Recruiting new employees can be a long and complicated process even for executive search recruiters. It’s even worse if businesses don’t start out with a plan. It takes more than posting job openings and waiting for the resumes to flood in. Be proactive, using the following tips to target the right people and give your business the best talent to consider.
- Start with a Compelling Job Analysis & Description
The first step in luring elite job candidates is crafting an enticing and thorough job description. Not only is it a tool for attracting interest, but the description is a filter that weeds out inappropriate candidates early in the process. Convene with human resources managers and affected department heads to decide the responsibilities of the job as well as the background, experience and essential skills most desired in a candidate. Let the words and tone of the description and job ad reflect the culture of the business, whether cool and loose like Google or austere like a bank. Choose the title of the position with care, as it will be included in headlines for job notices and thus is a huge factor, telegraphing to candidates whether the job has a certain status or fits a certain career level.
Be as specific as possible so that you’ll attract the type of professional you most desire. Beware of setting the parameters so narrowly that you miss out on a range of good candidates with alternative talents.
Now, you’re ready to disseminate the job description and job opening in strategic places to draw from the following pools.
- Create Several Different Pools of Applicants
- Recruit from Colleges
Cultivating relationships with colleges is an efficient way to funnel a stream of low-cost, eager and newly trained labor to your company. On-campus job placement offices designed to connect businesses with graduates for internships and permanent jobs can help business choose just the right bright minds. Hire juniors or seniors for internships at no charge to assess whether the students have potential; if so, extend a job offer upon graduation
- Network
Networking is anchored on the principle that who you know matters when it comes to finding the best employees. It’s not just about exchanging business cards, but about building substantial relationships. Any business event has the potential to put executives in touch with professionals in their field who are looking to move laterally or vertically on the career ladder. Any social club, professional association or university alumni group can provide a foundation for hiring by networking.
- Use Referral Programs
Referral programs shifts the onus on scouting for good hires from H.R. managers to employees. Employee referral programs are a more formal type of networking that tracks details of each referral and often offers incentives, such as gifts or cash bonuses for those who make a referral that leads to an actual hire (provided that hire remains past the probation phase). At some workplaces, social referral programs account for half of the workers hired.
Referral programs must be heavily marketed at the job site and online to be effective. Some businesses even hold training sessions to teach their staff in the art of referring, even giving physical job notices to pass around or links to digital notices that can be shared or emailed.
- Hire and Assess Temporary Workers While You Keep Searching
Businesses can find trained and experienced labor quickly by using temporary workers. Matched to companies by headhunters and staffing agencies, these workers have already had their skills vetted and deemed aligned with the most appropriate job openings. Temp workers immediately fill a void, giving businesses time to extensively research and interview permanent job candidates.
Much like college interns, they are transient talent that might be so impressive they warrant job offers for permanent positions. Unlike interns, temporary workers usually have much more life and work experience, allowing businesses to get high quality services. If they don’t rise to the company demands, your business has no obligation to keep them.
- Narrow Down the Candidates through Interviews & Assessment
The interviewing and candidate assessment phase is the most significant part of the job search. This is where you use open ended questions, lunches, references, social media, background checks and any other tool to examine to reduce the initial pool of prospective candidates to finalists and then to the ultimate hire.
Once your business has put the finalists through several rounds of rigorous inspection, you’re ready to conclude the hiring process by making an offer. There’s not guarantee the candidate will agree, so be willing to offer pleasing benefits and negotiate.
