Melodie Regan, CEO, i2i Workforce
How often have you found yourself with candidates Not applying? Not showing up for interviews? Hires Not showing up for work? And you yourself saying, “Not Again.”
Let’s talk about some common recruiting mistakes and ways to improve your recruiting results to get more candidates and more hires.
Here’s a Round 1 list. We’ll be sharing a Round 2 list next week.
5 Common Recruiting Mistakes and Ways to Get More Candidates
Not having a well-defined job description All good searches and hires start with a clearly defined job description (JD). The JD matches the actual job, clearly states the hard and soft skills, and experience needed to be effective in the job. It shares meaningful information about the company and company culture. At a minimum your job description should have a clear title, position overview, job duties, and list of qualifications.
Not promoting the organization and why you are a great place to work Think like you are operating in today’s housing market, low supply, high demand. Whether you are or not wooing candidates is how you get more and better candidates. Tell them why you are a great place to work and why they should join your team. You can do this with your company description, your job summary, with current employee testimonials, with customer testimonials, and this information can be provided in written form and video, included in your job posting and job ads.
Not understanding the market It’s important to understand the market you are recruiting in. What’s the labor pool – size, location, needs, etc.? What’s the going compensation? Who are your competitors that are targeting the same labor pool you are and what are they offering? Where can you find your labor pool and connect with them? It’s a little like taking a trip. You can’t get to a location unless you know where you are going and how you are going to get there.
Not having a wide reach for sourcing candidates Too often organizations use only a couple of channels for connecting with their target labor pool, e.g., job posting on Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn. Did you know there are hundreds of job boards? And so many ways to connect with candidates. Let’s get creative. Consider:
Schools
Associations
Meetups
Networking events
Job fairs
Employee referral programs
Asking your customers
Asking your vendors
Adding a job link to your email signature
Posting jobs to your website, including banners
Posting and promoting jobs through your social media
Create a contest for referrals
Drop a postcard
Do door hangers
Promote hiring on the back of your business card
Run a radio ad
Add that you are hiring to all your ads
Use a recruiter
Use temporary agencies
Ask your neighbors
Share at church
Post at businesses nearby Wherever there are people, there is an opportunity to share your job. Be creative! You just want to be sure you are connecting with your target labor pool.
Not seeking passive candidates With the internet and automation, it’s easy to get into a mode of letting candidates come to you. And when your sourcing funnel is not sufficiently targeted, you can end up with a lot of no-fit candidates that you have to cull through—time consumptive indeed. That said, there are many great candidates that are currently employed that you don’t want to miss. Consider where they might be working or groups they may be in, and go after them. Call them, email them, send them a letter or postcard. It feels good to be courted.
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi
There are only so many hours in the day and no doubt your plate is already full. It takes work to achieve a top-performing recruitment process. To get the “kNot” out of your recruitment process, you’ll need to remove a few of the “Nots”. Pick one, and then when you can, pick another one. Wishing you more great hires!
Learn more about Storyvine's New Home Healthcare NOW Kit, which helps health care agencies attract talent and grow their organizations.
Return next week for Round 2 of common recruiting mistakes and how to improve your recruiting process to achieve better results.