Hiring Made Personal: The Concierge Strategy for Busy Executives

Forget everything you think you know about landing your dream candidate on?your?terms.??

There are just too many applicants for every open position.

Good candidates are getting lost in the shuffle.

So what can you do??

A Concierge Approach to Hiring?

I recommend that my clients take a high-touch approach to attract and engage candidates. I call this concierge hiring.?Your first thought might be, “Our HR people are overwhelmed as it is,” --which is precisely why now’s the time to send recruitment responsibilities back to the person responsible for managing this hire and personalize the hiring process.?Now, before you tell me you don’t have time to manage your hiring process, I will say, “Bull!”??

I recently interviewed Mark Williamson, Co-Founder of ROSTR and Jobs by ROSTR, who told me he screened?every?resume that hit his desk for a position he’s currently looking to fill.??We’re talking over 300 resumes! He then conducted 20 short interviews (10 minutes) and selected five candidates for more in-depth interviews.??

You may be thinking, “Why on earth would someone in his position do this?”??Williamson believes it’s his responsibility to ensure the company hires the best people they can find. He wants to ensure that someone with a unique background doesn’t get screened out by an applicant tracking system or someone who may not fully understand what he’s looking for.?Like me, he also believes that when the labor gets scarce again (and it will), candidates will remember how they were treated.?

Leveraging the power of your team and transforming your employees into brand ambassadors is what’s needed these days to find and win the hearts and minds of those applicants you seek.?

Let’s be clear here. People don’t work for companies—they work for people, which is why a personalized approach to hiring produces a much higher yield in terms of accepted offers than treating people like a number.?

The concierge approach to hiring requires hiring managers to get back to candidates within 24 hours of each encounter with a status update. Many candidates are stunned when this happens, as it’s rare for companies to respond so rapidly.?

Hiring managers remain the point of contact throughout the hiring process. In other words, there is no handoff to HR. The candidate has direct access to the hiring manager throughout the recruitment process, which helps to solidify relationships right from the start.?

Managers are given compensation guidelines and encouraged to contact HR to discuss what’s needed to bring a particular candidate into the organization. Hiring managers are trusted to make compensation decisions, which eliminates the prolonged back and forth that most companies require before an offer can be extended.?

If your recruiting efforts aren’t yielding the desired results or you’re finding that you’re exhausted, perhaps it’s time to try something new. Concierge hiring could be the difference between a candidate saying yes to your offer or forcing you to continue sort through hundreds of resumes trying to fill one position.?

Want to Hire Smarter, Not Harder? Let’s Discuss Your Concierge Hiring Strategy! Feel free to schedule a call with me.??