It has been tough for many businesses for a few years now to fill outstanding roles with good candidates. There isn’t a magic bullet for suddenly lifting the quality of the talent pool, but there are still some great strategies businesses can use to capture the good fit candidates that are there, as well as ensure they stick around more than 5 minutes.
Our last edition focussed on the importance of candidates focussing on a mark and then using some simple techniques to lift their chances of attaining THE job they want, not just any job. Avoiding square pegs in round holes benefits both employers and individuals. Talking to candidates, it’s surprising to hear that the worst companies to apply to are in fact those with dedicated HR departments. How can that be?
Especially in a candidate short market, the early bird gets the worm. The early bird also knows where to find the worm and thinks like the worm to bring them out into full view. This starts with getting the message out. Using networks and referrals (from other staff, friends or networks) can many times be a way to get a look at candidates that might not even have been in the market. This is a good strategy to combine with the traditional advertising approach. Either way, it’s important to get the balance right between advertising for an exact match for a very specific role and leaving a broad enough job description that the role can be tailored to a range of good candidates. Note that many times the best candidate might be someone already within your organisation, even if that means you have a different role to then fill, it pays to promote from within in many ways.
Write the ad by thinking like a candidate and what they want to know. Whilst many ads are written like a marketing activity of the business (leading global business, our values are respect, compassion, integrity – do you really think a candidate see’s it as a positive if you have to spell these things out?…etc), the candidate is wading through a pile of options and simply wants to know “What’s in it for them”? Basics like what the role is, location, pay (a two-edged sword), working hours, and details on the role as well as key selection criteria (will they tick enough boxes to get the job, or are they wasting their time applying?).
We use a fixed fee recruitment provider that for about $700 runs the ad we provide on the 5 major recruitment platforms. The service includes an automated screening process that weeds down the applicants to those with the “essential” matching criteria (such as a qualification, particular licences, range of pay expectations, etc). The agent then does a short phone screening with 3-5 follow up questions before passing on the candidates’ details and responses. It’s amazing how many candidates don’t answer nor call them back, but that’s probably a legacy of the “activity test” to meet Centrelink requirements of looking for a job. This works well for jobs where you’ll get hundreds of applicants that don’t realistically fit (for example entry to mid-level jobs like store persons or administration roles). For true skills shortage roles (like qualified technicians or even salespeople), I prefer to skip the phone screening step so as the reduce the annoying number of contact points for the candidate – in other words, trying to be an easy company to deal with.
And this is where most large companies miss out on many great candidates. The “HR Department” firstly doesn’t know what the role actually entails, and more importantly is simply too slow and inefficient. Call any candidates you are interested in within 1-3 days of starting the campaign/getting their application. Usually there is a flurry of applicants in the first week of the ads, then it peters out, and remember that most candidates need a job to secure an income – and the good candidates will likely have more than one good job prospect already under way.
The purpose of the call is to short list by gauging the fit of the employee to the role and company. There are some terrible resumes out there even for good candidates, and vice versa some very average candidates with spruced up resumes. I rule out any candidates that come through a recruitment agency (except for possibly very senior roles), especially those agencies that get Government subsidies for placing applicants – if the candidate can’t even be bothered to apply themselves, then there is no way they’ll last in our business. In any case, don’t get stuck in an analysis by paralysis loop, try to get candidates in soonest for an interview.
For the interview, remember that not only are you judging the candidate, but they are also running the microscope over you. After all, their career is all about finding a happy life whilst balancing possibly their biggest investment – their career choice to get them where they want to be in life (money as well as contentment). Again, this is where smaller and more nimble companies excel. Avoid a process with multiple interview steps by getting the key decision makers who will work directly with the employee into the one meeting.
It is at this point that there is a strong correlation between how the interview is conducted to both securing the candidate as well as ensuring they stay long term:
Listen. We were given two ears and 1 mouth, use them proportionately. The key is to get the candidate to open up and talk, so use open ended questions.
Avoid leading questions. I cringe every time I hear people ask “re-affirming” questions where they want the candidates to basically confirm what the employer wants to hear. As an example of how NOT to do it: “Quality and accuracy is very important to us, bla bla bla: what is your accuracy like?”
Don’t Bull Shit. Don’t sugar coat the roles, all roles have mundane tasks. Don’t oversell the business either. Even if you fool the candidate through to their start day, they’ll work you out in probably the first week, and be gone within the first 6 months and then you are in a worse position than you are right now, having to start the whole process again whilst the job hasn’t been done properly since it became available the first time.
Psych tests were a big thing about 20-30 years ago but are basically a waste of time. I am yet to find more than a handful of persons who put forward referees that don’t give them a good reference, but they can still serve a purpose. Even for referrals though, apply some scepticism to what you are told. I had one candidate recently where we knew their past employer quite well so did a behind the scenes check (must be very careful in how you do those…). The conversation started with “don’t touch them with a barge pole”, but further drilling into the reasons it was not so much the candidate at fault as the fact that the manager they worked for couldn’t manage people and simply wasn’t giving the young person enough tasks nor guidance.
Now that you have made your selection, get back to the candidate as soon as possible. Unless there is a big skills gap, don’t procrastinate that you might find someone better, put a reasonable offer forward, and follow up with a basic Contract of Employment. Never ever make promises you might not be able to fulfil (such as promising pay rises or career progression) but make this as easy as possible for the candidate to feel welcome to join your Team.
There can still be “dropouts” at this point in the process with candidates changing their minds, possibly because a better iron in the fire came along. You might not have much ability to control external forces, but if you try to keep the start date as early as possible and you stay in touch with the candidate every few days (to show you care), you will at least have minimised the chances of getting gazumped at the last minute. Only thing left is to make sure your business is ready for them when they turn up so they feel like they belong. Work area ready, and colleagues brought up to speed with what is happening so everybody is paddling in the same direction.
Words from the wise
“Treat each candidate as if they are the only one!” Laurice Leitao.
“If you are intentionally including people, then you might be unintentionally excluding better applicants” – DEI is being turned on its head as the best employers get back to the truism of just getting the best person for the job.
“Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them” – Audrey Hepburn.
As always, Onwards and Upwards!
Fred Carlsson
General Manager
