Many companies are challenged to find the right talent with the right skills at the right time. However, some companies still receive more resumes than they have available positions. Recently a small manufacturing company in NH received around 100 resumes for one HR manager position, demonstrating there are some strategies you can put in place to attract the best candidates.
The current labor market is challenging with NH posting an unemployment rate of just 2.6 percent in December. When unemployment is below 5 percent, many experts agree that everyone who wants to work is working or in a short-term transition.
It is essential that your organization have strategies and systems in place to communicate with the pool of candidates who are actively searching for a new position. And while unemployment is low, the labor pool might be larger than you think. According to the most recent employee engagement study from Gallup, a whopping 85 percent of employees are not engaged with their employer. This large population is constantly looking for a new and better opportunity. The only thing you need to do is make sure they can find you.
Stop thinking that you need to understand anything about human resources when you are recruiting. You don’t. Finding the right candidate is not a matter of luck like sitting down to a slot machine in Vegas. Recruiting is a marketing and sales process. You need to promote and sell your organization.
Improve your recruiting process in steps: the story and branding phase, the promotional phase, and the selection and process phase. It will help you build a solid system that combines employer branding, the selection process and your open positions to deliver predictable outcomes.
Find Your Story
You need to tell your future and current employees a story. They want to know the purpose of the company, what you offer them and how working for your organization can fulfill their personal needs and ambitions.
The business purpose is about what the company does to change the world around them. This is not your mission and vision. It is about why are you in business (besides making money). Employees want to feel good about the services or products the company offers.
Next on your list is learning what your high performers are looking for. What need can you fulfill outside the paycheck? Did you ask them, or do you guess? This goes beyond the 401(k) plan or the health insurance. This is about the intangible benefits.
When you know your purpose and your employees’ needs, you can tell a compelling story about why working for your company is great.
Promoting Your Company
After developing your story, it’s time to translate it into a marketing plan. The first step is to create a magnet—a piece of text that summarizes the essential elements of your story. I would recommend a tagline, a summary of around 40 words and one that is between 60 and 100 words.
While you could get away with any job posting during the recession, nowadays you need to make sure that in one single page you attract the best candidates. A job posting is a marketing tool to attract the best candidates. Don’t mistake this as a job description, which is a comprehensive document that explains in detail the skills and experience required to do the job successfully, the tasks and responsibilities, and risks. That does not explain available benefits or why the company is a great employer. The job description has its place in the recruiting process but not as a marketing tool.
The job posting can be best organized as:
• Job title;
• Magnet (long version);
• Explanation of the job in a few sentences;
• Non-negotiable requirements;
• How to apply.
As you can see, the sales pitch is at the beginning. Make sure that the job title is as generic as possible to improve the chances that people can find your job posting. The description of the job is focused on your specific needs, not the obvious standard core duties.
When you have your job posting in place, consider how to create awareness around your company as a great place to work. All your marketing efforts should be centered on the career page of the company. The career page should be a great place to hang out with testimonials from employees and videos.
Selection and Retention
The last phase is all about selection and retention. An applicant needs to move through the process fast. If you don’t do that, a competitor who is faster at making decisions will hire them.
A software system that can capture the application and push the job posting to your website and job boards is critical. Also, make sure everyone in the organization understands the recruiting process to move candidates through quickly. You can test how fast your process is by measuring the time between when the application is submitted and when the final applicant receives an offer letter. For low skilled positions, this should be less than eight business hours and for highly skilled management positions, no longer than two weeks.
Make sure that the candidate who shows interest but is not a fit for the position is captured and retained. Create an online network that makes it easy for them to stay engaged with the company so you can quickly turn them into applicants when a better suited position opens.
After you have implemented this system, you should see that you have fewer challenges with hiring the right people at the right time.
Mirjam IJtsma is the founder of Cultural Chemistry, a human resource-consulting firm in Portsmouth and the Human Resources Academy. She can be reached at mijtsma@culturalchemistry.com.
Current Issue - April 2024