Although there’s been a sea-change in talent acquisition over the past few years, particularly with the move to remote and hybrid, it’s still a highly competitive market and the best talent are in huge demand – it’s ferocious out there! Securing the best people is still one of the greatest challenges that companies face, made even more difficult over recent years. The same high standards of recruitment process and communication are needed but the switch to digital means that embedding those processes even deeper into the DNA of hiring are needed even more.
Decide on what you really want and need in the role
Like any hire, remote or on-site, there’s a need to have detailed conversations with hiring managers before going live with a role and ensure you’re clear on the expectations for the new role. This includes describing hard experience and soft skills, qualifications, and job expectations. Decide too on what you can compromise on from a skills or experience perspective – the war for talent is still raging so consider if training, upskilling or skills transfers are options. Clearly describe what’s needed in the job description and reflect that in the interview questions, which also should be agreed in advance for comparison purposes. This will focus candidates on applying for the role most suitable for them and ensure a higher success rate on applications.
Are you an attractive brand?
Telling the story of your brand is more important than ever as the pool of available talent can now look globally rather than just locally for their next role, so competition is fierce to secure the best people. How you are portrayed on employee feedback sites such as Glassdoor will influence
potential candidates’ choices. Information is more freely available than it ever has been, and candidates will invariably do their due diligence prior to interviewing. What your employee engagement is, retention rates, career development and CPD, and leadership style all have impacts on future hires. One of the most important pull factors for candidates now is your purpose – having this nailed down, along with your core values, will reap long term rewards, not only in talent acquisition but retention too.
Be crystal clear about the interview process
Right now, we’re all time-poor and informing candidates about the interview process and timescales is critical – this promotes your brand as a caring and considerate hirer and future employer of choice. It’s even more vital with remote hiring as, without face-to-face interactions, it sets the tone for future communications. Telling candidates in advance that they’ll have to jump through X hoops, present Y to Z people, interview over Zoom, however many times, give employment references in
advance, have proof of academic success prior to offer, do a medical, etc ensures that people are prepared and there are no surprises. It also gives candidates an idea of timescales and allows them to manage other concurrent interview processes which ensures they’ll make a more informed choice when it comes to offer stage. This clarity of process is critical in promoting the message that you have employees’ considerations front of mind, before they even start. It shows planning skills and transparency which are hugely attractive to potential employees, particularly in the remote setting.
Use video – in job adverts and interviewing
With huge numbers of applications for each advertised role, video is becoming more relevant as a screening tool. It gives a good indicator of how candidates present themselves and also determines genuine interest as it takes time, effort and real desire for candidates to submit a video application. A 60 second video can save you time, give you an idea of cultural fit and show how eager a candidate is.
Video use as a tool in the advertising process is also strongly advised as some SEO statistics show that job adverts with video embedded get 800% more engagement than without – worth bearing in mind!
Provide constant feedback
Hiring is effortful and costly, from a financial, time and brand perspective. Every touch-point with candidates in the hiring process is an invaluable way to promote your brand. Provide feedback at every stage of the interview process as each time you engage with a candidate strengthens your relationship with them and gives you more buy-in as a potential employer. Being conscious of the impression you’re having on the candidates and how they’ll relay their interaction with you is vital.
As we all know, bad experiences travel further and faster than positive ones so make sure that yours are positive and consistent and any feedback is constructive. When rejecting candidates, giving them helpful feedback, which enables them to flourish in their career elsewhere, pays enormous dividends and huge goodwill. Also, you may well want to keep in touch with unsuccessful candidates for future hiring so ensuring you leave them with a positive impression is imperative.
Competitive and attractive compensation packages
We’ve all been in the situation where we’re completely in love with a particular candidate, utterly besotted, only to find that we’re a million miles away from competing at offer stage. What to do?!
Clearly, transparency is the key here, from even before the hiring process begins. Salary setting is based on a mixture of internal compensation and benefits plans and structures and what the market is dictating – being cognizant of the two and balancing them is essential. One way to start is to advertise the salary range as this will count candidates in our out as appropriate. Ensure that you have a comprehensive, detailed breakdown of a candidate’s current/previous package, including holiday entitlement, pension, healthcare, life insurance, LTIPs, stock options, bonus, commission, travel allowance, car allowance, etc. The more information you have, the better you’re able to pitch against it.
DO NOT REST ON YOUR LAURELS!