Hiring has been either the responsibility of HR or the line manager (where the HR department was either absent or may not be allowed to lead the hiring effort). This is still prevalent in a lot of organizations. We are now reaching the stage where hiring is becoming a proper partnership between the HR and the other Functions. It is also the most critical role in the organization, on par with sales and marketing.
Let's understand that an organization's
ability to hire talent depends on a few factors within it's control, and many factors that aren't.
Factors within it's control are:
- Job descriptions
- Goals
- Ability to assess talent in candidates
- Company culture
- Compensation (including bonus)
- Rewards
- Growth opportunities within the organization
- The Employer Brand
Factors outside it's control are:
- Availability of talent
- Candidate's motivation to work
- Candidate's ability to work
- Market compensation rate for the talent sought.
- Market / Economic conditions
- Government Policies
- Acts of Nature/God
The hiring situation was manageable when the job requirement required more manual than mental capability to meet performance goals. The jobs were few and the candidates were many; job security was a key requirement of the employee / job seeker. In the new economy (gig?), we have a situation where the talented candidates are actually not that many (in the way you as a recruiter might want). These talented candidates are not really concerned with being loyal, as they are witnessing organizations layoff large numbers of people due to a variety of reasons, including a slowdown, AI, IOT, AR. Businesses shutting shop have also been frequent enough to make startups a big question (risk) on starting your career.
Now, organizations are increasingly acknowledging that the Fredrick Taylor style of management doesn't help with hiring people in today's VUCA world, where change being a constant theme, that requires a different mindset, approach & performance from the employee. And most especially if you want your employees to
join, perform, enjoy the job and stay AND grow with the organization. This is actually the true impact of the hiring process. The hiring process is the one HR process which critically impacts the bottom line of the organization.
Since it's that serious, and these outcomes (join, perform, enjoy the job and stay AND grow with the organization) are crucial to the growth and survival of the organization, I think we as Hiring Professionals have to approach differently. We can no longer be "hiring in isolation".
HR folks cannot have the task of interviewing for culture fit alone. Every interviewer must take that responsibility. The candidates of today will not have as much patience as those of say 5-8 years ago. That means that we respect the candidate by:
- Having clear job descriptions instead of wish lists
- Spending sufficient time in advance to understand the candidate's profile instead of reading the resume during the interview while you have asked him/her to "Tell me about yourself".
- Spending sufficient time to explain the role to the candidate instead of asking if they have read the job description
- Selling the role AND the organization to the candidate once you are sure that he/she can be moved to the next round / hired, instead of "We'll discuss that later" or "That will be clarified in the next round".
- Being honest and upfront with the candidate as soon as possible, whether it's about the waiting time for the interview, scope of the role or whether or not he/she is being considered for further rounds instead of "We'll meet you in 15 minutes" that turns into an hour or three.
- Being respectful to all employees at all times, because both the other employees and the candidates and other visitors are watching and listening, instead of being biased.
Points 1 to 5 are critical to the Behavioural Event Interview process, and together with point 6, work towards building the "Employer Brand". According to Wikipedia "
Employer brand describes an employer's reputation as a place to work, and their employee value proposition".
Why is Employer Brand important?
All the experiences that an employee has from the time they apply on your website, or step in for an interview, to the time they collect their final settlement, contribute towards creating that Employer Brand Experience. So not just how you treat current employees, but also the ones who are to join and the ones who have left (whatever the reason). They're gonna tell the outside world (family and friends) about their experience with your organization. Don't forget, bad news travels real fast within a candidate's circle. So, the more positive their experiences are, the more top talent gets interested to explore working with you versus your competition.
We will be discussing all of this and working on strengthening the Hiring (recruitment) process in my upcoming workshop
"The Selection Discussion" on
21 Sept 2019. Click
here or copy paste the link below in your browser, to avail
early bird pricing (Ends 15 Sept 2019) and group discounts.
Do contact me on +919820155778 or ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com if you would like to have a customized BEI workshop or design the Hiring and Behavioural Interviewing process for your organization.
