We live in a talent shortage era. If you are a recruiter, I am sure you know what I talking about. It gets harder and harder to attract and recruit talent. Even when offering a good and interesting product to work on, a challenging position, and a top market salary, people tend to not be interested in it. Either they are happily employed and not looking for a change, or they are just not interested in a full-time, permanent job, as they prefer to freelance and not commit fully to anyone. However, the need for qualified candidates keeps growing everywhere.
Recruiters have a big challenge ahead! Oh yeah!
What can we do in order to increase our chances of hiring? And also, how can we (on top of this) raise the bar? 🤔
Fortunately, there are a lot of initiatives you can take that will help you increase your chances to attract & hire top talent. I am going to share the ones I consider to be the most powerful ones.
- Active headhunting: always try to bring in passive candidates into the pipeline. Those people who are not looking for a job, those people who are happy and well rewarded in their current jobs. Make sure you use a diverse set of platforms to increase your chances: Linkedin, GitHub, Stackoverflow, and others.
- Creative, personalized & straight to the point outreach messages: when approaching people for the job, try to send a message which can create a positive emotional reaction in the person reading it (surprise, smile, laugh, etc.). Remember to be clear with the role offered, the level, duties, salary, etc. Reply straight to the point. Usually, a sequence of 3 stages works best for me when approaching via email.
- Chase: do not be afraid of chasing. I know sometimes it feels too much, but people are not looking for jobs, we need to insist in a respectful way.
- Tone of voice & flexibility: use a tone of voice that aligns with the brand & culture, and at the same time be flexible with potential candidates; if the candidate needs to cancel, or does not show up with a good excuse just reschedule (things happen!).
- Always ask for a referral: when someone tells you that they are not interested in the job, use that last thanking message to ask for a referral. Who knows if they have a friend who is unhappy at work, or looking for something new 😉.
- Selling interviews: it is super important that the team knows people are not applying, you are chasing people to speak to you, they are not planning to change jobs, but they wanted to get to know you and the team. This is super important so the team, aside from evaluating the candidates’ skills, sells themselves, the business, and the product.
- Excitement: always try to sound motivating & inspiring. Talent partners are the ambassadors of the brand, the first interaction will always be with them, so it is of the utmost importance to give the right impression.
- Feedback: always give proper feedback to the candidates when moving forward. Tell them how the previous step went, the positives, and the areas of improvement, so they can prepare for the next step and perform better. This helps to keep the engagement of the candidate up, everyone likes feeling looked after. Keep the conversation up!
- Benefits: be ready for upgrading your packages; salaries, and other benefits. Think that everyone is fighting for the same people, your offer must seem profitable for the candidates. Providing shares is a very good practice as it is what motivates the best to join, work hard, and stay within a business.
- Focus on intrinsic motivators: when the packages you offer are already good, I suggest focusing on intrinsic motivators. Make sure you appeal to intrinsic motivators such as purpose, autonomy, and mastery.
- Honesty: always tell the truth (in a nice way of course). If the role has been put on hold, say it to the active candidates in the pipeline, if you have chosen someone else, tell them. If they want more specific feedback give it to them. Make sure you leave a good impression on everyone who interacts with the brand.
- Stay connected: make sure you connect with every person you interact with (usually on Linkedin, or any other platform you use). Even if rejected or are not interested in the job, building relationships will grow your network and will help you in future endeavors.
These are the initiatives I am using at the moment and somehow they work!
Let me know how it goes for you and happy to hear about other initiatives that work for my peers! 🙂
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