How to Hire the Right People for Your Growing Team

Hiring in the current market is challenging. Here are 5 ways to improve your hiring process so you can attract the right talent for your open jobs. 

Hiring in the current market can be challenging. Some roles feel impossible for employers to hire right now. For others, it feels like the company is drowning in all of the wrong types of candidates. Here are 5 ways to improve your hiring process so that you can attract the right types of candidates for your open positions.

#1 - Fix the Job Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how most people do their jobs and how many companies think about how their teams work together. This changing landscape will have an impact on most organizations for some time. This impact can also include how you hire and the types of candidates that can now be considered.

The best hiring strategies start with a well-crafted job description so that you can reach the right types of candidates. Keep in mind that no one is perfect and that you shouldn't ask for perfection when you post the job description. Doing this will often result in scaring off the right types of candidates because they will perceive the company as too picky or that they are not qualified for the role. So, take the time to rewrite the job description and the requirements so that it can resonate with a broader audience. Keep the bottom line requirements in the job description so that you aren't wasting time looking through applications of unqualified people. But, make sure that it isn't written so narrowly that no one could qualify for the job.  

#2 - Cast a Wide Net

Take a bold strategy when trying to recruit for the open job. The longer it sits open the more it will cost the company. So, make sure that you are posting the position in all of the right places for the types of candidates that you want to attract. This can mean on the company careers site, lots of job boards, and social media. You may also want to leverage your existing staff to help recruit people in their networks that could be a good fit for the role.

Depending on the role, it may also make sense to work with external recruiting and staffing firms like The Contingent Plan. In many cases, these partners will bring additional candidates to the process with little to no risk.  Work out your process with the recruiting firm and be clear in your expectations for candidate submissions, requirements, and the hiring process before you start receiving potential candidates. This will save a lot of time in the process and ensure that your company has the widest net possible to attract the right types of talent for your open jobs.

#3 - Don't Stop at the Resume

Resumes are an important part of every hiring process. The resumes submitted by applicants will outline their work experiences and make it easy for your team to quickly identify whether the person is a fit for the open position. Sifting through countless resumes with all of the online applications can become overwhelming. And, the applicant tracking systems (ATS) may not do the best job in sorting through those candidates.

So, make sure that your team has a plan in place in reviewing those resumes to ensure that they aren't letting the best candidates get stuck in those ATS filters. This can be as simple as adjusting the filters in the ATS or it could be that someone goes through with a set of broader parameters to ensure that people within a range of acceptable experiences are contacted. Your hiring team may also consider using LinkedIn or other social media sites to filter through or find additional candidates that meet the requirements. Whatever the right strategy is, it is important that your hiring strategy isn't focused on finding the best resume. Instead, it should be focused on finding the best candidate for the open position.

#4 - Have a Hiring Plan

The first step in the hiring process may be the job description. But, the second step in that process should be defining how those candidates will be screened. Know exactly what steps you want candidates to go through before you make a decision is just as important as finding the right person. Having that plan in place early on makes it easier to work candidates through the process and prevents any guessing in the process.

This is important because good talent goes quickly. If you do attract good talent for your open role, you don't want to lose them because you are trying to figure out who they should talk to in your organization. Know that upfront and stick to that plan through the hiring process. This will ensure a seamless candidate experience and enable you to move quickly for the right talent.

#5 - Use a Salary Range, and Adjust as Needed

Compensation is an important factor for most candidates in the hiring process. Your organization may not be comfortable in posting the salary in its job descriptions. However, the question of compensation must come up at some point in the screening process to avoid wasting the time of the candidates and your team.

You may not know the right range of compensation for a position. Or, the compensation may be a limiting factor in the hiring process because your organization can't pay as much as your larger competitors for the same role. And, that compensation range may have changed through the COVID-19 pandemic because of a number of factors in your industry and in your markets. Thus, you need to make sure that you start the hiring process with a range rather than a set number whenever possible. Companies that are smart in tight talent markets will also be ready to adjust those numbers as needed to secure the best talent. Or, your company could be creative in how it structures its overall package to ensure that it sets up a win-win situation for the top talent.

Hiring doesn't have to be painful. Know what types of people you are looking for, what that person can do, and how you will find that person is key to finding the right people to build your team. The talent market is changing rapidly post-COVID, so be ready to move fast for the right people and your team can grow in the right way.

Want help filling those challenging roles or have a position that you need to be filled immediately? Schedule a free consult to find out how our experienced recruiting team can help.