Think about a broadway musical. Imagine you’re the director. Think about all the things you have to do to perfect your show. You need the loveliest singers, the greatest designers, and the most exotic performers to form the best team for your perfect show.
Now imagine you’re an internal recruiter for your company. We know, that was quite a jump but we promise, we have a point to this analogy. We know that different stages of the recruiting process require specific action plans to improve the efficiency and impact of hiring. And, so we have created a practical and easy-to-implement list that you can add to your hiring checklist.
We call our hiring checklist: The Show.
First things first, you need to find the right talent. Here’s how you can do this:
- Improve your job descriptions, and don’t forget to be inclusive! Be aware of your word choice and unconscious biases. Check out this website for tips on how to write inclusive job descriptions: https://www.hirefortalent.ca/images/pdf/tools/4.2_How-to-Write-Inclusive-Job-Descriptions_EN.pdf. Remember, your job descriptions also need to communicate the exciting parts of the opportunity so that people are drawn to the job. Sometimes money isn’t enough, and so there are other incentives you can provide. Check our previous blog posts for ideas on this!
- Ask for referrals from your current employees. This is really important because it has been proven that referrals yield the highest quality of employees. Ask your employees to tap into their existing professional networks so you can get quality candidates.
- Always touch base with your previous top candidates – the ones who almost got the job last time. Reach back out to them and ask if they are available.
- Social media is a great way to recruit top talent. People are constantly looking at job postings on various platforms so give it a shot. Plus, social recruitment is cheap and efficient!
- Recruitment videos could be great as well! Your employees can record short testimonials, talking about why they love the company and why they chose to work at the company. This is a fun and engaging way to attract talent. Plus, anyone can share this around!
Now that you’ve held auditions, it’s time for the screaming (we meant screening) process. To all the recruiters out there, we can feel your hatred for this part but don’t worry. We have come up with efficient ways to get you through without screaming.
- Case studies and real-work problems. Ask the candidates to solve a real work problem that you already solved or are currently facing in the company. This makes them think, allows you to be able to answer any questions they have about the problem, provides them with an understanding of potential problems that come up in the company, and because it’s not a theoretical situation, you will know whether or not they have the skills to solve it.
- Screen them via Skype or phone calls. It saves time for both the candidates and yourself. If they are a fit, you’ll know.
- Stories. Ask them to tell you stories about a time when they did X or Y and how they solved for X and Y. Like in Amazon interviews, try to make them use the STAR Method to answer questions. It’s clear, easy to follow, and showcases their ability to get to the point. Being concise is key and you want to test their communication skills.
- Have candidates interview with three or more people in the team. Preferably, two people they will be working directly with and one who’s a third party. This helps with getting a well-rounded understanding of the candidate and allows them to showcase who they are to multiple people in the company. Plus, this tests their work ethic and stamina as well!
Now that you’ve found the one or the ones, it’s time to get them on-broad (we meant on-board).
- Ask the candidates what factors would make them accept a new job. Ask about the deal-breaking factors that would make them drop the offer. This will save you time prior to actually making the offer because you’ll know what to offer them if you want them or if you cannot find a compromise between their wants and the company’s, you’ll know if you need to look elsewhere.
- Reference checks should already be done if you’re at this part of the process. You should be ready to welcome the new employee to the company in 2-4 weeks.
- The buddy system. Assign the new employee a mentor to show them the ropes. Either a colleague or supervisor will do but hopefully, it’s someone in the same department! It makes transitioning so much easier for the new employee and they’re bound to make fewer mistakes if they are shown how to do things beforehand.
- Happy hours! During their first week, ease the transition process by inviting them out to a happy hour on a weekday. It’s a great feeling when you get along with your colleagues outside work and it gives everyone a chance to get together and know more about the new members of the team. Great team-bonding experience!
We hope you enjoyed The Show and that our list was helpful! We know that they are other ways to streamline the recruiting process and our way is pretty high-touch, but we’ve found that these steps have made it easier for our new employees to transition onto our team.
If you’re a small company like us and are able to provide a more personal recruitment process, we suggest it but as you scale and get bigger, we understand that it can get more difficult.
If you have other recruitment tips to add to this checklist, please share them with us! We’d love to hear your opinions.
