When done properly, recruiting can be a rewarding experience. Knowing you have found someone to fit a business is a great relief in what can be a stressful time of seeking and interviewing candidates.
If you are still coming up empty-handed, it may be time to re-think some aspects of the your recruiting process. There can be various reasons you are missing out on some of the best talent, so let's break down some of the common ones that tend to be overlooked.
1. Your Margins Are Too Strict
Naturally, you want the candidate that is the best fit and, in your mind, you may have an idealized image of the right candidate. In real life, however, the perfect candidate may not look or sound much like that picture. However, they may still be the best person for the job. Maybe they bring with them a lot of personality and experience in fields you may not have considered as relevant before meeting them. Keep an open mind, and you may be surprised with who you end up hiring.
2. You Recruit In The Wrong Places
Rather than throwing your hat into the ring on a general job site, tailor your offer to specific audiences. Offering employment to the general masses will, at best, lead to hundreds of unsuitable and irrelevant resumes sent to you or, at worst, miss your ideal candidate entirely. This will leave you exhausted and frustrated.
Instead, figure out which social and business networks your potential employee might visit and approach them directly. Do research to find a job board unique to the industry you’re in to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
3. YOU'RE Making Assumptions
You may enter a dialogue or even an interview process with a candidate with a fixed idea in your mind about the sort of person they are. This is dangerous on two levels: firstly, it means you probably won’t listen to their answers properly and secondly, you do that candidate a disservice in becoming frustrated when they don’t turn out to have been the best hire six months down the line. All of this can be avoided by simply not having made assumptions before the interview.
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4. YOU'RE Avoiding Job Seekers
There can be a sense of snobbery about headhunting a candidate from another company, but just because you’ve recruited from outside the field of job seekers, it doesn’t mean you’ve made the best hire. Active job seekers do make excellent candidates and should not be ignored as potential interviewees. You could be missing out on someone with just the right talent for your business.
5. You Make It Too Personal
The recruitment process may feel entirely personal, but if you’re a recruiter, then personal feelings must not stand in the way of a good hire. Whether you like or dislike either the client or the candidate, your actions towards them should remain entirely neutral and your communications should reflect that.
Professionalism is the only way forward, and that includes any dealings you may have with either side, whether spoken or in an email. Be transparent at all times.
6. YOU'RE Trusting The Written Word
Once you’ve found who you believe to be the right candidate, the feeling of relief can be overwhelming. But, without a thorough background check, you could be asking for trouble.
7. YOU'RE Unprepared For The Interview
Interviewing can be just as nerve-wracking for the recruiter as it is for the candidate, but now is not the time to let your nerves show. Careful preparation is the key. Avoid throwing hundreds of questions at your candidate; it's far better to have a handful of carefully selected ones that reveal their talent and provide examples of past work.
With a little forethought, the recruitment process can prove less daunting. Your ideal candidate could just be a few clicks from a recruiting match made in heaven.
About the Author: Joel Syder works at Academic Brits as an HR analyst and writer. His passion in life is seeing people reach their potential in Information Technology. He also enjoys writing and sharing his knowledge and interests.