10 tips for structuring an effective hiring process:

Clients frequently ask us to structure their hiring process.?Here are our top 10 tips collated from 100’s of interviews:

1. Make your job descriptions more compelling

Job descriptions say a lot about a company – and it’s not always positive. When writing job descriptions, avoid jargon/colloquial language (words like ‘rockstar’, ‘A-Player’ or ‘guru’ for example).?Create clear role expectations. Most importantly, demonstrate your culture and employee value proposition in a positive light: articulate why someone would want to work for you. Remember, a job description is often the first contact a person has with your company so it’s your first (and most important) opportunity to make a solid impression.?Make sure your job descriptions are impactful.?We see far too many recycled templates with gaps and typos.?Not a good look!

2. Don’t list requirements – tell stories

Telling stories about your company culture, mission and values is far more impactful than simply listing out requirements for a role. Connecting with candidates at an emotional level – giving real life examples – will massively increase your engagement.?A good hiring manager/recruiter will build effective relationships with prospective candidates through storytelling.

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3.?Be prepared to sell at the beginning of the process.

?This is particularly relevant where a recruiter is headhunting on your behalf.?We are frequently asked to target candidates from competitor organisations.?“Passive” candidates (i.e. those not actively looking or open to a conversation) are generally prepared to engage but will need convincing that a role/company is right for them.?Your recruiter can take them a fair distance down that road, but the initial part of the process needs to involve some persuasion from your side too.

4. Don’t “Ghost” candidates

This is probably the most frequently cited frustration we hear from our candidate base.?All too often, companies leave candidates in the dark about the status of a job application or feedback from an interview. It’s SO important to provide candidates with a positive experience – whether they are successful or not.?Candidates talk – word gets out.?If the experience is negative, this will adversely affect your brand and make it harder for you to engage talent. Yes, it’s more work but the importance of the feedback loop cannot be understated.?Have empathy for ALL candidates – not just the one’s you move through the process.

5. Treat candidates like customers

As mentioned above, a negative candidate experience has repercussions beyond the current recruitment process. 72% of jobseekers?have shared poor experiences on sites like Glassdoor, social media or directly with a colleague or friend. 27% of candidates would actively discourage others from applying for a job with that company (source: Forbes). And have you considered this??Candidates sometimes become customers. If they’ve had a negative recruitment experience with you, then they’ll go elsewhere with their business.

6. Shorter tenured candidates are NOT necessarily a risk

Yes, it used to be a warning sign if a person had multiple job changes on their CV.?In some cases, it still is.?“Generation Z” – colloquially known as “Zoomers” – are the current generation of younger workers born in the late 1990’s or early 21st century.?For them, frequent job change is the gateway to growth and is a sign of ambition.?They – more than anyone – understand that if you want to move up in title and compensation quickly, then you need to join a different company.?Sadly, we are now in an age where disloyalty pays.?Stay within the same company/position for too long and your salary/prospects will drop below the market norms.?Ignore this talented group at your peril.

7. Avoid scripted interviews

Ask a scripted question and you’ll get a scripted answer.?This tells you nothing about the success, ambition and suitability of prospective candidates.?Avoid questions like “what’s your biggest weakness/strength”??Everyone has a prepared, canned response for these.?Be more creative – ask questions that promote discussion.?Lou Adler gives some great examples:

·????????Tell me about a significant career achievement.?When was it?

·????????The biggest achievement required for success in this job is (describe a major achievement in some detail). With this in mind, can you tell me about something you’ve accomplished that’s comparable including when it happened?

·????????If you were to get this job, what would you need to know to put together a detailed plan for achieving (the major achievement above)?”

8. Train your hiring managers

Getting hiring manager buy-in is a crucial step to selecting the right person. Hiring managers are great at their day jobs, but so many have little/any real experience with recruiting/interview techniques.?So many of the issues in this article could be avoided by investment in basic interview training.

9. Work with externals

Working with an external recruiter can really get you ahead of the game – but make sure you select a firm who specialise in your market.?Having an internal team needn’t be a block to this.?Externals and internals frequently work hand in glove together achieving great results.?External recruiters have up-to-date candidate pools and networks that they can call upon quickly.?They will also give you access to passive candidates – people who aren’t actively looking for a role and who won’t apply to your job postings.?Having a great relationship with the right hiring firm will massively boost your recruiting success rate.

10. Reduce time to hire

Lengthy, unwieldy processes with multiple interview stages and stakeholders turns candidates off.?Fact.?Finding the right candidate is only half the battle. If your recruitment process and time to hire is too long, you will lose talent to the competition.?Along with being ghosted, this is the single biggest frustration we hear from candidates.?Taking commercial roles as an example, a 3 stage process (4 max) is ideal over the course of 4 weeks.?If you take longer, you run the very real risk of candidates becoming disengaged and withdrawing.?It’s vitally important to maintain cadence/momentum.

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I hope this article has given you some insight into what a successful hiring process should like.?It’s based on real life experience and 100’s of interviews over many years.?If you’d like to discuss further, please contact me:

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[email protected]

+44 (0)203 8653672