Hiring need to be an intentional and strategic process

Exceptional talent, well suited for the role that makes an impact within your organization can be very difficult to attract, find and in ultimate instance retain. In  2022 the post pandemic working environment has changed and needs to address special requests and specific needs in order to retain and grow top talent.

The candidate experience is all the hiring process and touch points that your potential candidates travel, from the very beginning all the way into getting hired, keeping a good communication in every stage is vital to build and maintain  your employer branding.

Employer branding is the reputation of your company in social media and what others say about you, in order to keep a great branding you can follow these best practices.

 

Bad candidate experience can cost money to your company

According to a LinkedIn survey, statistics had found that 27% of candidates that had a negative experience would “actively discourage” others from applying for a position with that company.

In short these means you can lose nearly a quarter of applicants that can bring a bad reputation to your brand.

1.Interview process, follow a structure

Establishing a process is the right approach, a structured process is the most efficient and effective way to conduct interviews.

Each interview has a specific purpose , each position requires different skills and qualifications. It is also very important to follow up a process, each member involved in the interviewed process needs to be updated and hiring managers need to be in the feedback loop with notes of preview interviews.

 

Conduct a great job interview

Draw a picture of your requirements

Your company needs to have a general idea of the kind of collaborator you need for the job position. In terms of soft and hard skills and personality.

Ideally you need to elaborate a checklist of all the requirements for the role and tailor a set of questions and means to assess the potential candidate.

Another approach could be interview top performers within your organization in the same role:

Ask them about :

• Their daily tasks and responsibilities 
• Their knowledge, abilities, skills and other characteristics they think are required to succeed in the position
• Their leadership style and expectations in terms of company culture
• Knowing all these answers you need to come up with a clear picture of what the perfect fit looks like.

Put in place a game plan for the interview

Talent acquisition departments know in terms of skills and job description an ideal candidate looks like, but what about their personality traits?

• Do you need for the position a good social skilled collaborator or do you need someone with quiet and analytical thinking?
• Does your ideal candidate need a very specific level of communication skills in order to perform ?

Elaborate a gemeplan and questions that can bring these specific information you are looking for.

You need also to be prepared for questions on the candidate side and address their special enquiries, concerns in terms of compensation, perks and company culture.

Personalize specific questions on their specific resume and work history, make some notes about specific position(s) and work gaps.

This will help you in navigating the interview process and make the candidate feel valued by giving them a positive impression of your company.

Interview prep

One of the most important points to address is to build rapport.

You need to memorize questions in order to maintain eye contact with the candidate, this will create a more casual and relaxed atmosphere in order to let the potential collaborator relax and answer questions to the best of their abilities.

Remember that candidates are also interviewing your company, in order to do a great job you need to give a great impression about the culture and benefits of working with you.

You need to give them a general draft of their daily task and paint a picture of what they will be doing in order to impact with their collaboration.

A clear path for the recruiting journey from the very beginning will be a great way to start, be clear about the sequential steps for example:

Cultural fit interview: 

1. Who they are? 
2. What are their perceived strengths ?
3. How do they handle stress?

Technical interview:

1. Hard Skills
2. Certification(s)
3. Their Expertise 

Team mates and collaborators:

1. Let them interact with their hiring manager(s)
2. Reportees
3. Co workers and in general with anyone that are in the same team

Usually when hiring a new collaborator, companies ask a business case to develop, ask them a draft of execution, how they will approach the first 30, 60, 90 days in their daily activities.

Also put in place some relevant metrics to be covered and what is expected from the very beginning.

 

Ask important questions like:

• What makes you a great fit for this position?
• Why do you believe you are the right person for the position?
• Describe your strengths and weakness
• Describe your work ethic

One of the most important assets is how they handle feedback and communicate with team mates in order to hit their objectives.

Enquire them about hypothetical situations and how they can provide a real solution, go into detail technically if necessary and ask them about their approach.

Be very straightforward  and also ask open ended questions, listen more and speak less in order to build a clear picture of who they are and how they can make a significant impact on their current role.

  

 2.Communication is key in candidate experience journey 

 

Potential collaborators should feel they are dealing with a confident and informative organization.

Starting from job description, online applications and interviews must be aligned throughout the hiring journey, candidate experience must have a very clear communication path of what to expect next.

 

 

 

3.Align experience with company values in your candidate experience

 

It is very important to introduce not just to hiring managers,  teams and innovation can only flourish when employees feel safe and foster a sense of belonging, a strong candidate experience and recruiting journey.

4.Be honest along the hiring journey

 

There’s nothing more annoying for candidates in the hiring journey than going through an entire organization’s  recruiting process and waiting for the hiring decision that never comes.

Your talent acquisition department needs to be honest at the right stage to send a rejection /thank you letter (as soon as they realize they are not moving forward with a potential collaborator.

 

Own every step of the process

Consider a positive experience even if they are not selected. Why? Candidates share their experience with colleagues, firends, family and co workers or in public platforms.

A poor candidate experience can adversely affect an be a reputational damage.

The damage can get extended by word of mouth or bad branding and when you have the right person in a process they decline the offer.

72% of jobseekers have reported sharing a bad experience on glassdoor.