Industry Insights

How many interviews are too many? Who else needs to be involved in the decision?  How long do I keep a candidate waiting? In a world where your candidate is also a fully engaged social media commentator & quite often a customer too, here’s some practical yet essential steps to follow to avoid abusing candidates and getting the negative reviews that some employers thoroughly deserve.

We are all increasingly aware that counteroffers are rife. And with a major talent shortage, they will happen even more often. Most recruiters have a few ideas on how to handle this, but they do too little, far too late. Welcome to the sophisticated recruiting 2021 and beyond.

Every interaction with a candidate reveals their commitment and most importantly their attitude. Once you have your preferred candidate, you will know in the first 3 months if they are the right candidate because what they do in the first 3 months is what they will do for the next 30 years.

The purpose of shortlisting is to assess candidate’s suitability and identify those who best meet the selection criteria and who are most likely to be capable of carrying out the duties of the job.

Last month, we covered off how to write a compelling job ad, now it's time to start thinking about where to place it. Where you specifically place the ad will depend on who your ideal candidate is, so keep it in mind that you may need to use a variety of sources. We suggest you focus your effort on the advertising mediums that will give you most bang for your buck.

Checking references can be time-consuming but it is a vital part of the hiring process. It verifies the information provided by the candidate on their CV, during the interview, and as part of the testing and assessment process. It also allows for any red flags & concerns to be debunked or confirmed.

Writing a job ad or posting is just like writing any advertisement. If you take the analogy that the job is your product and the job seekers are your customers, you need to make a compelling case for why they should take time to apply for the vacancy.

Choosing between qualifications versus work experience is often one of the most challenging decisions during the recruitment process, so it needs to be a decision made carefully. It’s best to consider both sides.

Even though hiring managers do a great job preparing for the interview, putting a lot of thought and effort into interview questions and comparing candidates, at the end of the interview, they fail to ask THE question that could close the deal and secure the top candidate. So what's the question?

Hiring is hard. General Managers know it. Partners know it. HR knows it. School principals know it. Hiring is hard because both sides are in the dark. But hiring is not hopeless. Like any consequential business decision, it has been exhaustively studied. This is the science behind hiring

At some point in the selection decision, the over-used phrase ‘team fit’ almost always comes up.  For some, ‘team fit’ simply means hiring someone else just like all the others; or just like me. At first glance, it seems a sensible enough decision, but what business opportunities are you missing out on if you keep hiring like minded people? Here’s a 2 minute read from two senior recruiters on the risks of hiring like minded people and 3 ways you can avoid it.

Put simply, many talented people just don’t see their strengths as attributes that enable them to do things that most others struggle with. As a result, whilst every employer and manager wants to believe they allow staff to ‘play to their strengths’, if staff don’t know what those strengths are, it’s not likely to happen. Here’s a 2-minute read with practical steps for identifying strengths and latent talent among your team.