Advanced Human Resources Management -Ch.1, homework.

Date: 28/02/2018

Nine Ways your Staffing Firm Can Give Top

Candidates the Royal Treatment in 2018, Monster.
Demanding times demand smarter tactics. Maximize every touch with top candidates
this year to grow your talent matchmaking.

By: John Rossheim

As your staffing firm forges into 2018 and the need for new talent accelerates, you
may be haunted by the ghosts of hiring past (like the record 6 million American jobs
that needed filling during most months of 2017). And then there are all those open
reqs that may be easy to get in 2018—but will definitely be hard to fill in the months
ahead. (The Congressional Budget Office has projected that any remaining slack in
the labor market will disappear in 2018.)
For guidance on how to close sales in the scrunchy-tight talent market of the next
12 months, Monster checked in with some top recruiters. Their advice on how to
hook top talent in 2018 boiled down to this: Give quality candidates the royal
treatment. 
Use these nine tactics throughout the coming year to tack your way to success. 

Pour it on for that first candidate contact. You won’t win if you don't even begin
giving a candidate a great experience until she’s selected as a finalist. 
“Good candidates are receiving multiple offers and counteroffers,” says Scott
Samuels, CEO of search firm Horizon Hospitality. “More and more, something
comes up and a candidate declines the offer. We have to be smarter on how we
approach the process on day 1 to avoid problems on day 30.” 
Making immediate personal contact—say, a quick phone call—with all candidates
who submit promising resumes is one way to get the recruitment experience off to
a good start.

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Set a schedule of touch points for all candidates. Create a template for keeping
in touch with candidates on a regular schedule. Make sure the content of these
brief communications is genuine and meaningful to the candidate, not “just
checking in.” 

Consider sending the candidate a map of the company’s campus, says Laura
Handrick, an HR analyst with Fit Small Business, and point out some of its unique
offerings. Another day, share information on the company’s tuition reimbursement
program, or another benefit that aligns with the candidate’s expressed interests. 

Don’t be that recruiter who goes silent. Whether justified or not, many

candidates believe that recruiters will only be in touch when their own bottom line is
at stake. “Candidates’ expectation is that we’re not going to get back to them, we’re
going to leave them hanging,” says Brady. “They’re pleasantly surprised with how
we treat them. Even if candidates don’t get the job, we make them feel respected.”
And that helps build long-term loyalty.

Always customize the candidate experience. “Candidates want a personalized

experience,” says Natasha Stough, Americas director of campus recruiting
at EY,formerly Ernst & Young. “We’re hiring close to 8,500 students in 2018, so it’s
challenging to personalize, but that’s what this generation expects. We’ve found
that we do need to work with each candidate and tap into what’s important to
them.” Asking candidates about their own professional development goals is one
way to get personal.

Show clients how to turn an interview into a compelling conversation. It’s a

mistake for a recruiter or her clients to treat an interview as an administrative

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Transaction rather than a genuine conversation, according to Gene Brady, director

in the automotive practice at executive recruiter SCN. So see if you can find a way
to demonstrate to the client how to fully engage candidates in a conversation that
addresses everyone’s goals.

Build cultural bridges for distant candidates. “If your candidate is relocating,

send them a care package,” suggests John Nykolaiszyn, director of the Florida
International University College of Business’ Career Management Services.
“Include several items that are only available locally—coffee, local honey—as well
as the local Sunday newspaper and arts paper.”
Bring along clients who hesitate. A client who drags out hiring decisions presents a
delicate situation, says Brady. “If I don’t get feedback, I will professionally be
persistent, spell out in email how long the delay has been, point out why the person
is a good candidate. If they don’t get back to me quickly, I have a phone call with
the client.”

Explain to young candidates how recruitment works. Inexperienced candidates

may not at first appreciate the fundamental relationships among recruiters, clients
and candidates. “Sometimes candidates have a misperception,” says Samuels. “I’m
seeing more candidates who expect you to find them a job.” So let them know that
client companies—or for internal recruiters, hiring managers--are recruiters’ paying
customers.

Break out of the resume-first mold. With highly qualified, hard-to-get talent, don't
reduce the recruitment process to an exercise in hoop-jumping. Consider starting
the experience with one-to-one quality time. “The principal with the MarCom
Groupsuggested that we get together for lunch,” says John Bersentes, vice

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president client strategy at the marketing firm. “He basically asked me, ‘Hey, what
is it you really want to do?’ That got me thinking.”

Be forthright about the timeline to offer. Explain the timing of all key steps in the
recruitment process, and then explain it again. EY’s career site states that “we
usually make a decision within two weeks of the second interview.”
The prospect of waiting 14 days will fail to meet the expectations of many
candidates .“We do try to move that timing up as much as possible,” says Stough.
“And we tell them, ‘If you’ve got another deadline with another company, let us
know.’

Reference

https://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/attracting-job-candidates/candidate-
engagement.aspx

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Tips On Interviewing Candidates

Tip 1

Prepare your questions before the interview. One of the worst thing you can do as an interviewer is

make the questions up as you go. Shooting from the hip belongs in Cowboy movies, not the professional

interview.

Tip 2
Ensure that your questions cover more than just skills. Many unseasoned interviewers focus their

questions exclusively on the skill set of the candidate. However, it is also important that you get a feel for

the candidate’s cultural fit. It is important to ascertain whether the candidate will fit into the existing

culture of your team. See our Library of Interview Questions to help you with the sorts of questions you

can ask.

Tip 3

Ensure a level playing field. It is very important that you ask all the candidates the same basic

questions. Asking candidates different primary questions will likely lead to some candidates being asked

easy questions whilst others get stuck with the difficult ones.

Tip 4

Ask behavioural questions. Behavioural questions are highly effective in terms eliciting the truth of a

candidate’s response. They are designed to make candidates say what they did and how they did it in very

specific ways; see our Library of Interview Questions for a large range of these type of questions. For

example, instead of asking, “Tell us about your payroll experience”, you can ask, “Please take us through a

step by step process on what you did to achieve the payroll run?”

Tip 5

Make the candidate as comfortable as possible. Many candidates find the interview process daunting.

Consequently, they tend to under perform and not provide a realistic insight as to what they’re really like.

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Taking 5 minutes at the start of the interview to make the candidate feel comfortable and relaxed can go

a long way in achieving a better outcome. Avoid interviewing candidates if you’re in a terrible mood.

Tip 6

Treat all candidates with respect. Never talk down to a candidate or treat them like second-class

citizens – that includes allowing interruptions during the course of the interview. There’s a good chance

that the best candidates won’t accept your job offer, what’s more they’ll bad-mouth your business to all

their friends.

Tip 7

Allow candidates to ask questions. Candidates will probably have a few questions of their own. Let

them ask those questions and answer them as truthfully as possible, otherwise you may have problems

down the track.

Tip 8

Avoid exaggeration. In an effort to attract the best candidates some employers exaggerate the good

things about their company or the job on offer. This is a recipe for disaster. You’re only succeeding in

raising the expectations of the candidate only to have them dashed once they’re in the job.

http://www.therecruitmentalternative.co.nz/tips-interviewing-candidates/

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