By Evelyn Milani
The competition is fierce for top talent in almost all job functions, especially for information technology and accounting and finance. The unemployment rate for Northern California is 3.1 (Santa Clara County) to 4.6 (Sacramento County) overall. In I.T. and other high demand job functions, there are negative unemployment rates.
What this means to a growing company is that plans for exceeding your client’s expectations and growing your company’s revenue are stalled. In order to reach and exceed your company’s growth, here’s what NOT to do in your recruiting process:
Advertise boring, mundane job descriptions that in no way describe the impact someone can make in the position.
Start the interview process BEFORE you, the hiring manager, have buy-in on the skills that are required, the work that needs to be done and the salary range in your company’s budget as well as the interview questions that need to be asked and all decision-making parties lined up and prepared to interview.
Mandate that all candidates complete a lengthy, irrelevant online application. No top tier candidate has time or interest in spending thirty minutes completing an online application unless they are at the point of accepting an Offer. Consider changing this workflow and using a simple form for the online application initially.
Decide to start the interview process within weeks of key interviewers and decision-makers’ vacations, large go-lives and project launches.
Linger for over three days on making an Offer to a top candidate.
Rather, consider the following in order to quickly hire great people, quickly-Don’t miss out on the best because of your company’s dysfunctional workflows:
Create compelling job announcements that inspire the best talent to want to know more about what you and your company are up to. Place the job announcements in the right social spots, easy to share.
Research salaries for your required skill sets in your market, provide the proof and back-up data. Salaries have NOT decreased. Save yourself time in the recruitment process and either lower your expectations or get clearance for a realistic salary. Understand who is involved in making hiring decisions and get them aligned to what you need skill-wise and culturally so everyone is on the same page.
Consider using a simple, elegant online application at the beginning of the process.
Get all decision-maker’s calendars aligned and do not start your recruitment process if you have key stakeholders out for any length of time that may delay the interview process and decision-making process.-THIS IS BIG and probably number 1 reason why many companies lose out on great candidate.
Get consensus quickly, debrief after candidate interviews and quickly get feedback to candidates especially those that are progressing to the next level in the process. When you are ready to make an Offer, hours count-not days. Your competitors are also hiring and will make an Offer on Friday at 7pm if necessary.
Avanti takes care of the entire process for our clients and candidates to make the hiring and interviewing process smooth and transparent. If we can be of service, write me at: [email protected]
