At any given moment in your hiring cycle, there are an array of moving parts. Whether it's getting the ball rolling
and starting a dialogue with candidates, scheduling their interviews, or formulating and sending out an offer letter, you must constantly be putting together pieces of multiple puzzles to build your organization. Recently, I took to SourceCon.qa to get a sense of what the biggest issues for recruiters are, and how they go about dealing with it. Read on to see what I found!
Chaotic Calendars
Unsurprisingly, scheduling was reported to be one of the biggest headaches for talent acquisition pros. John Lovig, a recruiter in Quinnapic, claims that tool Timebridge has been crucial in alleviating his scheduling woes:
I have easily addressed the interview scheduling piece. I use a software called timebridge and it allows me to send candidates potential time slots that they can choose from and then it will book the appointment they select directly on my calendar. It is optimized for mobile phones, so I find a very fast and high response rate from candidates.
Prequalifying the Close
As you know, it's not enough for a candidate to have the requisite skills and experience. You need to ensure their values and personal goals are aligned with your organization in such a way that promises a mutually beneficial relationship.
Travis Windler, an experienced sourcer currently with Manulife Financial, comments further:
Similar to making an offer it is about really knowing the candidates drivers and why they are interested in the first place. I often make this a huge portion of my intro call. It is all about understanding what is important and then leveraging that throughout the process. Address their pain points directly (and loop in your hiring leaders) and flush out any barriers early in the process (I always start with a high level comp conversation toward the end of my first call - don't want to waste everyone's time).
Getting on the Same Page
One of the more interesting insights I gathered from the thread was the difficulty of getting all the interviewers to communicate and agree on a candidate. It's common for multiple team members to interview candidates, and to make the most of their interviews and opinions, they need to be adequately shared in a timely fashion so you can move forward and not miss out on top candidates. Dean DaCosta, seasoned recruiting veteran currently at Lockheed Martin, deplores the "dragging of feet" that often occurs with hiring managers:
I would agree some of the biggest hurdles are arranging the interview, making an offer, and then closing the candidate. I would argue though that perhaps the biggest is getting your hiring manager and hiring/inteview team to agree and do so in a timely manner. Too often they drag their feet, and this causes a huge problem.
Often, non-recruiters don't understand the time-sensitive nature of getting an offer out to your most desired candidate. If you're too slow, not only might they take another offer, you also instill in them the notion that you're not thrilled to have them on board, or maybe only settled on them after other candidates passed.
One way to conquer this is to make it as easy as possible for your team to share notes and give their approval on a candidate. A great tool for this is Greenhouse, which not only reminds you of upcoming interviews, but nudges you afterward to review the candidates according to some pre-set questions as well as your own comments. At the end of your review, you are prompted to give your overall recommendation on whether the candidate should be hired or not. Rather than getting your team in a room to discuss a candidate, this is a great way to foster collaboration, discussion, and timeliness in your hiring cycle. Oh, and good news, Entelo integrates with this robust interviewing tool!
What are some other recruiting hurdles you face, and how do you go about clearing them? Leave a comment or tweet @EnteloRob!
