Honesty is best policy in getting the right person for the job

Recruitment professionals are rarely shy of over-promotion when it comes to job descriptions. To call a spade a spade is anathema to many. A shop assistant is a "sales consultant" and a dustman is a "waste professional".

Applicants for some of the dullest jobs are told that they are entering a new life of thrills and endless fun. Jobs come with the promise of fast-track promotion and career prospects, even if this is patently untrue, and many people are promised plenty of responsibility.

Such practices do not translate into a successful recruitment policy, according to Kaisen, a business psychologist firm dedicated to debunking some conventional wisdom.

If an employer pretends a job is more exciting than it is, recruits will soon feel let down once they notice the gap between fiction and reality. And they will leave.

In the call-centre industry, where recruiters search for dynamic extroverts - who then spend day after day processing routine inquiries - the turnover of staff is notorious.

The price of this is more than just the cost of recruiting a new member of staff; when the cost of training, advertising and time lost are taken into account, it can add up to three times the employee's annual salary, according to some estimates.

Kaisen is no fan of recruitment agencies. They can be a poor way of finding new staff because they often receive commissions for every person they place, says director Mr Gwyn Rogers.

"(Agencies) can sometimes be undiscriminating, which leaves the onus on the individual organisation to screen people. These agencies do not always filter people out properly."

One of Kaisen's mantras is that recruiters should give applicants the whole story, "warts and all". If the job is repetitive and mundane, tell the applicants. If there is little freedom for independent thought, spell it out. If people's chances of promotion are strictly limited, do not pretend otherwise. To do so would only be to store up trouble for the future.

For there are people - and these are the ones you want to employ - who in fact enjoy the security and comfort that such a job may offer.

Each person's motivation differs. It is vital to match that motivation with his or her career, says Mr Robert Myatt, a Kaisen consultant:

"Companies tend to focus on skills, not on motivation. A person could have all the skills in the world but if they are not motivated, and do not find the job interesting, they will be no good."

By eliminating unsuitable people early, Kaisen believes, it can save its clients money. Just as important is the effect on morale, it argues.

"Often people say they were surprised at how honest the company was about what the job was like," says Mr Rogers. This, he says, leads them to regard the company positively.