Irvine, Calif. — “Recruiters and human resources professionals may own the hiring process, but the hiring manager’s name should also appear on the deed,” says Jay Barnett, founder of Decision Toolbox, a nationwide provider of project based hiring and on-demand Recruitment Processing Outsourcing (RPO).
According to Barnett, below are the top nine ways companies can “design what they want or deal with what they get”:
1. Help Hiring Managers (HMs) Market – Marketing in recruiting may be a new concept to HMs, so recruiters should brainstorm with the HM for an hour at the outset (perhaps the most crucial hour of all) to gain alignment. Don’t worry about active candidates; instead, focus on what will tempt passive candidates to leave their current job in order to take this open position.
2. Dig Deep -Position the company as an employer of choice, but don’t stop there; the ideal candidate may already be working for a growing industry leader with great culture. Dig deeper to define what makes this position an opportunity of choice specifically for the person the HR wants in the role. Perhaps it is the impact a candidate can make, or what the candidate might learn.
3. Find the Pain – What pain are potential candidates experiencing in their current jobs? Through market intel, the HM may know that Account Executives at a competitor are micro-managed — can the offer be greater autonomy? Be exhaustive in teasing out the various selling points, but keep it real.
4. Loosen up, Dude – The next challenge is getting the HM to loosen up on requirements. Why? The short answer, again, is that in almost all cases it’s in the HM’s best interests.
5. Attracting vs. Screening -The difference may seem subtle at first, but attracting the right candidates is a very different focus than screening out the wrong candidates. If one focuses on screening, the HM can pay the price on the attraction side. When pressed, most HMs will agree that the right experience beats a degree every time. Bottom line: it doesn’t do any good to screen out the wrong candidates if the right ones are being attracted to begin with.
6. Bigger Pool = Better Choices – its not uncommon for an HM to say, “I don’t have time to teach someone.” But posting, “Experience with SAP is required” may exclude a candidate with Sage or Oracle who is a fast learner and has a track record of contributing great ideas. In fact, holding out for an exact match may actually take MORE time. In one case, an HM finally loosened up after five months of searching — by that time a candidate might have been hired, trained and up to speed.
7. Loving Learning – The best employees tend to exhibit an ongoing hunger to learn and grow. In fact, several recent surveys indicate that the number one factor that keeps employees engaged in a job is the opportunity to learn something new. Of course, HMs often want a candidate to walk through the door with ALL the knowledge and experience associated with the job — the mantra is, “I want a candidate who can hit the ground running.” But if you want to hire and retain those top caliber employees, doesn’t it make more sense to attract them based on what they can learn and grow into?
8. Just Passing Through? – Once an employee masters a job, he or she should be ready to move up, and if the HM only hires people who have already mastered the job, that job could become a revolving door.
9. Turn Requirements into Selling Points – It is in the best interests of the hiring manager to consider which skills and experiences are absolutely essential, and where there is wiggle room for the candidate to learn and grow. Take knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) and flip the emphasis to abilities, skills and knowledge: ASK and you shall receive.
About Decision Toolbox (DT)
Founded in 1992, Decision Toolbox provides scalable and easily integrated recruitment solutions for a 7% cost per hire on average while incorporating rigorous quality controls and a twelve-month candidate guarantee. Armed with the very latest tools and a team of seasoned US-based Recruiters and Sourcers, Decision Toolbox is an on-demand recruiting department for one critical search, for large projects, or a complete RPO/RPI solution. Decision Toolbox has taken a leadership role in almost every aspect of recruitment, introducing an RPO offering in 2000, four years before it became industry practice.
DT is recognized as a “Thought Leader” by organizations such as SHRM, PIHRA, and the NHRA, and was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility in 2009, 2011 and 2012. DT is a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified company, the Gold Standard. WBENC Certification validates that the business is 51 percent owned, controlled, operated, and managed by a woman or women.