Even the best recruiters and hiring managers lack the incredible ability to decide on a candidate on their first pass. Flair and gifts aside, it’s unrealistic.
While there isn’t a magical formula for reducing your time-to-hire, companies can fine-tune their knack for bringing in candidates who are qualified and excited about the company by refining their methods for sorting out and ranking potential hires.
Read on for tips on improving your team’s ability to manage a more selective talent funnel to bring in more candidates who are interested and qualified for your opportunities.
Ask applicants: What do you want to know about the job?
Gauge candidates’ drive and enthusiasm for solving the same problems your company’s working on by asking applicants to submit questions about what they want to learn about the role. IDEO co-founder Nathan Waterhouse uses this technique to get candidates interested in the job, which requires them to do research on the company and can help applicants decide if they’re sincerely excited about the opportunity.“Score the questions — if all questions the questions sound like the top ten things you’ve been grappling with in the last 6 months, get them in. If it’s less than 7/10, then ask for 5–10 more. Yes, ask for more questions. You’ll feel uncomfortable doing this, but believe me, if they can’t think of at least 5 more questions about the job, they just aren’t trying hard enough.”
Create a system for following up with applicants.
One of the main reasons recruiters experience candidate drop-off is because companies extend the offer too long after the first interview. This time of year sometimes places sourcers and recruiters in a position to build their talent funnels across all positions with an emphasis on volume, rather than quality. Developing an established procedure for processing, screening, and contacting applicants will save you the risk of losing out on qualified candidates excited about your opportunity who end up going to another company who took them through a more organized hiring process.
Pay close attention to candidates involved in side projects and organizations.
What a candidate is by trade doesn’t always provide a comprehensive representation of their capabilities. Getting involved in hobbies, meetups, groups, and projects outside of work can demonstrate the planning, structure, and motivation it takes to carve out extra time from a candidate’s standard work day. It’s more than a good sign of someone who’s able to take on multiple ventures and execute them well – it’s a sign of someone who understand why good work-life balance is important to being happy and productive.
Check for changes in job titles.
Want to build a leadership funnel? Take a look at how candidates’ work experiences progress over time, and the length of time they spent with each company. Let’s say a candidate was with the same org for about four years – did they start off in a junior position, and eventually moved their way up to a more senior role or a management position? Or did they start and end their time with the company across various departments? Both signs can be indicative of a candidate’s long-term growth, experience and leadership skills they’ve honed over time and with the same team.
There’s a sense of consistency, belief in investing in their long-term career goals, and a willingness to receive criticism, take on new challenges, and refine different types of strengths. Poke around and ask about what they learned in their previous roles and how they plan to apply that to your team.
Know what you’re selling and what you want before pitching the position.
To make a good impression on a candidate and sell the job, it’s crucial to know about the role, who to defer the candidate to if it turns out you don’t know all about the role, the employer brand and product you’re selling (two distinct company brands), and the candidate you’re looking for. Before going after talent, remember the more specialized skills you seek in a candidate, the more this dream employee will cost. Line up recruiters and hiring managers’ expectations for candidates before sourcing for the role – the ideal candidate and the actual candidate are hardly pulled from the same talent pool.
Comb through your team’s networks.
We’ve long supported the employee referral network as a source for finding your next great hire. One question to ask while onboarding new team members? “Who’s the smartest person you know?” Implementing your referral network with a systematic approach from the get-go communicates to the team the company is in a continual state of methodical growth – hiring with a targeted rationale, not hiring for the sake of filling open reqs. Putting in effort to extend your network with new employees also establishes the benefits and rewards of referrals as part of your company culture, and can help recruiters bring talent into the funnel for future positions.
We have even more resources to build your recruiting arsenal to get ready, get set, and start hiring for the upcoming year. Check out our webinar with Greenhouse on setting up candidates for success and let us know what you think!
