After interviewing hundreds of employers and many more candidates, I have developed a focused interview style that clearly identifies the attributes they want to see in a candidate, including those from a cultural, skill set, and experience perspective.

Even though you may meet the identified requirements and attributes, there are a few common blunders that will hinder you as a candidate from getting in front of the employer to express your abilities. First is a poorly written resume. Consider that as a recruiter, I initially assess if I can effectively represent you to my client. I cannot do that with a resume that does not clearly reflect your background, skills and successes.   Unless I have time to rewrite it, or help you rewrite it, chances are good it will likely be set aside.

Secondly, employers generally dislike candidates giving extensive detail about what is wrong with their current position or what went wrong in a past position. Companies are fluid and out of need, positions shift and change. Employers understand that and know their value proposition that initially attracted you to join the company, may have changed. What doesn’t work is when your message says you are running away from something rather than working toward the goals of the company and/or your career.

Something I’ve heard more than once from a client is that while you, as a candidate, seem to meet all the requirements, they don’t receive a strong and clear feeling that you are eager to be part of their team. This is a big one! Hiring someone is a big commitment for an employer and they want to work with people they like and that give the same commitment and excitement in return. If you are not giving that vibe, they may mentally move on before you get the chance.

If you are not getting through the process and receiving an offer, you might want to ask yourself a few questions. Are my written documents representing me well? Do I appear to be running from something rather than moving towards the next step in my career? Am I showing enthusiasm for the opportunity and the company? Your answers will likely reveal why you did not make the short list or receive an offer.

The April Jobs Report released by the Labor Department shows better than expected jobs growth in April and the lowest unemployment level since May 2007. Optimism is up and the job market is hot! If you’re in growth mode, you may be looking at hiring in the near future. If this is the case, understanding how to hire well in a tight talent market is essential.

The best sales execs do their research before following up on a lead or approaching a prospective client. Part of this research includes looking at what their competitors have to offer. Likewise, understanding the current talent market is vital to position your company and hiring opportunity to attract the best candidates. If you don’t know what competencies you’re targeting and who your competition is, you won’t be in the best position to acquire top talent.

I coach my clients to clearly define their value proposition for the talent market and to share it throughout the organization. Questions you might ask include:

1. What’s great about working for our company?
2. What’s our company culture?
3. Why have other employees joined our company?
4. Why do they stay?

Face the market with transparency about who you are and the things that make you a uniquely great place to work. That way, you can focus on attracting employees who fit best with you and quickly screening out those who don’t.

In the recruiting industry, there’s a key metric called Time-to-Hire. It measures the time from when a position is first posted for candidates to apply through to an accepted offer and candidate start date. In most recruiting efforts there are multiple steps from start to finish. The key is to minimize the time for each step and time between these steps, thus keeping the search moving with the most viable candidates staying engaged from start to finish.

To present a consistent and winning value proposition and manage your time-to-hire, it helps to have each person involved in the process on the same page. Investing time upfront defining the goals for the position, putting your recruiting campaign together and gaining agreement from your hiring team, will position you to pull targeted candidates into your process and keep them focused on joining your team.

If you would like further information or are interested in discussing your hiring needs, we invite you to get in touch with JESSI Search.

According to a recent Forbes article, the cost of on-boarding an employee is at roughly $240,000. And, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the price of a bad hire is at least 30 percent of the employee’s first-year earnings. For a small company, a five-figure investment in the wrong person is a threat to the business. The True Cost of a Bad Hire – It’s More than You Think, (Forbes, September 2016)

Do you have a well-defined hiring process?  Or, do you spread the word, post the job and then interview those candidates who express interest and seem to have the most applicable background?  If you’re not investing in your hiring process, you may pay a high price, not only in dollars but also with the impact on your reputation and culture.

