Why do we need to look deeper into core skillsets?

Hello and happy Tuesday!

Welcome to another week with The Talent Track! Last week, we looked at job ads as being one of the things we can improve in our outreach but, the truth is that to handle this new recruitment world we need much more than that. A lot of it starts before candidates even apply as mentioned before and, probably the most important thing is our mindset.

When hiring, anyone would dream of a pipeline with a high volume of extremely well qualified applicants but, just a question here, is that completely necessary? Do you really need to see 20 qualified applicants to hire a candidate that can do the job? If so, you may want to have look at your mindset and strategy.

I recently went through a process to hire 3 new colleagues in our London sales team, we had:

• 336 applicants in between all sources
• I screened 19 candidates and sent 5 of them for review
• We had 5 first interviews
• We had 4 final stages with 3 converting into offers
• The 3 of them were accepted

Could the manager have seen more candidates? Yes, of course! Did we have the resources to see everyone? Likely not. Would it have been better to see more candidates? Maybe yes, maybe not and, to be honest, likely to be the latter. We interviewed 5 amazing people for the job and ended up hiring 3 with a huge potential to smash it.

Sometimes we focus too much on volume but the reality is in most cases it is very much not needed if the following are well thought out:

1. The workforce plan and what the team really needs. Needless to say this should be a huge point.
2. The actual job requirements and level. What do you really need and what is an advantage. Where will this candidate sit and how can they progress through the business.
3. What makes it attractive for a candidate. Is it growth? Maybe learning potential? Maybe financial potential? Or maybe flexiblity? E.g, If you have an SDR role which is quite early in the career path in sales and you hire experienced SDRs with 5 years experience, do you think they will get any growth? Likely not enough even if they smash targets so they will end up feeling stuck.
4. A process that makes sense. Do you really need 5 interviews? Do 5 people need to be present in a panel interview? Again, likely the answer will be no and in most cases it comes from not having really thought about the perfect candidate.

Now, about that perfect candidate...!

How do you up the quality of hires and not just the quantity in pipeline?

Let’s face it, I have seen a million of shopping lists in job descriptions but most of the time they are over populated with buzzwords. We have had a very difficult market over the last 3 years and the best ways to create strategies that save both money and time, while at the same time promising the results, go through making sure you have the ideal candidate profile nailed down! I ?? live by this: (knowledge + skill) x attitude = PERFECT HIRE ??

1. Knowledge: The actual hard skill, what you learn at school/uni
2. Skill: The ability to apply your knowledge, in science you might know the formula but can you apply it solve a problem? That's the skill
3. Attitude: The soft stuff, the personality

Now, we would all normally agree that points 1 and 2 are necessary and 3 would be nice but, I'd argue 3 is the one that is most important in there.

I'm not saying that attitude is everything, nothing worse than hiring someone with outstanding attitude for a role they have no idea about (in most cases). What I mean, is hands down, for someone with enough knowledge and skill, the attitude multiplies exponentially the capacity in which they will do their job, their eagerness to learn and grow, how the team collaborates and, ultimately, their potential. Make this mindset change when you hire and you'll 100% see a difference, not just in the specific candidate but the team, the growth opportunities, the retention rates that come with it. It is not easy but I invite you to do it.

That is why we need to nail core skills, do that and you will see:

1. Workforce planning gets so much easier.
2. Job descriptions get so much easier to write and team structure and needs are so much simpler to put together.
3. Time to hire will continuously improve, reducing costs on the time you spend interviewing.
4. Retention will improve reducing hiring costs.

Looking Ahead

Next week, we’ll talk about Candidate Experience and why a good experience, from application to offer, can build or break your reputation as an employer or even hurt your bottom line. Until then, enjoy your weeks and nail those core skills!

If you have any stories on the topic feel free to share with us or, if you have any questions on the topic itself feel free to shoot me a DM! Looking forward to seeing you next week!

Over & out,

Jose Lazaro

Founder & Host, The Talent Track