Things have changed…no kidding! Many jobs have become hybrid, and job responsibilities may have been added or changed. Teams may work collaboratively and never get together in an office. Customer interactions may occur via zoom. The changes and practices we were “forced” to make last year are the new reality in 2021 and going forward.
Microsoft recently created a report titled “The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work, are we ready?” The company aggregated responses from 31,000 people in 31 countries. At 73%, workers preferred flexible remote work options and 46% said they were planning to move away from their current location because of the remote work option. Your company may have some, all, or no flexibility in the location or manner work is completed depending on the industry and job. When the workplace and jobs change, your processes and culture need to shift in response. Are you ready?
Review and Update Job Descriptions
Does the job description reflect the “new reality” for the role and your business?
The job description is a starting point for recruitment advertising, job postings, behavioral interview questions, onboarding, goal setting, and training. Engaging candidates starts during their first interaction with your company. This typically occurs when they are reading a job posting. The candidate reads the post and thinks, “What will I be doing? Do I want to do it?” The candidate may press the button and apply to your online job posting or pass and move on.
When the candidate interviews, they are looking for consistency to determine if your presentation aligns with the posted job and their current/ future career goals. Look at the description and process from the candidate’s point of view to identify gaps or necessary changes. When the job duties are not “up to date” or reflected in your posting or interview, the candidate may wonder “what else is not defined in the organization?” They may assume the training, operations, career path, etc. are not as clear. The candidate then compares your company with every organization they have worked for, or interviewed with. How do you stack up?
I know you are thinking “I do not have time for this!” Make the time or get assistance to accomplish this task. Clarifying roles indicates to the candidate that the company has their “act together.” A clear and consistent process provides a sense of security for the candidate and is indicative of a productive and goal-oriented culture.
You Snooze, You Lose!
I live in a “hot” housing market! It is not unusual for a home to go on the market and the same day, five buyers preview and three make offers. The house with curb appeal goes quickly! The house that is clean and organized gives a sense of calm. The house with a great description, photos, and a welcome feeling results in offers.
The same scenario is true in today’s recruiting market. There may be a lot of candidates on the market, but the good ones are receiving multiple offers and are making quick decisions to “buy.”
– Is your interview process thorough and efficient?
– Do your postings have “curb appeal?”
– Do you need to energize your process to be more engaging?
– Do you need to make recruiting and interviewing a priority and review applications every day to respond more quickly?
– Is the process laborious, would you work for you?
I recently spoke with a company that took three weeks to move a mid-level candidate from the job posting to the offer. When compared to other companies in their industry, on average it took twice as long to make a decision and work through the administrative process. This was an unintended indicator of culture and impacted the engagement of the candidate through the process. If the interview took this long, will day-to-day decisions be laborious?
How you do anything is an indicator of how you do everything.
Do not lower your standards. If it is not a yes, it is a no!
Business is picking up quickly and you may need to hire employees NOW! You interview one, two, three candidates and they are not “exactly” the skill set that you need, but someone is better than no one. Right? Wrong!
This is like going to the grocery store when you are hungry, everything looks good, and you end up with a cart full of “easy to eat” chips. Once inside your car, you rip open the bag and eat handfuls to stifle the hunger. Something is better than nothing. The next day you feel awful and regret your snack food consumption. You had committed to eating healthy, had a weak moment, and lowered your standards.
If this sounds familiar, the same behavior may occur during an interview. You interview a candidate who is very nice but does not have the experience that you desire. Perhaps they do not have experience with a specific technology system, process, or job duty. You may think, they can learn it over time! We can teach them! It will be OK! The candidate is not a yes, the candidate is not a no, the candidate is a maybe. This is an indicator of lowering your standards, a maybe is a no! You may not have the training available, the team to mentor, or the time to get the candidate “up to speed.” These considerations depend on your company and situation.
Before the interview, review the skill sets and results expected for each role, these should be reflected in the job description. Know your standards and use the interview to assess capabilities related to them.
If you need a dental assistant, do not compromise when a candidate cannot accurately take x-rays. If you need a restaurant manager who can “pitch hit” in the kitchen, do not compromise when a candidate does not know how to do a line check. If you need an inventory person in the floral warehouse, do not compromise when a candidate cannot recognize a chrysanthemum. Thoroughly assess the skills and abilities that the candidate communicates in the interview and brings to the role. Even if the candidate did a similar job in a similar type of company, do not make assumptions. You do not know the policies, systems, or expectations of the other organization, and they may not be aligned with the methods and goals in your company. We have all made quick decisions hoping someone would get it and improve. This often results in time spent micromanaging and directing, while other employees pick up the slack and burnout!
When you have a current job description, efficient process, and know your standards, you are ready to recruit!
“People are not your most important asset. The right people are.” – Jim Collins
After reading the above post, my immediate response is, “Spot on!”
During the fourth quarter of 2020 I saw a significant up tick in requests via LinkedIn “for a quick chat”; of late the requests have become a torrent, to the point of ignoring a dozen or more requests per week. This year I’ve only allowed three recruiters get me on the phone; the most recent was three weeks ago. Why did I respond? The job description was A) reasonably well written and concise, and B) it almost sounded like they’d looked through my 40+ years of work history and wrote it specifically for me.
Long story short, she and I chatted a few times, but due to scheduling conflicts, both mine and theirs, I didn’t talk with any of the decision makers until last Friday. That interview went so well she was instructed to hire me on the spot. Unfortunately my “ask” was about 10% more than they had budget for the position, so I held my ground; in response the recruiter scheduled a second interview for me this Monday. That interview went as well as the first and I had a written offer the table two hours later, a little more negotiation and another hour after that the final offer was presented. Suddenly I had a new job; it happened so fast my head was spinning.
After signing the offer sheet and returning it electronically, I changed my LinkedIn profile to indicate I was no longer looking for work; would you believe that opened the flood gates, I have since been contacted by another half-dozen recruiters, and once informed I just accepted a new position, they all asked, almost word for word, “Can you refer anybody?”
In closing, the points made in the post are spot on; the only addition I might suggest is for prospective employers to be flexible when the candidate is a solid “Yes!”