Image by Pintera Studio from Pixabay
With the low unemployment rate but with eleven-million unfilled jobs in America, this is a tight market for attracting talented employees.
So, if you need to fill a position, the last thing you want is to be turned down by an applicant who appears to be a perfect fit for your culture.
You’re thinking, “How do I get the person to accept my offer?”
Think back to when you were job hunting. What did you do in interviewing for jobs?
You probably prepared by learning all you could about the prospective employer, you were prompt for your interviews, had impeccable manners, showed strong interest in the job, asked insightful questions and had good body language, etc., etc.
Well, guess what? Many of these strategies will work for you as the boss in trying to land a great job candidate.
Here are the keys to landing your desired applicant:
1. The marketing process for your business image is important. But your first thought is to make sure your brand is strong internally.
Is your company structured in order to be attractive to the best talent? It’s not an easy or quick process to make certain your company is where the best applicants will want to work.
But you have to try. (See: the 9 Image-Building Steps that Will Attract the Best Workers.)
2. Work on the messaging in your job announcement.
Whether your business has grown so that you need to hire a key professional or you’re preparing to replace a person, position your company properly in your advertising-recruitment messaging.
Differentiate your company. (See: Are You Hiring? Advertising Tips to Attract the Best Talent.
3. Plan in advance what to ask. Think carefully before speaking to avoid any legal issues.
Certainly, you know the typical landmines to avoid. But some seemingly innocent questions can lead to problems.
For instance, you might think it’s OK to ask, “How do you spend your weekends?” But to some applicants, the question is a form of selection bias. They might think, “They don’t like my weekend hobbies?”
4. Structure your questions to be open-ended so that the answers are open-ended. You want the applicant to adequately share information.
You also want the person to feel validated because you’re listening intently.
Anticipate asking the right follow-up questions.
All the while, keep checking to make sure the applicant is a right culture fit.
5. Be careful on what you comment or in how you answer questions. Sure, be truthful but don’t say more than you have to say, and make sure you’re factual.
Further, avoid making a cultural language faux pas, such as in gender, so you don’t deliver the wrong message.
If you say something like, “We like to work hard and play hard,” the applicant might feel uncomfortable. Some people might have personal or family obligations.
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s picks:
Management Strategies for Productive Applicant Interviews – You must be assertive – ask the right questions and listen intently to cut through the morass of canned answers to get the answers you need to make good hiring decisions.
Hiring for a Small Operation? Conduct Behavioral Interviews – Whether you run a small operation in a big company or you own a small business, you’re wearing many hats. So you need employees who can successfully wear multiple hats, too.
How to Rock Your Human Resources with Employee Referrals — Admittedly, there’s a myriad of ways to recruit great employees. But no recruitment option surpasses a well-executed, strategic employee-referral program.
Hiring Applicants: 5 Deadly Sins of Even Savvy Managers – In this competitive and litigious marketplace, small details in human resources can make or break a company. Even though an organization’s performance matters, many managers unfortunately take shortcuts in the hiring process.
“Recruiting talent is no different than any other challenge a startup faces. It’s all about selling.”
-Vivek Wadhwa
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