The people working in your company are still your biggest assets, especially in a market as competitive as it is today. You don’t only need to develop the people already working for the company fully, but also hire more talent to sustain the company’s growth. Both parts of the equation are equally important and require a great deal of effort.
In this article, however, we are going to focus more on the latter. Hiring has always been a challenge, particularly when the candidates you seek are in high demand. Talented people are more selective with the offers they receive too, which means you have to present your company in a positive way to win the talent war. With this approach in mind, here are some of the things you can do as we enter 2020.
Set Clear Hiring Criteria
Having a clear set of hiring criteria is a must. It doesn’t just make your hiring process more targeted and effective, but it also limits the talent pool you tap into substantially. As a result, your hiring process becomes more streamlined and the chances of recruiting the best people are increased by a substantial margin.
Hiring criteria is far more than just job description. In fact, the traditional job description is no longer seen as the best way to attract talent. You want to focus more on functions and roles, responsibilities and work avenues in order to attract the best people. At the same time, you want to have a clear definition of the candidates you seek to support the more effective process.
Don’t be afraid to define your hiring criteria in great detail. Do you expect potential hires to have degrees from reputable universities? Do they need to have relevant educational and training backgrounds? Do you need them to have sufficient experience in a similar role? Do you want applicants that can explore new avenues rather than stick to routine tasks?
The more you define your hiring criteria, the easier it will be to find people that suit your specific requirements. The hiring criteria will guide you through the process from determining the best talent pools to tap into, all the way to determining how to best interview potential candidates. You are not only streamlining the process but boosting your value as a company too.
Get Close to Talented Candidates
Hiring is a bit of a dance. You cannot simply expect candidates – especially the best ones – to come to you; that would be counting on your luck too much. You also want to actively seek out potential hires and get close to them. Once again, knowing the kind of employees you need will help streamline the process significantly.
For example, there are recruiting agencies, social media platforms, and general forums that you can access in order to get close to tech hires. The same is true for marketing specialists, operational staff, and other specific roles. Knowing where to find the best talent is the first step towards hiring the best of the best.
You can also utilize ad networks, professional networks, and even personal references from key industry players as your sources or ways to get close to the best applicants. Remember that every step you take towards the top talent in the industry are steps that get you closer to strengthening your team and the company as a whole.
Getting close to the best talent takes some getting used to. This is a marathon, not a sprint. You can learn from past hiring rounds and other HR activities. The more insights you gather, the better you’ll be at connecting with potential talent. In today’s modern market, the HR (or People) department’s main role is gathering these insights.
Streamline and Automate
Some parts of the hiring process can be automated and streamlined. All steps or tasks that can be automated should be automated for the sake of shortening the hiring process. Remember that you are competing with hundreds of other companies, so being able to hire top talent quickly is a huge plus. You’ll be surprised by how a quick decision can secure more talented applicants.
Some tasks can be fully automated; instead of doing a manual background check, for instance, you can turn to tools such as publicrecordsreviews.com for help. Rather than having to collect documents from multiple sources, publicrecordsreviews.com helps you find valuable information about potential candidates in just one click.
Publicrecordsreviews.com in particular is unique. The site doesn’t just offer conviction records, but also other details that you will find valuable in a hiring process. The details are based on public information and they are designed to help you get to know candidates over a short period of time. You can even figure out details about speeding tickets or lawsuits before deciding to move forward. Make sure that you use this tool in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act by gaining consent before you run a background check and respect each candidate’s confidentiality.
Other tasks are easier to automate. Instead of manually scheduling interviews, for instance, you can set up an artificial intelligence (AI) to do the initial screening and set interview schedules. There are a lot of AI-based HR solutions available to help you automate basic, mundane tasks. Automation lets your HR department do more while remaining lean.
Make It Personal
While people are seen as any company’s biggest assets, they are more than resources to manage. They are, well, people, and they appreciate personal touches, including during the hiring process. A cold and computerized hiring process alone isn’t going to cut it. A conversation with the CEO, during which values are exchanged, may just be the personal touches you need to secure the top talent.
Making the hiring process personal doesn’t mean adding complications to it. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Adding personal touches goes hand in hand with streamlining the process. You can automate things such as sending confirmation emails without making the communications less personal now that there are variables and strings to use.
Human touches are the next elements to add to the hiring process. Meeting with the potential candidates directly is still very important. It is a valuable opportunity to get to know them on a more personal level. Fine-tune small details to make the process more personal (i.e. avoid looking at your laptop or tablet too often while interviewing) and make it enjoyable.
To complete the set, you want to listen to the candidates too. Don’t hesitate to allow candidates to learn more about the company or you as one of the key stakeholders. You need to sell the company to keep them interested, and interviews are perfect opportunities to do that. Always end the interview on a high and positive note.
Involve Decision Makers
Sticking with human interactions as a key ingredient of an effective hiring process, don’t forget to also involve decision makers in the hiring process. Finding and hiring the best talent isn’t just the task of HR; it is the responsibility of everyone in the company. You cannot expect to hire the best talent by working in silos.
The management touch or the involvement of the company’s CEO in the hiring process – as mentioned previously – is a good example of getting key stakeholders involved. CEOs can make sure that the hiring process only attracts applicants whose values match the company’s values perfectly. As a result, the whole company can grow without losing its values or characters.
Getting decision makers involved is also good for improving the hiring process itself. Hiring decisions can be made faster and more accurately, mainly because HR, user, and company management can share insights about a candidate from their own perspective. Even red flags are easier to spot when there are more parties involved in the screening process.
What you don’t want to do is involve too many people or have a hiring committee that is too large to begin with. This is counterproductive, since you will only end up with more opinions to process before a decision can be made. You will start losing the best talent to other companies with better, more agile hiring processes.
Go the Extra Mile
Last but certainly not least, don’t hesitate to go the extra mile. Contact candidates’ references to get first-hand testimonials from past employers and make sure you reach out to other sources of information before finalizing your hiring decision. This is a process that has multiple benefits. On the one hand, you benefit from the first-hand information immediately.
On the other, candidates may be informed about the extra steps you take. They will see the steps you take as proof of seriousness and credibility. You are not only making the more interested in joining your company, but also more confident about how the company does business. Both things are valuable in a competitive market.
Going the extra mile with the candidates you reject is also a must. Provide information about why those candidates don’t pass the screening process. Show genuine care about the people your company attracts. Once again, small steps like this bring a substantial boost to your credibility as a company.
If you are looking to win the talent war in 2020, these simple tips are exactly what you need to get started. Implement these tips, improve your hiring process, and start attracting the best candidates immediately.
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Interesting related article: “What does ‘to hire’ mean?“