There is a job opening at your company. You are ultimately responsible for hiring the “right candidate”. What is the best way to approach this daunting task? What actions should you avoid that you may have taken in the past?
Follow these “Do’s” and review the “Don’ts” as they apply to sourcing candidates and you’ll hire better candidates faster while reducing hiring mistakes and recruiting costs:

Do - Create a plan for hiring.

You need a plan much like one you might to put together if you were taking a cross country driving trip. Your plan should detail every action step and include a schedule of when those steps will occur.
Start with the date by which you need your new hire on-board. Based on that date, list the action steps that will get you to the finish line you have chosen. The time line you set will help you determine what preparation you need in order to implement the sourcing and screening portion of your plan successfully. The following information should be included in your schedule:
• Hire by Date
• Date by which the job description will be prepared & approved & who will participate in the preparation
• List of the candidate sourcing tools you plan to use & dates for implementation
• Approximate date to begin initial interviewing
• Approximate dates for second and/or final interviews
• Approximate date when input from all company participants will be evaluated
• Approximate date to complete references and any additional screening on final
candidate(s)
• Date by which final decision will be made
• Date by which preparation and extension of job offer will be made

Don’t - “Fly by the seat-of-your-pants”

Do not begin this hiring process without a plan and without careful consideration as to when you want your new hire to start. Without a plan you can almost guarantee that landing your new hire will take either a LOT longer to accomplish than you thought or that in your haste to “get this over with” you will hire the wrong candidate. Believe me I speak from sad experience!

Do – Follow the schedule you created.

Once you have listed the steps in your plan, date the steps, knowing that the dates you set will likely require some flexibility. By listing the dates or approximate dates to accomplish each task, you can develop a logical sequence of events designed to hold your recruiting costs down and satisfy your “hire-by” date.

Whenever possible launch your recruitment plan with the lowest cost sourcing methods you believe will be effective in attracting a sufficient number of qualified candidates.

For example, you might consider sending an e-mail to existing candidates in your Private Talent Community* and/or activating a referral program that involves your current employees. You could also solicit referrals from vendors you use who are in contact with people currently working for a competitor, people who might be interested in your opportunity.

* A group of candidates or potential candidates who have previously demonstrated interest in your company

Don’t – Ignore the schedule you set up.

If you do not implement a schedule, you are apt to take too long initiating one or more of your action steps and you might totally miss your “hire-by” date. That could be a costly misstep.

Do - Prepare a compelling job description.

Update whatever job description you previously used. Design your job description to appeal to the quality of talent you want to hire.

The job description needs to include information about the position and the scope of the responsibilities along with a thoughtfully crafted explanation of the background and skills needed for the job. When you create this, think through the eyes of the candidate you want to hire.

In addition to an intriguing job description, include information about the work environment and culture. Candidates want to know as much as possible about a job and the company so they can make an informed decision before applying.

We have created a comprehensive job listing form you can use as a guide. The link below will take you to a Job Listing Form that will help you flesh out all of the elements that should be included in a great Job Listing. The form can be downloaded in either a Word or PDF version. Investing 30 – 60 minutes of time to complete the form will reward you with a Job Listing that will help you attract and screen the best possible candidates. Feel free to use our forms on a complimentary basis as often as you would like. www.talmax.com/sampleform

Don’t – Be like most other companies

Do not use a poorly written, unappealing job description that was created totally from the employer’s point of view. Unfortunately, too many job descriptions contain a cursory detailing of the job along with a long list of qualifications that candidates must possess for consideration.

Put yourself in a candidate’s shoes. What would you want to know before you would consider applying for a job? Certainly you’d want to know about the job and the company, but you’d also want to know what makes the job an attractive opportunity or the company a better place to work. If you want to hire top talent, you have to make the candidate want to work for your company and a dry-as-dust job description simply does not hold much appeal.

Do – “Thoughtful” candidate sourcing

Start with a list of all the activities you previously used for candidate sourcing. Using a 1 to 10 scale, grade each activity on your list in terms of its effectiveness as a sourcing tool. A grade of 1 would mean the sourcing method has not been very effective in sourcing high quality people. A grade closer to 10 indicates a much more effective sourcing method. Repeat the exercise, grading the cost of each sourcing method from very inexpensive to very expensive.
A little “out-of-the-box” thinking works well when you are generating your list of sourcing methods. Include an idea or two that sounds intriguing but that you have not previously tried. Based on your hiring schedule, finalize the sourcing methods you want to implement. Prioritize your list using a combination of cost and effectiveness. Rank the activities from best to worst. Use your hiring plan to set the dates to initiate these activities, based on the priorities you assigned.

