Stop losing good candidates, seriously.

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Hiring Managers:

What’s your first reaction when you miss out on the awesome candidate you really felt good about because your interview process took too long in comparison to another company who got to the point of an offer faster?

  • COMPLACENCY: “I get it. That’s just what the market is like right now and there’s not much I can do about it. He / She was a desirable candidate and I’m not surprised they didn’t last long on the market. I wish them the best of luck. Let’s keep looking.”

OR

  • FRUSTRATION: “I’m so ticked off! We’re missing out on the good ones. They keep getting other offers before we  come to a decision. Now we’re back to square one.”

What type of hiring manager to you want to be? (I know what type we want you to be – And the type that candidates want you to be;  Someone who at least tries to do something differently to change the outcome).

Think outside of the box on how you can speed up your interview process – Or choose to do nothing different and hope for better results.  The problem with the latter is, here at Specialized our vision is “Success for Everyone” and in our experience, doing nothing different and hoping for better results leads to success for no-one.

Not sure what you can do differently? Let’s be partners and have a chat about it. You just might be surprised at some of the creative ideas and options we can drum up together. Need some help getting your wheels turning? We have several creative suggestions to share, and we bet the ball starts rolling from there.

– Joey Lerch, Sr. Recruiter

Is Your Business an Employer of Choice?

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Candidates by and large want to work for certain organizations.  What do these organizations have in common that attracts great people and keeps them?  Listen as Lisa and Tracey discuss how to become an ‘Employer of Choice’ on WISR 680 ‘Let’s Talk’.

Overqualified Candidates – to hire or not to hire?

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So often the resume of a candidate who’s experience/qualifications exceed an employers requirements can be quickly dismissed as ‘overqualified’.  This is unfortunate.  Sure, some of the first things that come to the mind of someone screening resumes are things like “they’ll be bored and they’ll leave” or “they’ll be over our compensation range.”  These are assumptions and can be countered, especially by a department-specific hiring manager.  Think about it.  Many people have left the active workforce (by choice or not) and are ready to re-engage.  And many of these people aren’t interested in the same level of responsibility.  Work-life balance and sense of purpose are increasingly outweighing compensation and status.  There are a lot of candidates out there who are looking to contribute without the same stress level.  Many of these candidates bring more to the table than may be required – and they know it.  They’re well equipped with skills and experience and may just help organizations achieve goals more quickly.  They just may be instrumental in mentoring less experienced employees and bringing proven successful ideas to the table.  Take a second look at those ‘overqualified’ resumes.  Have a few conversations with those candidates.  You may be very ‘pleasantly’ surprised!

Hidden Treasures in “Resume Land”

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When a resume with a ‘choppy’ looking work history lands on your desk what’s your first thought?  “Job-hopper”  “Red flag” right?  Consider this – many people have had very successful careers consisting of multiple project-based assignments.  These are most often misinterpreted and if you’re doing this you may be missing out on some great talent!  Successfully completing temporary projects demonstrates loyalty, flexibility, confidence, willingness and many more characteristics that are desirable in an employee, not to mention the technical skills gained and enhanced by their experiences.  Think about this – would you rather hire someone who chose not to work for 18 months or someone that continued working, learning and helping employers in a time of need and a period when there were few opportunities by taking project assignments?  The next time you see a resume with more than a few jobs in the past few years – don’t be so quick to discount it.  Look a little harder and deeper.  Have a conversation.  You may be very pleasantly surprised!!!

 

With All Due Respect!

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With all due respect…

We respect and value our customers.  And we understand that business needs can change quickly, and with all due respect, we have a business too.  Look, we get a call. “It’s high priority! Find us “this” – ASAP!” We take our direction and prioritize the search (over other valued customers) based on the sense of urgency. We grind it out and invest our time and resources to find candidates who meet the requirements, are in the salary range, and interested in the specific opportunity.  We identify them, we screen them, we thoroughly interview them and have discussions with their professional references (which we might add not ALL recruiters do) all before our customers ever see them.   Then it happens –  a change in direction and often multiple times. We start over. Again. Then again. And maybe even again. We produce results for each new change and we do it with a sense of urgency and a smile on our face. Because that’s our job and we do it well. So with all due respect, please respect us in return. We aren’t a non-profit organization.  We work on commission.   That “free” time we invested in that urgent search(es) resulted in a waste of your time, our time, the time of our candidates, and often damaged our reputation with the candidates. Our vision is ‘Success for Everyone’ and with each project our mission is to create win for you, our candidates, and for us.  Unfortunately, no one wins in this situation.  We get it – businesses have changing needs, but with all due respect, help us help you better by doing these things:

  • Get all hiring decision makers on the same page prior to giving us the specs
    • This will avoid having to make changes after reviewing resumes/interviewing candidates
  • Notify us immediately as things change
    • Business needs change, people change their minds, internal candidates surface unexpectedly we get it! Tell us and we’ll adjust our priorities to better meet your current needs.
  • Give us timely and candid feedback
    • So we can keep moving in the right direction for you

Respectfully, we thank you!

Stop posting boring job descriptions!

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Looking for awesome employees? Step up your game! They days of the “people are just happy to have a job are long gone (even before COVID). What is so great about working for your company? You know it – so make sure your recruiting efforts are highlighting it! Let’s face it, nothing can put us to sleep faster than a job posting that consists of a list of duties and requirements: B O R I N G!!!  Add some SIZZLE to your recruitment advertising.