Hire more effectively! 6 Simple Recruiting Tips to Know
Written by TY Chin.
Copyright © 2017 Wisenet Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Recruitment is an ongoing HR agenda as top talents are always in demand to drive bottom line profits. If done wrongly, recruitment could cause the company to lose money. The function of hiring is becoming more sophisticated with continuous refinement and technology enablement. There are fast rules for getting the best value such as buying top position advertisement space, featured advertising, choosing certain times and days of the week, etc. However, while there are standard measures to improve the recruitment function, there are also the core fundamentals that will ensure better returns over the long run. Here are 6 tips for employers to consider as part of their hiring best practice:
- Employer branding
Candidates choose ‘The Brand’ when all things are equal. Just like when a consumer has doubt in choosing a product, they will choose the brand they have heard of and know what the brand represents. This is known as a safe choice. “Employer branding” refers to how companies position themselves as a positive brand to work with. It starts from within with a system of welfare encompassing individual growth opportunities, clear value path and on the job benefits. Building good employee reputation starts from inside out.
Many companies have made a lot of effort in refining employment benefits to keep good employees and attract talents; these efforts should be made known to candidates. Especially for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who often find it hard to attract talents compared to multinationals, candidates do not know who they are and what they represent. There are pros and cons working for SMEs and multinationals, SMEs should communicate their employer brand story more in various touch points such as Facebook, Instagram, a little goes a long way. Eventually, when they do hire, at least candidates can see a historical pattern of priority on employee well-being.
- Simple and Specific Job Advertisements
Job advertisements should be straight to the point, simple and very specific. Even though there are circumstances where the requirements need to be very detailed going up to ten pages, despite the high level of detail, good candidates are likely to be put off.
A job advertisement with a just few lines about the job and basic requirements will make it easier for candidates to find the job they desired. If in doubt, always check out the professional head hunters’ recruitment advertisements, they are always specific with only the key elements.
- The Right Character
Skills can be trained, but it is hard to change an individual’s personality and character. An individual’s character can largely dictate the extent of their contribution in a team environment, affecting productivity. Character, not academic results, should be evaluated thoroughly when choosing candidates to hire, if the work experiences are almost similar.
Some companies have realised this and placed character traits as part of their job requirements. To ensure that people with the right character traits are hired, recruiters can run personality test during interviews, screen the candidates’ social media profiles and also ask for referrals.
- Engage Professional Recruiters for Senior-Level, Complex Jobs
Senior-level and complex job roles require thorough and structural process management from short listing to on-boarding. Professional recruiters have a methodical way of hiring and are unbiased as the objective party between organisations and candidates. They are able to line up qualified and the right fit of candidates through their reputation and database of contacts.
Once the candidate is on the job, the external recruiter can still act as a mediator should differences arise between employer and the candidate. Sourcing out C-level roles may require a high level of confidentiality, which can be easily managed by a third party professional recruiter through non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements.
- Social Media Recruitment
Social media is a free platform for companies to reach out to a wider pool of candidates. The available social recruitment tools include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wechat and Weibo. Live streaming in Facebook, Periscope and some live video apps enable candidates to see what it’s like working in the company, so that they can better decide whether the workplace is right for them. A live Q&A session answers candidates’ queries on the spot about the job. Anyone can post questions on the employer’s Facebook or LinkedIn pages and get answers available to be seen by the public.
The best approach for recruitment advertising is a combination of traditional media, professional job portals and social media because active job seekers often look into the main job seeking mediums before searching anywhere else. Passive job seekers respond more to social media and may cost the same or more to recruit compared to active job seekers because they are not motivated job changers. Nevertheless, social media still has the best advantage in speed of communication.
- Versatile Staff with Diverse Perspectives
The last tip is also the one which we concluded bring in the most value to any company: Someone versatile with diverse perspectives and skill sets bring new ideas to the company. Being versatile, they are able to multi-task and strive to deliver what is needed for other tasks. They could make up for whatever is lacking in the team by becoming an all rounder.
Fast measures in recruitment such as top spot job advertisements and technology enablement help but adoption of the hiring fundamentals guarantees safe returns on investments.