How to Simplify your Hiring Priorities

Everybody’s too busy – far too busy – to wade through the volumes of applicants to find nuggets of talent. Hiring managers are doing their “real” jobs. Recruiters juggle between posting jobs, screening resumes, managing interviews, and other elements of a complicated hiring processes. Automation tools, designed to make things easier, often make things more complicated. Smart recruiters can focus on three elements to make things easier for everyone, applicants included.

Ask yourself: What do you need in a candidate?  How is candidate attracted to this opportunity? & Why would people want to work for my company?

To simplify your hiring, focus on:

1. The 3 critical factors that you need in a candidate.

2. The 3 reasons someone would want to be hired.

3. The 3 reasons people want to work at your company.

1. Focus on the candidate’s 3 (or as many as 5) critical factors.

This is essential. By focusing on the things you need in the person you will hire, you create clear messages that make it easy for qualified candidates to screen themselves in. You make it easy for employees, customers, and other stakeholders to refer people they know. You make it easy for applicants to highlight their qualifications and easy for hiring managers to interview them. You also make it easy for wannabes who are not qualified to see that applying for the position is a long shot at best. Clear messaging sets up a self-screening situation. Everybody wins.

2. Focus on 3 (or as many as 5) reasons why someone would want this job.

Many job messages focus on what the employer wants, but, you must bait the hook with something tasty if you want big fish to bite. The motivation needs to be job specific, not a broad based “my company is a great place to work” branding message. If you have a big mess for someone to clean up, you want to attract someone who loves cleaning up messes, who loves a huge challenge. Be creative with your words; sell the sizzle; but don’t be afraid to let people know the big things about the job.

3. Tell them the 3 (or as many as 5) best things about your company.

This is critical to your employer brand. Often company messages are muddied by an “inspired” HR leader who comes up with something that isn’t nearly as compelling to potential employees. This is a great opportunity to partner with your internal marketing geniuses. They can help.

Some companies don’t need anything more than their logo. Apple is one such company. That’s because everything they do communicates that it is a great place to work. The only way to have an employer brand like that is to BE a great place to work!  If that is your challenge, then it’s time to sit at the table with your company leaders and have a strategic conversation.

Focus on these three areas when making any decisions involving talent acquisition and see dramatic improvements in the quality of your applicants. Be a smart recruiter.

Pat Sharp, The Talent Architect blends strategy, technology tools, and assessment tools with marketing magic to create unique talent solutions. Past and current clients include: Motorola, Deloitte, TiVo, and Cloudscaling.