So how should you be hiring? Several steps are easy to skip or gloss past when it’s critical you get someone onboard quickly.  A few of the steps you want to ensure you don’t miss are defined below:

1. Building the Candidate Profile – It’s hard to hit the target if you don’t know what you’re aiming for. You should build a profile of the ideal candidate based on the components identified in the position description and aspects of your company culture. Using an assessment to benchmark your best talent and further hone in on the right attributes for future hires is one of the best ways to ensure a strong hire each time. 
2. Developing the Attraction Campaign
3. Setting the Compensation Band
4. Putting together your Marketing pieces
5. Sourcing and Qualifying Candidates
6. Initial Interview/Phone Screen
7. Assessment
8. Final Interviews
9. Selection
10. Offer and Negotiation
11. Acceptance and Start Date
12. On-boarding Plan for Accelerated Success – But wait, you’re not done yet! Don’t overlook the importance of effectively on-boarding your new hires: https://jessisearch.com/how-jessi-search-closes-candidates/

If these steps are more than you and your team have the time to invest in when you have hiring needs, you may want to consider partnering with a reputable recruiting agency or talent acquisition consultant to assist you. It will soon become apparent that having a trusted talent acquisition partner sets you apart and results in accessing and closing the right people so you can achieve your business goals.

I love to hear from candidates after they start with our client companies.  We work especially hard to make a great match and post-start feedback is a valuable measure for us.  We recently placed a candidate with a large company in a role where they would have peers and employees all over the globe.  It was wonderful to hear the lengths her new employer went to ensure that she was introduced to varied team members and walked through the internal processes and tools that she needed to hit the ground running.  We’ve heard a different story from candidates who want to network with us because they are disenchanted with the company they recently joined, leading them to continue their search.

We’ve all been there.  It’s our first week and we don’t even yet know where the rest room is located!  Learning new names, places and the lay of the land can be daunting. Organizations who are great at helping new members feel immediately welcome and part of the team do these key things:

1. Focus on On-boarding – It’s not all about the paperwork!
2. Get to know them as a Person
3. Provide Single Points-of-Contact
4. Have Relevant Training
5. Help to Quickly Engaging in their Work
6. And if they’re Relocating, they do more

Yes, there is paperwork requiring completion to allow access to systems, provide tools and, of course, get paid.  But a key focus while on-boarding should also be to make your new hires feel connected.  Some companies put together a photo collage of teammates, delineating what each team member does, how they can help you, and perhaps most importantly, what interests each individual in their work and outside of the job.

Assessments are sometimes used as part of the interview process.  I’m a proponent of using them for this purpose and also the added benefit of using the data to target customization of the on-boarding process based on the individual’s style of processing information and communication.

Assigning a mentor for the first 30 days is common.  Whether you assign one mentor or a single point-of-contact for different areas of the job, having a defined go-to person is a benefit.

You hired this individual for a specific skill set and experience.  However, there are things that the rest of you know about the company’s objectives, drivers and approach that the new hire needs to understand.  Having a well thought out training program pays dividends.  I was extremely impressed by one of our US-based client’s objectives to have all new hires for their sales expansion on-board before their sales strategy kick-off meeting in Europe.  While there was expense to send a multitude of new sales executives to this week-long international meeting and training sessions, the pay off in allowing them to hit the ground running was huge.  It’s interesting to note that every one of those individuals remains with the company and reports a high level of satisfaction!

A key desire when someone has started in a new role is to “get started!”  Thinking through the tasks you will assign in the first four weeks, 30 days and 90 days and communicating these helps to give the new hire an understanding of what will be expected of them from the get-go.  It will also allow them to prepare and focus their attention and feel like they are contributing more quickly. Ideally, you’ll be developing this plan jointly.  It’s important to seek your employee’s opinions and this is a way to show that you value their opinion from the beginning.

Finally, if you’ve had to look outside of your area to find the right person, helping them and their family to have a smooth transition to their new home location is a way to differentiate your company culture as welcoming, as well as helping to remove some of the distraction that goes along with a relocation.  Some companies put together a full book or packet of information from real estate data and Realtors to schools to favorite restaurants and service organizations.  These are always appreciated!

The risk of not implementing a strong on-boarding process is that the person you invested so much in finding and hiring, turns your opportunity into their bridge job to a position with a new company whose culture they view as more welcoming!

You’ll never regret investing to hire right or in your employees’ start with the company.  We’re interested in hearing what you’ve experienced as a new hire.  And, we hope you’ll also share your creative ideas to help a new employee to feel welcome, quickly integrated into the team, and set up for success in their role.