The Critical Path in Recruiting and Hiring Employees: The Beginning – Power Idea by Ginny McMinn

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
~Lewis Carroll

When looking at the current tight labor market, skills shortages, and increasingly specialized job responsibilities, it is crucial to do an effective job of attracting, hiring and engaging with the best employees available to fill positions in your organization. Because of these multiple pressures, it is imperative to develop a plan for recruiting and hiring.

Recruiting and Hiring Process – the Big Picture
Creating and using a process to attract and hire employees who meet your organization’s needs results in recruitment and hiring that is
* Effective
* Legal
* Organized
* Repeatable

The process begins with established requirements and the steps to attract and hire employees who match the job needs.

It’s All about the Pace
Consider the marathon or sprint analogy: it is important to understand that pace is a critical component of successful recruiting and hiring. The recruiting process contains elements of marathon and sprint pacing.

Get your team assembled and committed to being responsive. Be prepared to try multiple approaches to attract the best candidates. Parts of the process will feel slow when locating candidates in a “fully employed” marketplace. Be patient. Don’t settle.

When you do locate those individuals, maintain their interest by responding quickly. Use an efficient process, conduct professional and cordial interactions, and present the job effectively while not wasting candidates’ time. Be prepared to interview at one visit, to substitute for someone absent with another recruitment team member, and to move the process along.

All Aboard the Sales Team
In recruiting employees, it is all too easy to fall back on an old paradigm and focus on what the candidates can do for your organization.

In this tight recruiting market, the candidates are looking you over at the same time you’re evaluating them. Look at your company, the job, the culture, and development and advancement possibilities from their perspective. Plan and ensure that all members of the recruitment team know that this is a sales “gig”, where facts, integrity, interest and culture match will be key selling points – and key retention strategies.

Engage in a unified, professional, efficient and friendly process:
* Commit to investing the time to do this right.
* Use tools to ensure consistent and efficient interviews.
* Present the company at its best and its highest integrity. What do you offer? What are the challenges in the position? (Hint: You want the candidate who will rise to that challenge.)
* Use common courtesy: be on time, don’t stray from professional behavior and process, thank candidates for their time in interviewing, apprise them of timeline and decisions.
* Commit to making the process happen as designed. Your ability to make the hire and keep the employee starts here.

In upcoming articles, we will address job needs as the best starting point for recruiting. We will offer two ways to gather information about the job and its needs, such as experience, training, education, skills and abilities, as well as the personal behaviors, skills and motivators of candidates likely to succeed in the position.