Depending on your budget and time constraints, we advise starting with the action that has an effectiveness score high enough to attract the candidates you need for the lowest possible cost. You can add more costly sourcing activities as necessary.

The following is a list of sourcing methods to consider:
• Internal Job Postings
• Referral Programs for your current Employees
• Career Pages/Career Sites that integrate into your Website
• Relationship Building with viable candidates interested in your company (Private Talent Communities you can set up as part of your Career Site)
• Job Boards – free and/or paid
• Social Networking on LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, Plaxo, etc
• Classified Advertising in newspapers &/or trade publications
• Networking
• Resume Database Mining
• Search Firms, employment agencies & staffing services
• On Campus Recruiting
• Open Houses/Career Days
• Job Fairs
• PR – Capitalize on your good name & reputation

Don’t – Try too many candidate sourcing activities at once.

Do not fall into the trap of trying too many things at the same time. Think about your budget and your “hire-by” schedule. If you can identify viable candidates with a listing on the job board on your Career Site, go for it. If you believe that social networking is worth a try and you have the time to do so, why not try it first! If you want to place a small classified ad that directs candidates to your career site, do so.

Just do not do everything at once because the costs will run up, the time to hire will expand and the potential flood of candidates may cause you to overlook or miss the “gem” you want to hire.

Do – Communicate

As candidates respond to your sourcing activities, think about placing the responses in folders marked “Yes”, “Maybe” and “No”. If you are like most employers and you want to be certain you have the best possible applicants for your position, it is probably going to take some time to collect a sufficient number of qualified candidates to satisfy your search.
If you collect all job applicant responses on-line, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort. By placing the highest ranked candidates in a “Yes” folder, you can send an e-mail to advise the “Yes” people that they are under consideration. Let the candidates know that you will be contacting them in the near future with the next step in the process. You can also send an e-mail to those candidates in your “Maybe” file. Let the “Maybes” know you are reviewing their submissions, but it will take some time before you will contact them. The candidates in your “No” folder can be e-mailed standard rejection letters and invited to sign-up on your career site to receive notification of future job openings.

Communication from you will keep candidates interested in the position and/or interested in your company for future consideration.

Don’t – Let qualified candidates languish

When it comes to sourced candidates, silence is not golden. Put yourself in the shoes of the job seeker. The candidate’s stress level increases when too much time passes with no communication from you. First the candidate frets and may try to communicate with your company...and by the way, this is an action that when taken by the candidate, is usually ignored by the company.

As time goes by the candidate’s anxiety increases and eventually the candidate gets angry or gives up. What an unsatisfactory conclusion when what you really want is to build a relationship with someone who might be a viable candidate or who might be in a position in the future to refer good people to your company.

Consider implementing an e-mail marketing program to communicate periodically with the people who are interested in your company. These candidates can be a great source of talent at little or no cost. Do not waste this valuable asset.

Do – Listen

Recognize that each candidate you source has different needs and different problems you will need to address. During your hiring process, encourage the candidates in whom you have a sincere interest, to ask questions. Listen carefully to every question and provide a complete answer. For example, let us assume travel is involved as part of the job description and the candidate asks about the extent of the travel. Instead of giving a one-sentence response, ask the candidate specifically what he wants to know regarding travel and this position. Listen, ask follow-up questions and do not assume you understand the candidate’s question without asking for clarification.

Listening and asking follow-up questions helps you learn a great deal more about the candidate’s concerns and the candidates thought processes. The candidate needs to have a clear picture of any issues he does not understand.

In the end, listening will help you to make a more solid hiring decision.

Don’t – Dictate

There is a bad habit demonstrated by a great many people responsible for hiring. They love their company. They love their job…and they love to talk. During the hiring process they talk and talk and talk in an effort to convince the candidate that working for their company would be great. They give the impression that if offered the position, the candidate should be forever grateful. For some that may be true, but for the candidates who possess highly desired talent, it may not be true.

Top talent wants to be informed. They want to understand and to be understood. They need to know that when they have something to say, you will hear them. They need an employer who will listen. Even in a tight job market, a talented candidate can reject an employer if the employer did not completely address an issue that was a key concern to the candidate…all because the employer did not ask enough questions and then LISTEN.

Take advantage of these 6 “Do’s” the next time you need to hire and please try to stay as far away from the six “Don’ts” as you can to make your hiring process more successful.