On a similar note to my recent Why should I hire you? blog post, I’ve been thinking about some of the implications for a business of getting the hiring process wrong and the knock on effects that this can bring.
It is inevitable that companies make bad decisions – we’re all guilty of it, and in no way is this post going to mitigate that risk – however it’s worth thinking about ways to improve a process that without doubt is costing you money and damaging your reputation.
Attracting the right people
There is no right answer. There are ways of identifying and hiring people these days that we could have only dreamed of in 1999 when I first started as a recruiter (using something once known as a fax machine to send CVs). The increased use of technology is constantly revolutionising our industry, and mostly for the better, but it’s worth making sure the process and human element is working otherwise a lot of the money spent can be wasted.
As someone that spends [£-insert-huge-sum-here] on job advertising on an annual basis, it’s fair to say that job boards are hugely useful tools for companies to identify candidates. However, what we need are ways to attract talent to our organisations without simply ramping up spend when we need to find more people.
Companies need to think of innovative ideas to do this without simply resorting to more job boards and more or different suppliers and so on, doing the same things over and over, harder and harder. In my humble opinion, and very much from ‘this side of the fence’, I think it has more to do with company culture, values and branding than ever before.
Companies need to consider how they give candidates an honest view of what it is like to work for them, and a tangible ‘feel’ for their company, in order to not only attract the best people, but sell them more than just a job opportunity – it’s about the company as a whole.
Candidate experience
All companies in this digital age now talk about user or customer experience, and with this in mind I believe that there should be just as much emphasis placed on the candidate experience throughout their entire recruitment process.
UX principles should be applied beyond the first point of contact (such as the vacancy website), through the entire journey; from the advert itself, the website and application processes, to the interview(s), the offer stage, and then carried through the on-boarding process and so on. Everyone knows that this process has to be slick, professional, and positive, yet we all make mistakes along the way which means we are undoing all the good work as we go.
There are numerous ways to get these points across and the companies that get it right have the best chance of attracting talent. Shopify has a great video which to me perfectly sells the company culture in a nutshell:
When all said and done, there is a lot more to attracting talent than video, but there is an argument to suggest that any company hiring people should have its marketing support embedded in the recruiting division. This would ensure that in the tough recruiting landscape that we all live with, there is dedicated marketing to help the attraction of talent and ensure that the messages and branding are specific to the roles, as opposed to simply the overall company. Just a thought…
We’re working on some things to help address some of these challenges and should be able to share our exciting projects in the coming months. #innovating! :)
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