By Curt Cetraro and Mitzi Robinson
How do you ensure you are selecting the best talent?
Most companies struggle to some extent with finding, attracting and hiring the best people to fill core roles within their organization. This is particularly true in a unique employment market where finding great employees is challenging. Here are five key fundamentals needed in your internal recruitment system to elevate your employment brand while ensuring you are making the best hiring decisions possible.
Position Profile –
A position profile goes beyond the typical job description and clearly identifies how the employee will contribute to the organization’s primary objectives. It outlines the work the employee will be doing, the spirit in which the work is expected to be performed and what on-the-job success looks like. The position profile supports all that comes next – it helps in the sourcing process, selection process and is the framework for onboarding and supporting success, especially during the critical first 90 days of employment.
Strategic Souring –
Attracting potential employees to your organization is akin to marketing your organization’s product or service to a targeted demographic; the messaging must be consistent and deliberate. Identify the preferred backgrounds, skill sets and experience of your ideal employee and discover where they are connected and where they “live” online. Develop messaging that speaks to the employment opportunity and promotes your employment value proposition – the value, benefits and experience of working with your organization in the advertised role. Knowing your target demographic and understanding how and where to message to it will decrease the time to hire, while increasing the pool of qualified candidates to choose from. Although starting the process when a need arises is sometimes required, proactively building a pool of qualified individuals will allow you to source leads or quickly reconnect with candidates when the time is right. This sustained effort builds a candidate pool to help you fill positions quickly with the right type of people. It takes a little effort, but is absolutely necessary to have a best-in-class recruiting process.
Systemization –
When applying for a position with your organization, every candidate should receive a response to let him or her know what your process is, the associated timelines and where they are in the process. This is a critical element in elevating and preserving your employment brand. It follows that your team should work within a system that promotes consistent, approved communication both to candidates and internal hiring managers. While this can be done via Outlook/Excel, a simple Applicant Tracking System (ATS) has many tools, form letters and automation routines that help your team dramatically reduce time spent on these efforts. An ATS can provide a customized job board, allow candidates an easy way to apply online, send automated correspondence, facilitate candidate assessments and track key metrics, all while building that ever-important pool of candidates. Several affordable and easy to use cloud-based ATS systems are available. Regardless of whether or not an ATS is used, map out a system to ensure your team consistently processes candidates in a manner that maintains communication, efficiencies, recruitment metrics and compliance.
Calculated Decisions –
Many organizations develop interview questions that merely verify the basic skill level or experience of a candidate. Take it a step further by referring back to the position profile and create a list of up to 10 key criteria that directly relate to success in the position. These criteria may be intangible, such as the ability to take initiative, be creative, etc. Outline in a matrix what these criteria look like on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being ideal, and develop a list of interview questions relating to each criterion. Each person involved in the interview process should interview the candidate in a consistent manner and score the candidate against this matrix. It won’t be long before decisions become less subjective and hiring mistakes more easily identifiable so adjustments in the selection process can be made.
On-Boarding –
Hiring success is dependent on a solid on-boarding system. By the time an employee starts, they should have a strong understanding of the position, expectations and what success looks like. The position profile should clearly map this out and be used by both the manager and the employee to ensure the employee is on the right track. The first 90 days are critical to the development of a happy and productive employee; regular communication and feedback are essential during this crucial time.
From our experience in the recruitment industry, we see that most companies are challenged with finding, attracting and eliminating bad hiring decisions, and we all know how costly bad hiring decisions and not selecting the best talent can be. Incorporating these 5 key fundamentals into your recruiting process will save your organization time and money, elevate your employment brand and reduce hiring mistakes.
ConnectPoint Search Group is an award winning boutique recruitment firm specializing in the Sacramento market in the areas of Accounting/Finance, Information Technology and Human Resources as well as other back-office professional positions. Our consulting group, ConnectPoint Recruitment Solutions, leverages our 9-year proven track record and recruitment expertise and was solely created to help companies build or improve their internal recruiting processes and systems. Why would we help companies improve their internal recruiting, you ask? We believe that companies should be experts at finding, attracting and hiring for their core, front-line, high-turnover positions. If you would like to learn more about the concepts contained in this article or connect with us about your specific internal recruiting challenges and opportunities, we welcome the opportunity to help you in any way we can.
Curt Cetraro, CEO | curt@cpsg.com
Mitzi Robinson, Recruitment Solutions Consultant | mitzi@cpsg.com
ConnectPoint Search Group | ConnectPoint Recruitment Solutions
180 Promenade Circle, Suite 315
Sacramento, CA 95834
916-239-3700
www.cpsg.com