The labor market shortage is posing a lot of recruiting problems for companies. Inflation and the rising cost of living are driving the workforce to reevaluate work and demand higher pay amid market uncertainty. This has made it even harder to recruit talent.
Hiring process improvements can be made in a myriad of ways. Here are some of the things you can do to turn down the heat, foster a great candidate experience, and interview like a pro.
1. Eliminate Interview Fatigue
In business, everything is about speed, including hiring expectations. So having an optimized hiring cycle is paramount.
Too many unnecessary interviews or a difficult hiring process will ultimately send the quality candidates scurrying. For most positions, calling applicants back for any more than 2 or 3 interviews promotes ‘interview fatigue’—detracting from their experience without adding to your own.
Minimizing interview fatigue should be among your greatest priorities and implement a more tailored approach to finding the right person for the job.
By using an experienced recruiter who has done the heavy lifting for you, two to three interviews are enough to judge every aspect of a candidate. Anything more than that will increase the risk of you losing a potential gem of an employee altogether.
2. Use Structured Questioning
Typically, interview questions revolve around three parts. The first part is about basic interview questions that are common in most job interviews. The second is to test the candidate’s critical thinking and job skills. The final stage is listening and communicating; honing in on the candidate’s soft skills.
The interview process should be flexible and adaptable to the role. Avoid generic questions to optimize time. Instead, structure the interview in a way that brings out the candidate’s skills, allows them to showcase their work experience, and gives you insight into their adaptability to your unique work culture and the nuances of your industry. When you align with an experienced recruiter, they will ensure that this process is complete, before you have your first meeting with a candidate.
3. Sit Candidate Facing
As the interviewing company, your job is to bring the best out of your potential candidates, conducting interviews that are fluid, friendly, and personable all while being transparent and clear about the job expectations. A good start is to provide congenial introductory conversations for all the candidates so they will feel more comfortable and engaged right off the bat. Do you need some help here? Most hiring managers do.
💡Eliminate anything that might be stressful and awkward in your process. If you’re not sure about how your process measures up here, ask an experienced recruiting partner. They can provide feedback and recommendations for improvements. In addition, they provide clarity to the candidates in advance about what they can expect during the hiring and selection process — aside from the questions. The candidate will know exactly what to expect.
4. Adopt Compensation Transparency
Today’s workforce is more comfortable talking about compensation with friends, family, and coworkers than you think. They expect to know the salary range upfront, even if it’s not the required law in your state.
While some businesses may see this as a disadvantage, forward-thinking companies can appreciate that they will get more qualified applicants. After all, highly qualified candidates refrain from applying to job postings where the salary range isn’t listed. By being open about compensation from the start, you won’t only attract more and higher-quality candidates—you’ll save everyone’s time and resources, too. Imagine that your dream employee is about to sign on the dotted line but the deal falls apart because the salary doesn’t meet their expectations and wasn’t discussed early enough. Being upfront about the range helps both candidates and employers alike align their expectations early on.
Salary transparency improves the time to hire (the time between when a potential hire enters the pipeline and when they accept the offer) and time to fill (the overall time taken to fill a position) by reducing friction.
These are important metrics that can provide you with a quick reference on how long it takes to fill an open position. You can use these as forecast variables to sharpen your recruitment strategies. If you’re not sure about the time to fill or time to hire metrics in your industry, a recruiting expert can provide you with metrics that will make sure that you are highly competitive and getting the best candidates in tight time frames.
5. Modernize Negotiations
Understanding that you have a multigenerational audience and speaking their language during candidate negotiations is the number one way to incorporate hiring process improvements. It’s helpful to know that the workforce is made up of 4 main categories: GenZ, Millennials, GenX, and Baby Boomers.
Millennials are currently the most powerful generation for companies and make up the largest working population in the US. This group comprises more women than men and is the most highly educated workforce segment in history, beating out GenZ and Baby Boomers. Each generation no matter how much they dominate the market will most likely make up your staff. Understanding each generation’s specific priorities, styles, and thought processes can help you streamline negotiations.
It’s important to note the following about GenZ and Millenials:
💡 GenZ is more driven by salary and money-based incentives than incoming workforce generations in history. Their motivation for this can be in part contributed to inflation, however, it might not be commensurate with their experience. This can put you in a tough situation when you’re working on a tight budget and require a specific skill-set. You can win them over by showing them the value of the job beyond the salary. This includes things like status, respect, and the promise of professional growth.
💡 Millenials are no longer the “young ones” in the office. They are aging, raising children, and are typically family or freedom focused. They too are centered on salary, but flexibility for them is top of mind.
An outsourced recruiting firm is a very important resource here as they can talk about crucial subjects with a candidate —way beyond salary. Essentially, they can get the back story and explore with the candidate their needs and thoughts aside from numbers and titles. In many cases, an outside recruiting partner can help move candidates off their strong positions or ideals.
6. Develop Career Paths
All generations of employees like to know what path they are on. They want to know that there is an opportunity to grow in their role and build important relationships with their coworkers and others in their industry. This is true for all employees not only for high-level management folks.
So, paint that picture for them. Show them where your company is looking to go, their role in all of it, and where you both will end up—together. You can wet the brush by giving candidates the chance to meet with their prospective managers and team members. Sharing your vision will empower your candidates to join your team or provide clarity on why they might not be a great fit.
💡 GenZ is the generation that is talking the most about their career path. They want to be crystal clear about their road to success and are specifically interested in mentorship. The idea and value of aligning with someone that they aspire to have been instilled at a young age.
If you don’t have the resources to do this in-house, an outsourced professional can advise you and help develop growth plans.
7. Reliance on Data
Don’t rely on luck in 2023—not when you can leverage data to make key hiring process improvements! Data-driven recruiting uses data analytics to plan and initiate the hiring process. It has several advantages that ultimately serve to reduce your time to fill and time to hire.
If you don’t have data-driven recruiting in place through robust applicant tracking and information systems, you will spend countless hours and time sourcing candidates in a tight labor market. After all, most managers have other primary responsibilities, and filling an open position has been added to an already full plate. Who even has the time to go through hundreds of applications and keep the talent pipeline organized and easily accessible?
An outstanding outsourced recruiting firm that uses state-of-the-art technology-driven resources will find the candidates that you cannot find.
This modern data-driven approach also helps you communicate progress to your team, managers, leaders, and executives. When matched up with the right technology and hiring process improvements you’ll be set up to meet your corporate hiring goals and objectives.
Finding the right talent for your business is tedious. Don’t leave it to chance. Boutique Recruiting can help you build solid strategies to meet the ever-changing demands of candidates, improve your communication flow, ensure successful negotiations, and partner with you to enhance your brand.
Contact us. www.Boutiquerecruiting.com. | 858.800.4935
