How Your Hiring Managers May Be Stifling Your Company’s Growth Potential
I think we can all agree at this point, between the mass layoffs and those of us looking for a change, the job market is in a weird place right now. And as a result, hiring managers have been bestowed with much more power than ever (whether they realize it or not); not only with the fate of their employer, but for the financial lives of the applicants. As Ben Parker said in Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility", and many managers are picking candidates based on their own perceived self-interest instead the needs of the company: “Who’s the most likely to ‘blend in’”? “Who’s not too smart or not too experienced, so that they won’t be a threat”??Or perhaps they’re not finding enough quality talent because they’re using outdated means of screening.
So what can you do to ensure that you hire the best possible candidates to set your teams up for future success?
Don’t miss those diamonds in the rough:?Applicant Tracking Systems and AI screening tools may be efficient for scanning keywords, but they are poor tools for harvesting raw talent.?Look for accomplishments instead, and imagine what candidates with a positive track record for execution would bring to the table.
Screen, don’t just scan: A resume isn’t a person; the most qualified candidate could have the most stale-looking resume, and vice versa. Take a couple of hours to just call up 25-30 candidates, and ask them to summarize their experience and why they think they’d be a fit. How they sound on a phone screen literally speaks volumes more than words on a page do.
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Cover your ass:?Make sure candidates meet all necessary stakeholders (employees, partners, board members, etc.) in the interview process. If you unanimously make the choice to hire a candidate without having your team members have the chance to weigh in on the process, you’re unanimously having to take the blame if it doesn’t work out with that candidate.
(For Recruiters) Set your client’s expectations, and challenge them:?I’ve been in sales all my life so believe me when I say I understand that I know all about the unreasonable expectations of clients.?But what sets apart the good from the great is the ability to align your client’s imagined desired outcomes with potential pools of candidates that don’t look like what they previously thought.?If you can challenge your client’s expectations and you end up delivering a dynamic hire that looks completely different than what the recommended JD requirements were, you’ll have a client for life in them.