Recruiter News Line

Step V: References checks redefined
Yes, yes go ahead and call his college mentor. But also do some detective work. Try to speak to someone else that they worked for, and if relevant someone who worked for them. Independent references will yield greater results than those who were predetermined by your candidate. 

Step VI: Put out all the stops
When recruiting a candidate, make sure to use every weapon in your arsenal. Don’t just tempt them with an attractive salary and benefits. Make sure to sell them the purpose of your organization, how excellent it will look on their resume, and how fast they will progress in their career if taking the position.  

Step VII: Talk to the family
You aren’t just recruiting a candidate. If they are married with children, you happen to be influencing an entire family. How will the career move change their lives? It is extremely important to talk with every possible decision maker involved in the process.  Step VIII: Compensation is not a jumping off point
Many junior recruiters make the error of putting an offer in an opening letter. Negotiations about salary come later down the road, once the recruitment process is in full swing. You aren’t sure what the recruit might deem as too little, or insulting so be sure to have them interested before these talks even begin. 

Step VIIII: Don’t stop…Recruiting (as sung to the tune of Journey)
Just because you’ve successfully recruited a candidate, you can not assume that your task is over. Sure they are now employed with you, but they were also employed at their last job and they left when the offer was tempting enough. Once you’ve scored a great team it is important to “woo” them on a daily basis. Insuring that they are happy insures that you will keep the other recruiters at bay.

Step I: Hire Better Than Yourself
It is a common belief within the recruitment industry that top employers hire top performing candidates, while average employers tend to hire below average candidates. The speculation for this is that those average performing individuals do not want to see someone excel moreso than themselves. Continuing this pattern, however, will lead to hiring completely dense employees which then leads to a layoff.  

Step II: Don’t just look for skills, look for love
Yes, education and experience are very important. But so is a burning desire to excel at…whatever it happens to be you are recruiting for. Look for love. Hiring an employee with decent education and experience who also comes with a built in obsession for your product will most likely pay off more for you in the long run. This employee won’t have to learn to be dedicated because they already are. 

Step III: Sometimes the most impressive quality is the most irrelevant
So he’s an MIT PhD in Computer Science, aye? Great. He also worked for Microsoft for 20 years. Is he the best candidate for a start-up? Probably not. This guy never had to worry about competition or capital. And you know what they say about old dogs… 

Step IV: Intuition can only take you so far
She was an amazing interviewer. You just knew she would be perfect for the job. So much so, that you didn’t happen to check her references as much as you normally would have. Your gut feeling told you to go ahead and it turns out your gut feeling was wrong. It’s hard to go against what we feel is right, and I’m not saying to completely disregard intuition, but make sure to take all necessary steps during the process with all candidates. This insures that you are making the right decision.

Not attracting the qualified candidates you hoped for? Maybe it is time to examine your benefits package. 

Offering attractive signing bonuses is just one way to get ahead of the recruiting game. If you really want to tempt the top employees to join your team it’s a good idea to start reevaluating the benefits that you offer to them. 

The most important aspects, of course, are the medical insurance and 401k plans. Although it may not seem like it, there are a plethora of plans available for corporate 401k. It is important that you examine your options. Most employers match a percentage of their employee’s contributions to their 401k, so before committing to one plan, assess your options and see how much time and money you are able to invest in setting it up. 

Thinking outside of the benefit box is another way to snag the most desirable employees. Being health conscious is becoming increasingly trendy. Many organizations are adding Wellness Benefits to their offerings. This can include onsite weight and aerobic areas, compensation for gym memberships, and in-house doctors and physicians.  

Keeping your employees healthy will not only entice possible recruits, it will also help keep productivity costs low since many will not have to miss work to see a doctor if sick, or will be better equipped at fighting off infections due to their healthy immune system.

At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, it sure does seem the kids now-a-days enjoy that “Amercian Idol.” I’ve tried watching it, but it just doesn’t click with me. It makes me feel left out around the proverbial water cooler that I can’t join in on the discussion. After years of contemplating the reason, I think I’ve landed on the explanation.

It reminds me of work.

I don’t work in the music industry or anything like that — I work in recruiting. How does that relate to the world’s most popular music audition show slash singing competition?

The first few weeks of the show are the open auditions where any screeching cat or rusty guitar can try out. The judges must endure hundreds of people gleefully unaware that they have no business at such an audition. After that, the show picks a handful of talented individuals that it systematically narrows down to the chosen few.

Not every job order that lands on my desk feels like that, but I’ve had my fair share that do. You get a second sense for them – the fun jobs that everyone wants to do and think they’re qualified for but really aren’t. So you get buried under a pile of submissions that you wish some brutally honest foreigner would deal with.

But, you can’t do that. You have to endure and dig through the entire pile to look for that diamond in the rough.

Triage should be your first order of business. After doing a little Internet research on “American Idol” I found out they do the exact same thing. The first day of auditions weeds out the mass of people, numbered in the thousands, by auditioning them in front of production people. The second day doesn’t even get the hopefuls in front of the TV personality judges. Instead, they are seen by the show’s producers who purposefully send the best and the worst on to day three or four (depending on the number of people), which is the part you see on the show.

I have a few interns around the office that might be able to perform most of the initial cuts, but they’re usually occupied with other, even more sundry office tasks. I have to do it myself. I write down a few key points I’m looking for in résumés that would stand out for the job order and start scanning. This typically eliminates the majority of the stack.

Only at this point can I start to look at cover letters. Some colleagues push this off until the last step of the process; however I don’t want to lose any hidden gems that might have borderline credentials but the right life experience to do the job in question. This takes the list down to the chosen few whom I will interview on the phone.

You see, in my process, my client is whom I consider the “on-air” talent. I’m the producer on day two deciding who gets to go in front of the cameras. I have to physically speak with the person at least on the phone, if not in person, before he or she gets any face time with the big boys.

The only difference is that I don’t knowingly send dogs to the client. That makes good television, but not so good recruiting. I have to be sure that my picks can shine like a true star.