on recruiting costs and also to screen salary requirements of candidates that are within the Association’s budget. Items that should be included in the budget are: committee meeting expenses, advertising, travel costs for interviewing candidates, and the compensation package (salary, benefits, relocation costs, and perks). (See “Negotiate Employment Agreement,” Section 9 .)
- Develop a recruiting plan and timeline. The recruiting plan keeps your search on track by dividing responsibilities and determining projected completion dates. The first step is to determine the projected start date for your new Association Executive. This will allow you to work backwards on your timeline based on when position needs to be filled.
Sample Recruiting Plan and Timeline
| Task | Responsible Person | Projected Date |
| Determine future direction/model for Association | ||
| Determine recruiting budget | ||
| Finalize job description | ||
| Determine position competencies | ||
| Write job posting | ||
| Advertise position | ||
| Select employment testing | ||
| Screen resumes | ||
| Conduct phone interviews | ||
| Interview top candidates | ||
| Interview final candidates | ||
| Conduct reference checks | ||
| Select top candidate | ||
| Negotiate employment agreement | ||
| Start date for new Association Executive |