If you are hiring – either due to growth or for leave replacement – be conscious of the current candidate and job market environment. The market has recently changed in the favor of job seekers, and to be competitive, to make quality hires, and to appear desirable as an employer, there are a few new (and not so new) things to consider.
Here are 3 Helpful Hints When Hiring, and remember, ignorance is not an excuse 😉
1. Is a college degree necessary for the position?
Is a college degree really necessary? If you’re hiring for an accountant, attorney, engineer, etc., a degree in that specialty is required. However, if it’s a customer service, account management, sales, or any role with primarily on-the-job training, forego the degree requirement. You are unnecessarily excluding an entire population of highly qualified potential candidates who bring strong skills and experience, but decline to apply due to a lack of degree.
Additionally, if you require a degree, be prepared to pay more for the cost of a candidate with a degree (ie, student loan debt) who may otherwise feel undercompensated at some point and leave.
A recent survey of applicants found that 92% do not complete the application process due to length of time to complete/too many steps, and duplication of information (ie, upload resume, then manually recreate resume information online). This is a major turnoff, again eliminating potentially qualified candidates from applying.
3. Keep your hiring timeframe reasonable
From the interview to the offer, keep the time in between to an absolute minimum. This is a job seekers market, and most likely the candidates you interview have more than your offer to consider. Taking too much time to interview, decide and/or communicate with the candidate will cause ghosting and declines to your offers as they would have accepted an earlier offer elsewhere. Communicate with candidates upfront about what your interviewing and decision-making timeframe looks like, and communicate with the candidates throughout the entire process to keep them informed and engaged.
If you are hiring, and want to do it right, do it quickly, and do with with minimal negative impact on your organization and the candidate(s) you ultimately decide to bring onboard, follow these 3 Helpful Hints...and happy hiring!