Organizational Planning – Avoid letting one get away!

Posted on May 28, 2011 by ADVISA WEB TEAM

We had the unfortunate situation come up this week in which a client really liked a candidate for a position but because of a delay in the timing of communicating this to the candidate, the candidate accepted another opportunity. Ugh! A good one got away!

This reminds me of a time last summer when my then 9-year-old son was fishing in a local pond. He may or may not have been convinced that he would ever catch a fish, so he didn’t really plan on “next steps” in the event that this actually occurred! Well, as luck would have it a fish did bite and it was a big one; but because he did not plan in advance, he did not know what to do once it actually took the bait. It got away. He didn’t act swiftly enough to actually catch the fish and reap the benefits of such a feat! This was very disheartening for him as you can imagine.

The same was true for the client/candidate situation mentioned above. Unfortunately, timing is everything and not being able to respond swiftly when you find a candidate who matches what you are targeting often times leads to losing them to another company. It is very disheartening for a hiring manager to think they might have a position filled only to find out that by waiting or even just hesitating that candidate moves on to another opportunity.

All of the candidate screening processes in the world will not guarantee a good hire for a particular position within your organization unless you have put into your organizational planning the action steps needed in the event that you find the right candidate for the job. In addition to identifying when a new hire is necessary and taking the steps to effectively screen candidates for the position you should also include in your best hiring practices a plan to actually move a candidate through the selection process quickly!

With real estate the old adage is location, location, location. With hiring the adage may just be “timing is everything” – especially if you want to avoid letting one get away!

What kind of experience are your candidates having?

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Dana Harrison

Three cheers for the article “Pointing the Way to the Candidate Experience“!

As mentioned in the article, with unemployment still above 9%, this is an easy time to dismiss the candidate experience as unimportant. After all, with so many candidates out there, anyone you engage with at all ought to consider themselves lucky and candidates should recognize that they’re just one of a gazillion resumes you’ve received, right?

Going back to last summer, I wrote a blog called “Time is Still Ticking“, in which I talk about one aspect of the candidate experience: the time that elapses between contacts from the potential employer how that impact on candidates. We’ve continued to see top candidates disappear when employers drag out the process and, in particular, don’t stay in contact with the candidate. It is quite unfortunate to see a a potentially great hire fall apart because basic communication resulted in a negative candidate experience.

In “Pointing the Way to the Candidate Experience“, the author highlights what candidates are seeking. “A survey by Shaker Consulting Group confirms just how little window shopping job seekers expect. Job descriptions, a place to apply, contact information. Once they actually apply, what they really want is an acknowledgment, a timeline, and to know where they stand, or at least when the job was filled.”

The good news is that candidates aren’t really looking for that much. And there’s more good news…if your company isn’t provided great candidate experiences, the fixes are likely not that complicated or expensive. At ADVISA, we can help you examine your candidate experience and other barriers you may be having to doing great hiring. Here’s a sampling of how we’ve helped other clients with their hiring process, and simultaneously improved the client experience:

Revising job description formats so that the job description is clear, accurate and meaningful.
Writing authentic, but compelling job postings that capture the attention of the right kind of candidates.
Using Predictive Index® to benchmark the difficult-to-define behaviors that are critical for a position and then carrying forward that critical information into job descriptions and job postings.
Taking on searches through our RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) service where our staff ensures that all candidates receive the level of communication they are seeking.

We’d be happy to take a look at your hiring processes from the perspective of a candidate and to partner with you to enhance your hiring – contact me and we’ll get started!

Recruiting – The Art of Creating the Right Relationships

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Dana Harrison

Studies indicate there are four of these levels of fit between the employee and the job, the workgroup, the candidate’s vocation and the organization described below.

The concept of “employee fit” is truly a multi-level phenomenon, and will be maximized in instances in which a person’s personality matches both the objective characteristics of the organization and integrates well with the personalities of those that he or she interacts with most frequently. Keep both of these levels in mind when assessing candidates.

Only the best hiring practices coupled with a well-planned and executed on-boarding process will deliver the desired results.

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