Are you ready to transform your business?
Are you starting to think “if we don’t disrupt this market, we’re going to get disrupted”?
Then grab a coffee and read on.
The easiest and most sustainable way to transform your business – assuming your value proposition is solid – starts with your team.
The right team: the right fit for your culture, the right technical expertise, and the right career vision.
Sounds simple, right? Sadly, no.
So why is building the right team so difficult?
- Your talent search feels like a needle in a haystack…
- The applicants aren’t a good personality fit…
- You can’t seem to locate the right skills…
- It’s impossible to find people that want a long-term career….
- Millennials don’t want to work with you…
These factors need not be a hurdle to your business transformation plans. By getting back to your talent attraction fundamentals, you can set the path to transform your business. It all starts with your recruitment process.
There are four key stages of a successful recruitment process:
Position Definition
The priorities for establishing the best possible position definition, include:
- Be specific. Too broad or general, and you’ll attract the wrong people. Get the nitty gritty down on paper, then refine, refine, refine…
- Don’t overdo it. Too much detail, too many demands and too onerous a definition, is off-putting. Clear, concise and (again) specific
- Having said that, make sure you include an honest reflection of the role. If you over-promise and under-deliver, you’ll establish a revolving door of talent, a truly painful scenario from a time and cost standpoint, and one that can disengage existing workers
- Be true to your employer brand. The language, tone and content need to reflect your culture, and your value proposition to your employees. Do your employer brand justice. Include summary details about the company (candidates will Google and Glassdoor you, so don’t waste too much time here)
- Provide the main business and departmental goals of the role. Give the position definition purpose!
- Offer clarity and explanation of the hiring process. Don’t leave candidates hanging or guessing… it’s incredibly disconcerting
Position Promotion
Promotion of the position is a little more nuanced than the definition. Here are the main points to factor:
- Do your research on where candidates are looking for work, specific to the industry and the department of your organisation
- Avoid the broad-based job boards. They’re expensive, time-consuming and frequently fail to deliver the best possible talent. They’re also typically utilised by active candidates only
- Use your business’ socials. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok (I’ll get to LinkedIn in a moment). Treat the promotion of the position like an ad campaign for that job type using #hashtags so that your content is seen via platform searches (also research your hashtags for that job – here’s a great platform to do this)
- Use LinkedIn advertising. Consider using both the general advertising options on LinkedIn as well as job ads
- Remember, everyone is a candidate…
Treat Candidates Like Customers
This is crucial. Factors to consider include:
- Be responsive and passionate. You wouldn’t want your customers to think you’re unhappy or demotivated. Prospective talent is the same
- Be authentic and realistic.
- Make sure HR is on the same page as the hiring manager. There can’t be any disconnect between what HR says of the role, and what the hiring manager says. It would be like signing up for a gym membership from a salesperson, only to find your new trainer isn’t at all what you were promised!
- Be kind, courteous, engaging and thoughtful
Get To Know Prospective Hires
Like you would a new partner, take the time to get to know prospective candidates. Here’s how:
- Take them for coffee or have multiple, less-formal Zoom catchups
- Discuss their personal interests and hobbies. Show them you’re interested and look for common ground
- Provide them with examples of the work they’ll be handling. Discuss these projects with them, workshop ideas, get a feel for their approach
- Remember, you won’t transform your business with unknown entities. So take the time to get to know them first
Finally, a successful hiring strategy and talent mix can single-handedly transform your business. And as our economy slowly recovers and we start to return to some semblance of post-COVID normality, organisations across Australia are bracing for a better year in 2022, and more hiring. So now is the time to review your hiring process and land the best talent for your business.
If you would like to discuss your recruitment processes, you can reach me here. I look forward to speaking with you.
