A Letter to Hiring Managers: How to Make Sure You Always Hire the Best -- Five tips for you as you work with recruiters
By Kevin Wheeler – Published Sep 09, 2006
©2001–2009 Global Learning Resources, Inc.
You probably only hire a handful of people each year, and the recruiter assigned to your team has always done a reasonable job at getting decent people. Sure, you have to ask for resumes two or three times in order to get enough to make sure you are hiring the best, but it seems to have worked out pretty well over the years.
Now let me ask you a few questions.
How do you define "decent" people or the "best?" Do you have some specific criteria that you use?
How do you know you're getting anywhere near the best resumes out there? Do you have any benchmarks or standards to compare against?
How much time do you spend in the upfront process of figuring out the job requirements and laying out the things the person you want to hire will have to do to make you happy?
In my many years as a recruiter and as a consultant, I find that this is the area most frequently overlooked or skimped on in the hiring process. Most of the hiring managers I work with are willing to spend time in interviewing and often demand that candidates go through numerous interviews, but they are less willing to give up time to talk to the recruiter about the position before any recruiting happens at all.
My guess is you're running on your gut ? telling yourself that you know the "best" when you see it. After all, you've been in your field for a while and can generally spot a loser. If you're lucky, you've had a recruiter at some time in the past who could always seem to get you the perfect candidate, but you've never asked yourself why or how they could do that.
We all unconsciously look for certain traits in people, and we are usually very adept at determining whether or not a candidate has those traits. What is unfortunate is that we almost never can articulate them. And even though we may believe that we are choosing candidates solely on the basis of experience and demonstrated skills, there's always our unconscious influencing the decision. That recruiter who always seemed to find the perfect candidate was able to figure out what those unconscious traits were and use her interviewing and screening skills to bring you those kinds of candidates who also had the necessary technical skills and experience.
You can help your recruiting staff in a number of ways. By taking a few minutes to do these things, you will find the recruiting process faster and more satisfying because you will be getting candidates that meet all of your requirements.
Tip #1: Learn
about the recruiting marketplace.
Whenever managers
are asked what the key to their success is, they say it's their people. But if
you were asked, would you know what the demand is like for the kinds of people
you are seeking? Do you understand why salary demands are what they are? Do you
have a grasp on how many people of a particular type might be available in your
area? These are questions to discuss with your recruiter and to get information
on in order to appreciate the issues both you and your recruiter face. While it
may seem easy to find people given this slow economy, the reality is that there
are still shortages of many kinds of people and that this slow time does not
necessarily mean easy recruiting.
Tip #2: Get to
know your recruiter.
If your recruiter is new or has not worked with you before, it will be
impossible for her to know what you are really looking for. And, even an
experienced recruiter who knows your specialty thoroughly will have to get to
understand those subtle traits that you find compelling. Let the recruiter
spend a day shadowing you; discuss how you manage. Let them attend a staff
meeting or a briefing. The better the recruiter and you know each other, the
more likely you are to see great candidates.
Tip #3: Get to
know your best performers.
Spend at least a day or two thinking about your best performers. Who are the people
in your department you would like to clone, if you could? Try to put into words
why you think they are so good. There are a few questions that you can use:
What does this person do on a regular basis that pleases you? What positive
behaviors do you see regularly that you believe makes them successful? Are
there stories you can tell about a time that an employee did something you
found exceptional or notable? Take some time to talk to the recruiters about
past or current employees who you view as exceptional.
Tip #4: Working
with your recruiters, develop an assessment process.
One of the best ways to make sure that you and your recruiters are in synch on
what kinds of people to look for is to put together a process for assessing
candidates. You can work together with the recruiter to develop a series of
questions that will help you both decide on the traits, skills, and qualities
you need. These can become interview questions and can also be used to measure
how well the recruiting process is working.
Tip #5: Ask you
recruiter about how you could use a formal assessment tool based on the
competencies and cultural fit you need.
There are many tools that can be used to help you and your recruiter determine
how well a candidate meets your specific job requirements. The best of these
are developed for your specific needs and are reliable, legal, and add a level
of consistency that is missing from interviews and other more informal
approaches.
By taking a few minutes from your busy day, and by working with your recruiter, you can improve the speed in which you fill positions, increase your satisfaction with the candidates you see, and with your recruiting partner.
Kevin Wheeler (kwheeler@glresources.com), the President and Founder of Global Learning Resources, Inc., is a globally-known speaker, author, columnist, and consultant in human capital acquisition and development. His extensive career, global client base, and research affiliations make GLR a leading provider of both strategy and process. GLR focuses on assisting firms architect human capital strategies. GLR guides firms thorough comprehensive talent acquisition processes and procedures as well as the development of talent within organizations of all sizes. GLR can be explored at http://www.glresources.com.