5 Tips for Optimizing Your Search for Talent
In the feverish hunt for qualified job applicants, businesses sometimes rush through the hiring process and miss out on some promising candidates. By optimizing your recruitment practices, you can significantly enhance the efforts of your team to do everything possible to attract and retain the workers you want.
Why is this so important? Think of the time and resources you might save by streamlining the way people get hired within your organization. Here are suggestions on how to make time-to-hire more efficient, and lead the way to qualified job applicants:
1. Increase awareness of your employer brand.
Chances are, there’s a lot more your company could do with respect to boosting awareness of your “employee-friendly” company culture. Remember, this is one of key factors prospective job applicants look at when exploring the job market.
Wherever possible, promote your employee-friendly culture and values by posting articles, photos, videos, etc., on all of your social media platforms. Include stories and images of employee events, opportunities for career advancement, and examples of your healthy team culture. Most especially, build up your website’s “Careers” page with plenty of information about the benefits of working for your company.
2. Pay close attention to the wording of job descriptions.
As we have noted before, “If your job postings are poorly worded or inaccurate, you’ll attract the wrong type of candidate. Every job posting should clearly delineate the tasks and responsibilities involved, the types of skills and experience required, and some description of the ideal personality for the job. This will help cull responses and get you closer to the ‘perfect’ candidate.”
Look at the situation from the job-seeker’s perspective. Can you offer compelling answers to these questions?
Why should I want to work for your company?
What does your company offer that I can’t find at one of your competitors?
What growth opportunities do you offer?
How do you foresee the company growing in the near future in ways that benefit me and other potential employees?
These are variations on the types of questions prospective clients ask of any company seeking their business. You’ll see greater interest among job applicants if you can answer these questions in an authentic and inspiring manner.
3. Wherever possible, automate.
A wide range of tools and software are available to help streamline the recruitment and hiring process. Resources can assist with screening resumes, tracking candidates, scheduling interviews and ongoing communications with applicants.
According to LinkedIn, “Automation reduces manual effort, minimizes errors, and enables recruiters to focus on strategic tasks such as candidate engagement and building relationships.”
4. Hone your interview process.
Interviewing a job candidate should never be conducted with a “go-by-the-gut-and-see-what-happens” attitude. Key points for interviews to ask include:
Describe the skills you have that make you an ideal candidate.
Offer insights into your workplace preferences (remote, on-site).
Explain why they left their previous position.
Provide an overview of your company’s culture, needs, and challenges, and invite the interviewee to offer thoughts.
Preparation by the interviewer is essential. After all, this is the best time to assess the candidate and their ability to articulate their experience, answer questions spontaneously, and demonstrate relevant soft skills.
5. Improve communications with applicants.
Probably the #1 complaint among job-seekers is that businesses fail to respond after a job interview or at some other stage in the hiring process. This indicates a lack of respect and further frustrates someone who might otherwise be interested in a specific job opening.
Look closely at your communications policies with job candidates. Are you doing all you can to keep them informed? As Recruitee notes, “Replying only when a candidate qualifies for the next stage of your recruitment is not only an outdated strategy, but one that could be losing you applications and damaging your reputation.”