Attracting and recruiting talent in the second half of 2021
We are just now entering the second half of 2021 and the single greatest challenge for organizations is finding and retaining talent.
Let’s dive in to some ideas that will enhance and streamline the process both for you and your candidates
1) Publish your clearly defined remote working policy. Is it employee choice? A hybrid solution where you will work 2 days a week from the office building? Put this on your recruiting web site and job descriptions. You had 15 months to figure it out. Hint…do not require everyone to go back to the office full-time.
2) Put the salary range on your job description. Recruiters should be busy with qualified candidates. One way to qualify candidates is by putting the compensation front and center.
3) If the job is technical, require candidates to take a short technical screener from a site such as HackerOne. It tests their dedication to the job and easily adds another qualifying layer to reduce the number of candidates in the funnel. If they won’t take a 30-minute test then they may not be committed to your position. Keep the time short for each question. Either they know the answer or they don’t.
4) Assume each candidate is interviewing with other companies and will receive an offer any day. If you have an awesome candidate in front of you, accelerate the process. You may have found the once in a decade person.
5) We don’t need 10 interviews. With a clearly defined and accurate job description, published remote work policy and the total compensation range coupled with a technical online screener the number of qualified candidates should significantly reduce for the recruiters. The recruiter and candidate can then have an open and honest discussion in less than 30 minutes. Next, have the hiring manager speak with the candidate and finally a technical team panel to qualify the skills. Remember you are also being interviewed. Your process, or lack thereof, is your first impression.
6) Don’t ghost candidates. If the candidate has no chance, if you have someone internal that will fill the position or you have other better qualified candidates simply send an email letting them know. Put yourself in their shoes and remember when you were applying. It speaks a lot if you can communicate with the candidate throughout each step of your process. Set expectations. If it will take 3 weeks after the screener to have a recruiter contact them, let the candidate know, just keep #4 in mind. Simply sending a thank you email for applying is not enough. Everyone deserves more than that. Reminder — you are being interviewed as well.
7) When you are a large company with a lot of postings, simplify the process. Candidates are overwhelmed with the dozens of positions that match their skills and search criteria and often give up which means you lose out on talent. Which one should they apply to? Do what Amazon did and simplify the process. Instead of having job applicants do their own research about what teams they would like to be part of, they have teams pitch future employees the roles that they have open. It is called BestFit and here is how it works
a. Applicants only have to apply once and they are considered for thousands of jobs including some roles they may not have even thought of. It is the old analogy of getting the right people on the bus but also finding them the right seat.
b. They ask candidates to define their ideal job. They present candidates with multiple matches-both in the fields they prefer, but also in new areas in which we think they would be successful. Candidates get to choose their preferred role. They believe that pairing a candidate with a team that fits their working style-and personal interests-will help them be more successful and accelerate their career. I couldn’t agree more
8) Ditch the sign-on bonus. Instead cultivate a strong employee referral program. This allows you to reward known engaged employees instead of people who have yet to prove themselves. Your referral program can speed up your time-to-hire and create a general sense of goodwill in the workplace.
9) Evangelize your culture. More than 67% of millennial job seekers say they’d be willing to accept a lower salary for a role that offers more opportunities for growth or a better work culture. Employees should voluntarily promote the awesome culture you have. If no one is, perhaps you don’t have one? Have your top performers engaged in sharing their experience and love for the culture you built on their social media platforms. Culture is probably one of the first things candidates are thinking of before applying.
10) Emphasize benefits. Flexible work schedules, training, work life balance incentives, family leave, etc…The more benefits the list the more applicants you will get. The “softer” rewards described in the job descriptions give them the impression the company cared about its employees and was more considerate with helping workers find a healthy work-life balance-and that mattered more to them than the extra money.
11) Reduce stock vesting periods. Lyft, Stripe and Coinbase have moved to one-year grants. Coinbase said “In our model, what we’re trying to do is still attract the same talent, but then alter the deployment of the equity to a point after we’ve seen their impact and we can differentiate based on observed performance.” Reward employees for their contributions to the company on a yearly basis rather than base the award on the work they did elsewhere. These companies want to keep the people who want to be there and reward the ones who are doing the best job.
12) If you do pass on the candidate provide feedback so they can make the adjustments for the next opportunity.
The formula to recruiting and retaining great talent isn’t complicated. All you need to do is compensate them well, give them a great environment and company to work in, and surround them with great people and leaders.
The only difficult part of that equation is recruiting great people; everything else is in your control.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
