Recruitment and How to Get it Right in a Difficult Market
Date published:
HR Specialist Suzanne Burns reveals some tips for how to get recruitment right in a tough market. Watch her video now or read the accompanying transcript below.
We are in very interesting times in a candidate led market. There are lots of jobs out there and candidates are asking ‘why would I join your company?’
They can pretty much pick and choose and you need to give a good amount of energy and focus to your recruitment process to attract the right candidates.
Outlined below are 5 key areas for you to follow – areas you need to be conscious of and to think about to make sure that you ‘speak to’ and attract the right candidates for your role AND to make sure they say YES to you!
5-point process
- Clarity on
- Attributes for the role you are recruiting for
- Who you are ‘speaking to’
- What you offer as an organisation
- Platforms to advertise on
- Networking
- Review and Adjust
- Interview process
Clarity around the role you are recruiting for
What it is that you are looking for:
- Must-haves, and
- desirables.
There’ll be some skills and experience that are necessary, and then there’ll be other things that would be nice to have. Be clear on what is necessary and what would be a bonus. Of course, you can ask for it all upfront, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll get it! You may need to be prepared to adjust your advertisement along the way or to accept candidates that haven’t got ‘everything’ so good to understand upfront what is essential in the role.
Clarity about who are you speaking to
The candidate is asking ‘why should I join your company?’ and it’s important that you have a sense of the candidate you are looking to attract. Put yourself in their situation, understand their wants and needs, and speak to them through your advertisement:
- What is important to them
- What will interest them
- What type of organisation will be attractive to them?
- Time of life – what is important to them at this stage of their career?
- Career development
- Community / Collaboration
- Security / benefits
- Work-life balance
Clarity of who you are as an organisation
The vision, mission, values and goals of an organisation can be important and are something I talk about frequently. You want to ‘speak to’ and attract those candidates who are a good fit for your organisation and who have the same values. To do that, you need to be clear about and communicate those things that are important to you.
Have fun as you explore. It’s time for you to get excited about you as an organisation (and if you find it’s dull and boring it may be time to spice things up!)
Platforms to advertise on
To decide on the best forums, you can explore a variety of routes:
- How did others in your organisation hear about similar roles?
- Search job boards for the type of role you are advertising and see which one’s have a good amount of traction for similar roles – this is likely to mean candidates with the skills you are looking for use these job boards.
LinkedIn is a strong forum for pro-active recruitment (reach out to candidates with the experience you are looking for) and re-active by advertising/searching.
A little research will give good information on the most popular platforms for resourcing your role.
Market Intel to ensure you are in the right ballpark
You will want to make sure that what you are offering is competitive and what you are asking for is achievable. Job boards are a simple way of getting a feel for this by seeing what others advertise for
- What is the going rate?
- What is expected in terms of role description?
- Benefits offered?
- Cultures you’re competing against.
Networking
LinkedIn is a great networking platform. Where you are recruiting for hard to fill roles, being pro-active on LinkedIn and building a network/community is recommended. You can use it in different ways to reach out to those people that you want to attract.
Another great idea is to tap into your team members’ networks, and to ask them for referrals. The people who work within your organisation are likely to know other people who are like themselves, and when you have strong team members recommending others, they are likely to be a good fit for the company.
If you have a referral scheme, then make sure you tap into it, and if you don’t, then it’s a good time to put a referral scheme in place!
Where you are being pro-active in approach, and you recruit regularly, make sure you formally build your ‘candidate pool’.
Do things such as adding candidate details and conversations with relevant information in terms of what are the most important things to them, what their situation is at the moment, when are they available, or when will they be interested in looking for new opportunities. Book a touchpoint in to contact them in in the future. Be proactive with those people that you would like to have conversations with to join your company.
Review and Adjust
In terms of process, we said at the beginning to be clear on what it is that you are asking for. What are your ‘must haves’ and what are some of the things that would be desirable?
Of course, you can convey all of the things that you would be looking for and you should convey great information about your company and why people should join you in your advert.
Once the advert has been live for two or three days, review the applications and look at whether you have got relevant applications that you would like to progress. Where that is the case, follow the recruitment process and progress applicants in a productive and efficient way to ensure thorough process and best results.
If you haven’t got the candidates that you are looking for, then you should review all of the steps above. You should question whether what have you been asking for needs to be adjusted. If you’re advertising a salary, is it in the right ballpark?
If you are recruiting on behalf of a department, a conversation with the line manager might be appropriate to look at leeway in terms of advertisement to be able to attract the relevant candidates.
- Review the advert to make sure it is doing what you want it to do.
- Revisit the platforms to see which platforms are drawing in the candidates and which aren’t. Trial, another platform if relevant.
- Reviewing after two or three days allows you to adjust depending on response, re-advertise if necessary and do the same after two or three days. If there is not a candidate out there to fit everything you are looking for you there is no point in bashing your head against a brick wall. It is much better, that you become more realistic about what you can attract and that you adjust accordingly.
Interview process
The interview process is incredibly important. The messages you send out and the stages a candidate goes through are key and can be a deciding factor in the candidates as well as your decision-making process
Key messages to send:
- You are looking for and expect ‘the best’
- It matters how individuals ‘show up’
- You are thorough in your approach
Key messages are sent through:
- Timely and professional communications
- The recruitment team conducting themselves as they would expect the team member to
- Preparation for interview – role description, interview questions, clarity on who is covering which areas if more than one interviewer
- Asking relevant questions that explore past the ‘surface’
Having a number of stages to the process makes a positive difference. It means that you are being thorough in approach, helps to ensure you get an ‘all round view’ of the candidate, that the candidate understands what is important to the company and the role and ensures the candidate interacts with relevant personnel through the process.
Any offer tends to be more valued where a thorough process is followed, I have outlined an example of a process to follow below:
- Review position and role needs against Manpower plan
- Agree recruitment method / platforms for recruitment
- Agree advert and Advertise
- Screen responses
- Telephone interview potential candidates
- First interview with Line Manager
- Second interview (can include a ‘working interview’), second interview by Senior Manager
- Take feedback at each stage from candidate – where positive feedback give offer
- For more detail or further information please leave comments and questions below
Suzanne is dedicated to helping you avoid HR risks and make the most of your team. Check out her website, or you can contact her at [email protected]
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash