Jen Chelini | March 24, 2022
What are the actions in your plan when no one seems to be applying? All successful recruiting strategies have one critical element among them – they all have a plan.
Introduction
All successful recruiting strategies have one critical element among them – they all have a plan. At Leap Solutions, we customize a plan for every recruitment. It would be simple to post an opportunity and then sit back and wait for all the applicants to flow in…. but we all know in this job market that will not lead to success.
What are the actions in your plan when no one seems to be applying, applicants are non-responsive, candidates are reevaluating work/life balance, and others are voicing concerns about returning to an unknown future?
Recruiting Strategies
Here are a few basic steps to structure the components of your plan:
- Treat candidates like customers by nurturing them.
- Improve the candidate experience through proactive communication from start to finish.
- Take time to brand your company. This is an excellent passive recruitment sourcing strategy. Use social media – Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter – to post positions and engage with candidates. Passive recruitment targets potential candidates who aren’t necessarily looking for a new role, but become enticed to apply based on your company website and social media branding.
- Implement an employee referral program. Employee referrals can reduce your time to hire, improve your quality of hire and increase your retention rate.
- Engage passive candidates. These are candidates who aren’t necessarily looking but can be found without posting traditional ads.
- Include past applicants and past employees as potential candidates. Use the talent pipeline you worked hard to build the first time around.
Create compelling job postings.
a. Showcase dynamic summaries that get candidates excited about the role.
b. Ask and answer – “How does the position fit into the organization?”
c. Highlight your values and culture, which can be your most important asset.
d. Design jobs with realistic requirements
e. Touch on succession and/or career development opportunities – topics at the top of a candidate’s list when looking
for a new role.
- Source via hiring events including in-person and online events; job fairs, venue rentals, and virtual events. Don’t forget to advertise these events via posting ads, newsletters, and your website.
- Source laid-off workers. It’s important to gain an understanding of why these workers are hesitant about the future. Today’s candidates are focused on work/life balance, offering flexible working conditions, mental wellness, and desire transparency when it comes to potential salaries.
- Focus on financial and physical wellness, and company culture, offer honesty and transparency throughout the hiring process. Candidates often turn down offers based on the company culture. They might initially take the offer, but continue to search for new opportunities.
Are You Ready to Leap?
***
Leap Solutions is a diverse group of highly skilled management professionals serving our clients with their organizational development, human resources, and executive search and recruitment needs. We have spent decades doing what we feel passionate about helping you feel passionate about what you do. With the ever-changing COVID-19 response, our HR specialists can help you get a handle on the guidelines, programs, and legislation that may impact you and your employees. Through all of our services, we are available to work with you to develop practical solutions and smart planning decisions for your organization’s immediate, near, and long-term needs.
To print this article, Click Here
Chuck McPherson | May 12, 2019
When workers are in short supply and high demand, it can be tempting for employers to gratefully snatch up any willing candidate with the right background and expertise for a job. But in today’s incredibly tight labor market, that hiring approach is short-sighted; holding out for the right cultural fit can mean all the difference between a ho-hum, get-the-job-done placement and a committed, lasting employee who not only shares but actively contributes to your organization’s mission, vision and growth.
Fit Philosophy
When you hire someone, you don’t invest in a set of skills—you invest in a person. That’s why the recruiting experts at Leap Solutions believe in hiring for cultural fit first and foremost. Job skills matter, of course, but many of those can be taught. Equally as important are the intangibles: a candidate’s personality and character, values and ethics, curiosity and insight, motivation and potential and more. These are the largely un-teachable qualities that determine cultural fitness, and these are the traits that can positively and powerfully impact the success of your organization.
Every hiring opportunity is a chance to build an even more solid, collaborative and diversified team. Someone ideally suited to your organization’s culture will feel at ease with the social customs, working habits, atmosphere, energy and pace of your organization. A great cultural fit is likely to result in a seamless job transition and a longer-term, far more rewarding placement for both employee and employer.
Philosophy in Action
Prioritizing cultural fit means seeing positions beyond their obvious and immediate job descriptions and seeing candidates beyond the skills and experience listed on their resumes. That’s why we advise our clients to:
- Reflect on your culture. You can’t find your best cultural fit without first knowing your culture. When you partner with Leap, we do everything possible to gauge the pulse of your organization and what it takes to thrive there. We provide invaluable outside objectivity and seasoned insight as we guide you in determining the kinds of people who will align with your organization’s core values while bringing fresh enthusiasm and unique perspectives, talents and ideas to your workplace.
- Establish the non-negotiables. We help you sort the essential job skills, background and qualifications from the desired ones; in many (and perhaps most) cases, there’s more wiggle room than you might think. That said, no matter how much you like a candidate, you can’t settle for anything less than what you genuinely need for success in the role.
- Be open to train. Don’t miss out on an otherwise ideal candidate by requiring an easily trainable skill or body of knowledge. As you zero in on what you’re truly looking for in an applicant, be realistic about any anticipated needs for coaching, training and/or mentoring to ready that person for the position. As a bonus, you’ll be able to arrange for customized, focused, high-impact learning that can virtually ensure success.
- See potential. While we might suggest you consider training for certain skills, we’ll encourage you to stay true to the type of person you want. At Leap Solutions, we approach our work from a place of genuine curiosity about every person, and we’re known for our ability to see past what’s on paper—to recognize what’s overblown or undersold on a resume, for instance. We never lose sight of our ultimate goal: to steer you toward the longer-term, perfect-fit hire you deserve.
- Look to the future. As you begin to make more strategic, thoughtful hiring decisions, you will naturally start to put those decisions into the perspective of bigger-picture issues such as succession planning. Always keeping an eye to the future, savvy employers think about which positions might be opening up down the line and provide the career development and advancement opportunities that allow employees and companies to grow together.
- Interview unconventionally. Assessing skillset can be straightforward, but for a fuller indication of how a candidate might fit into your culture, you’ll want to use creative interview approaches, including behavioral-based questions (“Please share some examples of when you…” or “Tell me about a time this happened to you…”), relevant sample scenarios and role-playing. Don’t be afraid to ask about a candidate’s ideal (and less favorable) culture, communication style, management style and more. The more inquisitive you are, the more fruitful the interview will be.
- Solidify your impressions. Make the most of reference checks to further explore candidates, speak to any potential concerns, etc. Ask the usual questions about how the candidates perform, how they get along on the team and what particular strengths they offer, and then dig deeper with scenario-based questions (e.g. “What might her approach be if she had to deliver bad news to someone?”) to reveal telling, constructive details that can confirm (or challenge) your perceptions.
Commit to Fit
At Leap Solutions, we appreciate that employers can sometimes feel desperate to fill a position, but we won’t let you settle for anything less than the very best fit for your organization. We’re not in the business of high-volume staffing for high-turnover jobs; we’re committed to intentional, well-planned, optimal-fit placements followed up with all the support they need to thrive. When we hit the mark—and we consistently do!—we can be confident that your new hire and your organization will flourish together, now and well into the future.
There’s good recruiting—matching the perfect candidates to their ideal jobs.
And then there’s whole-culture, forward-looking, Leap-style recruiting.
To Print this newsletter, please click here.