When an Employer has successfully attracted the Talent they want from the labour market, they need to move quickly as they are competing with other Companies to offer the best opportunity to these prospective candidates.
With hundreds of resumes sitting in your inbox, here are a few things to keep in mind as you are going through your interview and selection process to ensure that the best available talent will want to join your winning team in the end.
1) Talent Screening
As you start reviewing all of the resumes that you have received, begin by identifying the key criteria that would make a strong candidate for your current opening. This will help you focus on what’s important to your team and quickly identify candidates who meet those criteria. Reacting quickly will get you out of the gate faster than other companies and get you farther along in your interview process before the candidates get too far into the process with other companies.
2) Phone Interview
The initial review of resumes should have helped you narrow down the list of applicants who most closely match the requirements of your current opening, but it may still be a large list that needs to be narrowed down even more. At this point, a phone interview allows you to schedule a quick 15-minute call with many applicants and identify candidates who not only match the role from a technical standpoint, but also gives you a chance to get to know the candidate’s personality and fit to the company culture and the team.
3) Creating a Positive and Engaging Interview Experience
Now that you’ve narrowed your prospective candidates even further, you will have a manageable number of candidates who you will be inviting for an in-person interview to meet them face to face. At this stage of the process, some employers forget that as much as they are interviewing the candidates and making sure that they’re the right fit for the team, the candidates are also there to interview the company to make sure that the opportunity will be the right fit for them. Keep this in mind and make sure it is not a one-sided interview. Allow the candidates to ask questions and listen to what they have to say. Have a conversation instead of an interrogation.
4) Promote your Brand and Showcase your Products / Services
Interviews are also a great opportunity for Employers to sell themselves to prospective talent on who they are and what they can offer. This is especially important for niche markets or when you are looking for specialized skills. You need to promote the company’s brand, highlight what makes your products / services better than others, the perks of working in your organization, and why candidates would want to be part of your winning team.
5) Give a Tour of the Working Environment
When people take a new job offer, they are also taking on a lifestyle as they will be spending approximately half of their waking hours at work. It is just as important, and sometimes, even more important to some people what the work environment is like than what their actual job responsibilities will be. If you have a great office space with excellent working conditions and perks, use it to your advantage and let it help you attract talent to your team.
6) Inform About Next Steps and Follow Up
You’ve put in the time to meet with prospective talent, and if you’re lucky, now you have several promising candidates who could be a great fit for your organization and the current job opening. You want to make sure that these prospective candidates are well informed about what to expect next and when they should hear back from you. The worst thing you can do is lose an interested candidate due to a lack of communication leading them to think you are no longer interested in them, while you are deciding on who the strongest candidate is for your team.
Finding good Talent can be hard and convincing them to join your team can be even harder. By keeping these few pointers in mind during your next interview and selection process, you will ensure that your candidates get a great first impression of your organization and maximize the chances of them wanting to be part of your winning team.
Contact us today to speak with one of our Recruitment Specialists and let us help you build your team with talent this year!