Locating and actually rolling out job offers to good quality candidates can be a tedious process.
In today’s highly competitive job market, how you plan your hiring strategy goes a long way in
quickly closing hiring requirements – without compromising quality.
Here, we share few tips on how to go about it.
Tip #1 – Create watertight ‘no nonsense’ Referral programs
Make employee referral a transparent, real-time check process. Ensure you keep track of the
number of referrals from each source, and do not encourage mindless referrals. This would
reduce the chances of spending hours chasing unsuitable profile.
Keep your sources informed of the progress, with a mechanism for feedback on their referrals –
this would help them in putting forth only those names which best suit your requirements.
Tip #2 – Remove uncalled-for Hurdles
Identify which steps in the hiring chain consume maximum time – and accordingly plan tweaks
to the process. For instance, if you see that you’re losing candidates simply because of delayed
evaluation or response from operations’ managers – take steps to close such process
inefficiencies.
Tip #3 – Create ‘Talent Community’ Groups
Simply because a candidate gets rejected doesn’t mean ‘goodbye’! After all, you must have
shortlisted them because you felt they deserved a chance, right?
It’s a wise move to keep a database of all such candidates for future; and also to keep in touch
with them via dedicated ‘community’ groups. The more such community groups you create and
manage, higher your chances of closing future positions easily.
Tip #4 – Post in the Right Places
There are different job portals for certain highly specific hiring requirements. Depending on one
or two old-standing portals for all your hiring requirements just won’t do. For instance, there are
specific portals for blue collar workers / contractual workers, and so on.
Tip #5 – Leverage the power & efficiency of Tech
Gone are the days when it was a must for candidates to come for ‘F2F’ interviews. This is the
age of quickly finalizing (or not finalizing) open positions via Skype / Zoom video calls. Not
only you speed up the process, but also save on infra and time costs involved by calling everyone
for physical interviews.
Tip #6 – Be practical, and flexible with Job Descriptions
Unless absolutely necessary, do not be a fan of too rigid job descriptions. You’re only curtailing
your candidate pool herein. So, what’s the big deal with ‘Must be regular MBA’ / ‘At least 10
years of relevant experience’ and so on?
Be practical – look at the bigger picture. If you feel you can give some flexibility, be it in terms
of academics, total experience, shift timings etc. – do it!
Focus on ‘responsibilities’ and ‘skill sets’ rather than degrees or high-sounding qualifications.
Tip #7 – Invest in promoting your Employer Brand
Don’t take this tip lightly. Even mid-sized firms have benefitted hugely by having in place a
dedicated employer branding strategy – and team.
These days even a few negative reviews from ex or current employees on social media could
chase away promising candidates.
So, spend time on actually making your company a socially ‘good place to work’. Video
blogging, employee communities and public events are a few ways you can promote your brand
and make a favorable impression on prospective employees.
