The recruitment landscape is shifting. Job hunters are feeling more empowered about their skills and are better equipped to navigate the hiring process with their personal and professional interests in mind. They recognize their value and walk into the interview room ready to negotiate. Once seen as a one-sided conversation where a candidate needed to prove their worth to the company, the recruitment process has become an information exchange where both parties come to the table with a vested interest in filling the role.
The tried and true (read: archaic) interviewing processes do not work anymore. There is considerable danger of losing top talent by insisting on finding your new employee by doing things the way they’ve always been done. Waiting weeks to triage resumes, having candidates sit through unending, overpopulated interview panels over the span of a month with nonsense, unplanned questions and maintaining radio silence while you hesitate in making an offer are surefire ways to keep your positions vacant. Companies and their hiring managers have a responsibility to introduce progressive and innovative approaches to improve stale hiring practices.
Below are 7 ways you can update your recruiting methods to keep pace with the evolving job market and the evolution of today’s talent pool –
Try Nontraditional Networking
Sure, we know how to navigate Indeed and Glassdoor, but more and more those services are becoming pay to play. There’s nothing wrong with investing some dough in getting traction for your job post, but talking among your already established professional and personal networks is free, free, free – and if it’s free, it’s for me. We recently gained a consultant through our managing director speaking about a position in a Moms Facebook group. Talking about your open positions at Crossfit, your knitting circle or during your book club may lead to a valuable connection to someone who is the perfect fit for the open role. It costs nothing to talk to friends and family about where you work and what you do. Ultimately a friendly conversation can activate your network and help to round out your team.
Test Video Interviewing
Video interviewing is still relatively new in the world of work, but with digital natives making up a huge proportion of the workforce, it makes sense they may respond more positively to being able to talk about themselves on a digital device from the comfort of their own home. From an employer perspective, it allows a more efficient approach to the initial screening of candidates. We’re not suggesting eliminating all aspects of a traditional interview process; the hiring manager should still include a phone touchpoint for candidates who are moving forward in the process to provide the necessary information and allow the candidate to ask questions. The organization will be able to get to know a larger number of candidates without an adverse impact on their calendar. Red Clover has tested and partnered with SparkHire to provide video interviewing capabilities to our clients.
Ditch the Homework
There is a growing trend for companies to request prospective employees to put together full-blown presentations or six-month-long work plans in order to score a position. This ultimately means the company is asking a candidate to do work for them, for free, when that person hasn’t even received a job offer. I’ve heard people say the reason for requiring a presentation is to verify the candidate’s ability to communicate ideas well. Isn’t that verified throughout every step of the interview process? Shouldn’t a candidate be able to articulate their approach to work without expecting them to devote hours of unpaid work to something that they may never put into practice?
Move Quickly
Every day, there’s a new article, webinar or infographic telling us the job market is favoring job-seekers and they have more options and are likely to be more picky about where they land. Isn’t it in the mutual interest of both employer and prospective employee to move quickly through the interview process? By practicing expediency, the company gets to pick the qualified candidate they want and the new hire already has a positive impression of their new organization.
Look for Transferable Experience
Red Clover prides itself on the fact that our consultants don’t have traditional HR backgrounds. In fact, none of our consultants have ever had HR in their job titles. But, reading between the lines of their resumes, they all have demonstrated experience that is essential to helping our clients navigate change. Upon first look at resumes, you may not see titles that fit exactly what you’re looking for, but if you dig a little deeper, you may find some untapped potential in your candidate pool. Take some time to really understand the skill sets and experience of the people applying for a position with your company. Just because it doesn’t say “marketing” in any of their titles, doesn’t mean they don’t have the transferable skills to be your next marketing pro.
Implement Behavioral Interviewing
The best indicator of future behavior is…drumroll, please…PAST BEHAVIOR! Behavioral Interviewing techniques set the people at both sides of the table up for success by creating opportunities for the candidate to talk about what they will do because they’ve done it before, rather than what they hypothetically would do or think the interviewer wants them to say. Ask “Could you tell us about a time you led a team to a successful outcome?” rather than “What would you do to lead a team to a successful outcome?” The answer will be more substantial, provide more insight into the candidate’s actual experience, and help avoid generic, substanceless answers that leave you scratching your head.
Leverage Proven Assessments Correctly
At Red Clover, we use TriMetrix DNA assessments in our recruiting process to better understand candidates’ communication styles and driving forces. Our managing director and a senior consultant are certified DISC professionals, meaning they are uniquely equipped to interpret, deliver and explain assessment results to our participants. We don’t use any of these assessments as elimination criteria, but rather as a tool to understand the candidate holistically and review their interview experience in a context based on their preferred communication style and driving forces. When hired, we are adequately prepared to set them up for success because we’ve guided them through an initial DISC debrief and we understand the way they like to communicate and work and how they fit into the team dynamic.
Rethinking the way you bring talent into your organization can have a profound impact on company growth. To stay competitive and relevant, it is imperative HR professionals remain ahead of the curve and on-trend to bring hiring practices out of the Dark Ages. By challenging the status quo and bringing innovative and practical approaches to recruiting, Red Clover is uniquely poised to assist in updating your talent sourcing to snag the best of the best from the talent pool. Reach out to us to see how we can help!
