Stop Kidding Yourself About Your Hiring Efforts and Do This Instead
Roberta Matuson
Strategic Advisor on Talent | Global Executive Coach | Public Speaker I Brand Ambassador | HBR Contributor I Helping organizations attract & retain the best people.
For years, I attempted to lose weight. Well, sort of. I would join programs and only half follow the rules. When I exercised, I made sure I never sweated. Needless to say, the results spoke for themselves. They were dismal. It wasn’t until I committed to changing my behavior that I saw the change I was looking for.
I see leaders of organizations going down the same path that I’ve taken. They say they want to do something, like rapidly fill jobs with top talent. Yet their actions indicate they are not fully committed to doing what it takes to make this happen. If you are finally ready to take action, then read on.
As of this writing, the national unemployment rate is 4.1%. And if you’re looking for a sales professional, their unemployment rate is 3.7% and it drops further, to 2.1% for sales reps with a Bachelor’s degree. In a nutshell, we’re at full employment.
Here are three ideas that will help you fill jobs more rapidly. All are based on results I’ve achieved with clients.
Stop tasking HR with hiring. Take HR completely out of the hiring loop, as they have enough on their plate, and are most likely slowing down your hiring. Some are even repelling talent. Here’s what I mean. A VP of Sales asked me to speak with his HR Director about a hiring initiative. This HR Director was dismissive and downright rude. If that’s how he spoke to me, and I was referred by his boss, imagine how he interacts with candidates. Another HR recruiter has fifteen reasons why he isn’t the reason jobs aren’t being filled. When I probed him further, he just shrugged his shoulders and didn’t offer one single suggestion as to how to improve the hiring process.
Here’s what you should be doing instead. Make hiring managers accountable for hiring. There’s a reason they are called a hiring manager. They are responsible for the selection of their team members. Of course if you are going to do this, then you need to be sure they know how to attract, assess, and select talent.
Get rid of the stupid rules that are preventing you from hiring well qualified people. I could write a book on the ridiculous rules companies have in regards to hiring. In the interest of time, I’ll share only a few.
One of my clients used to have a policy that said if you left the company, you were not eligible to be rehired. It wasn’t until I pointed out how this rule was actually working against them that they decided to make a change. You see, the people who left and wanted to come back usually were people who thought the grass was greener on the other side. They quickly found out it wasn’t. When they returned, they told others what life was like elsewhere. Employee turnover started to rapidly decline in areas where employees were rehired, while at the same time, jobs were filled with proven candidates.
Another stupid rule I’ve encountered states that the company will only hire people who are currently employed. Wow! Raise your hand if you’ve ever been unemployed. Unemployment isn’t a disease. It’s a condition. If you’ve got this elitist attitude, then you deserve to be in a constant hiring loop. Evaluate candidates based on the value they can bring to your organization, which is the only criteria that really matters.
Apply for a job with your company. I had one of my clients do this and he was speechless when he realized that he couldn’t find the apply button on his website. That’s because there was no button! Imagine how many candidates simply gave up and moved to his competitor’s website.
Take five minutes and apply for a job with your company. Then write to me and tell me what your experience was like. The first three people who do so will receive a copy of my book, Talent Magnetism: How to Build an Organization that Attracts and Keeps the Best.
? Matuson Consulting, 2018. All Rights Reserved.
I've partnered with LinkedIn Learning to develop courses to help you increase your ability to hire top talent that will stick around. Check them out!
#FebruaryNonFarmJobs
#LinkedInLearning
Sign up to receive my monthly newsletter, The Talent Maximizer?.
Need help? Reach out to me at [email protected].
In my experience, there is no shortage of technical employees (engineers, programmers, etc) in this country. There are only ridiculous hiring criteria used by companies. One of my favorite is that an entry level position must be filled by a new grad. At one time, I was a well evaluated employee at Synopsys, earned good bonuses and quickly received a substantial raise. But when expected contracts did not materialize, I was the least experienced, and was laid off -- with 1.5 years of experience. Too little experience for most "experienced" positions. I should have been a shoo-in for an entry level position, right? I was flat out told by every tech company I talked to that they wouldn't interview me because I was not a new grad. Even when I went back and took some more EE classes to freshen up my skills, I wasn't "graduating" because I already had, and so they would not consider me for new hire positions. Flat out, would not look at my resume. Or the old, oh, you've been unemployed for too long. I've seen job listings for junior personnel that list more total years of experience with various tools than one could possibly get in the 3 - 5 years of experience they're looking for. It guarantees that they can only hire liars. An engineer who got a real university degree has proven that he (or she) can learn whatever is needed to do the job. Yet, employers are treating engineering positions like trade-school jobs, where, if you haven't trained on the specific tool they need, they won't consider you. Stupid. The only shortage is in these ridiculous hiring criteria. But there may be method in their madness. By using ridiculous criteria it allows them to "document" that they couldn't find a USA citizen to do the job and then hire what amounts ot an indentured servant at a lower price on an H1B Visa. Every wonder why Apple and Microsoft were the first to start shouting in support of DACA? It's another perk they can offer the horde of foreigners they hire instead of qualified US tech workers. They are the biggest offenders. Now, I agree that shipping them off isn't fair to the kids, but offering the parents more incentives to come take American jobs when there are plenty of qualified people here is not a great solution either.
Human Resources Director, delivering strategies and initiatives in alignment with short and long-term business objectives. I combine HR mastery, industry knowledge, and business acumen to resolve complex HR issues.
6 年A good introspective question that hiring managers and other organizational execs should ask when they point at HR and say, "this is taking too long", is if they believe that there is some incentive to the recruiting/HR team to go slow. I've only once met someone who wanted to recruit slowly so they didn't have to work hard.
Researcher-Writer-Presenter on Inclusion, Transportation, & Historic Preservation (No dating or Bitcoin)
6 年Online job applications really do create an impression of the employer--too often, not a good one. Too many are rigid, with unclear messages about how to proceed, and so many advance filters that an applicant may either give up or have difficulty determining how to answer the question and be allowed to proceed. Often the interface between the employer's online app and the computer network the applicant is using--sometimes on the same backbone as the employer!--may not load attachments correctly or may not allow applicants to print out a copy of their application. OH, and not allowing an easy way to print out the application is a bugaboo that is shared by nearly all online application systems.
Principal Consultant - SME & home Lending
6 年It's a recipe for disaster when hiring process goes wrong in business! Great write up.
Conference and Events Management Professional
6 年excellent points, Roberta! I have seen the hiring process stalled by HR based on some ridiculous hiring practices. You make great points!