8. The importance of speeding up the hiring process

When good candidates are few, make sure to follow up within a day or two, once they have sent their resume. Good candidates do not wait. Here are a couple of tips:

When good candidates are few, make sure to follow up within a day or two, once they have sent their resume. Good candidates do not wait. Here are a couple of tips: 

• Simplify your hiring process. Don’t make it too lengthy.
• Make it personal as soon as possible; have your assistant call each candidate to confirm that their resume was received. Treat them as potential clients.
• Make it a rule to contact them within 24 hours if possible. It has been proven that by the 3d day after you have received their resume, you lose them if you do not contact them.
• Be courteous with candidates. Beside the fact that they are human beings, you risk being flagged or negatively evaluated by unhappy candidates on social media.
• Make it a nice experience for the qualified applicants to go through the hiring process. Their 1^st impression about you as a recruiter and about your company will remain.
• If you use soft skill assessments, do not ask candidates to fill them too early. Wait at least until you have held a first interview and you like them. Plus, after a first interview, most people will be less reluctant to spend 30-40 minutes filling a test in order to win the open position.

9. The necessity to improve employee retention

Turnover rates are on the rise, and the cost of losing good people will dramatically increase in 2023. Many human resources departments are taking a more proactive approach to developing and applying strategies to improve employee retention. Here are a few tips:

• The rewarding factor. For many employees, money in the pocket has become a top criterion of selection. Today’s workforce wants to feel appreciated and adequately compensated for the time, work and effort they put into a company. In addition to yearly scheduled raises, cost-of-living raises and other inflation-related adjustments, bonuses in response to exceptional work can help promote continued motivation and top performance.
• The career growth factor. Offering internal promotion or career plans can deter good employees to go search for a new employer. The certainty of a great, rewarding future is a vital motivator for loyalty. As earlier stated, it costs 8 to 10 times more time and money to hire someone from outside. Acknowledging competence and potential for career growth should be part of your people strategy.
• The happiness factor. It is a fact that people are searching for happiness more than ever in the past. The last 3 years have been extremely challenging on your troops’ morale and well-being. Glassdoor and Indeed estimate that 90% of people believe that how we feel at work matters – yet only 49& of people report their company is measuring happiness and well-being. As I wrote in my white paper back a few years ago, happiness at work can help make your organization up to 37% more competitive. Making people happy at work costs almost nothing and yet can prove to be your most effective management strategy.

10. Every Manager should be a great “headhunter”

When the war for talent is at its peak, everybody in your company or practice must be willing (and able) to assume the role of a great talent attractor. More than ever, recruiting great people in 2023 will require the basic understanding that people do NOT work for an organization – they work for people.

The leadership factor in hiring is very often neglected. Steve Jobs understood that. He was known for regularly appearing in an interview between an Apple recruiter and a candidate, “just to say hello.” The impact of shaking hands with the big boss was huge, from a commitment viewpoint. Here are a few tips:

• If you are the business owner, you need to learn how to become a great headhunter. You think you do not have the time for it? Steve Jobs personally interviewed over 5,000 people – and yet he had all the HR power in the world. Why would he do that? Because he understood that his vision of the future could never become a reality without the right people on board.
• Get your managers to also learn the tricks of the trade: one major quality to recruit good people is to be a dedicated representative of your company’s vision and values. When the message comes from a top executive, it acts as a strong leverage in candidates’ decision process (to join your group or not).
• Motivate your employees to work with you in attracting potential applicants for the specific position(s). Employee referrals are still the most effective and the least costly strategy to recruit good people. 

If you need to increase the effectiveness of the hiring process in your company, check our “HIRE-MASTER” online training program. It guarantees to make anyone a professional recruiter.

To your success,

Patrick Valtin
CEO Hirebox LLC.

Note:

If you need help to build a better employer branding strategy or to attract the right people, simply click on the “Contact us” button below.

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