The Talent Scout

For more information about this episode, please visit: http://scouttalent.ca/how-to-pick-a-winning-candidate/

For more information about this episode, please visit: http://scouttalent.ca/the-talent-scout-episode-19-what-do-candidates-actually-want/

For more information on this episode, please see: https://scouttalent.ca/the-talent-scout-episode-18-when-to-work-with-recruitment-companies/

For more information. see: https://scouttalent.ca/the-talent-scout-episode-18-how-important-is-diversity-in-your-hiring/

Sources:

https://blog.bonus.ly/diversity-inclusion-statistics

https://builtin.com/diversity-inclusion/diversity-in-the-workplace-statistics

https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/study-ethnic-sounding-name-employers-fewer-calls-back

For more information on this episode, please visit: https://scouttalent.ca/the-talent-scout-episode-16-video-interview-best-practices/

For more information, please visit: https://scouttalent.ca/the-talent-scout-episode-15-employer-branding-best-practices/

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For more information and a text version on this episode, please visit:

Today we’re going to talk about how to recruit remote workers and how to do it digitally. As the world maintains varying levels of lockdown and social distancing recruitment can now only exist digitally. 

A couple of caveats before we get into the nuts and bolts of this topic. The first is that if your organization plans to survive this crisis then you are by default planning to recruit again because companies that are succeeding are recruiting. 

The second is that if you’re maintaining a hiring freeze until all of this blows over, cool. That’s certainly an approach and it might pan out well for you and then you can go back to a more traditional in person recruitment approach. But if this new world of social distance and quarantine becomes the new normal and lasts a bit longer than any of us are comfortable with, you may be glad that you put in the work now to develop a fully digital recruitment process. 

The third is that highly digital processes being operated by good recruiters are better, they’re way more candidate friendly, can easily promote your Employer Brand, and they often make a recruitment process more efficient. 

So with that all in mind, you can view this forced shift to digital as a chore or an opportunity. This time can be used to make your recruitment process better and more robust. Or you can resist against change and hope that things will go back to how they once were. Maybe they will. 

Now, with all of that context out of the way, let’s get down to business. Our recruitment cycle goes from a need being established, to a job description drafted, a recruitment marketing campaign is then deployed, you get your candidates and shortlist them, you run a couple of rounds of interviews with stakeholders, you check the background and references of your ideal candidate as well as offering them the role, fingers crossed they say yes and once they work their notice they join their organisation. Then you spend the next however many days trying to onboard them. Even just listing all of that was exhausting. But where are the challenging areas when it comes to digital?

Writing job descriptions and developing advertising campaigns is a relatively digital process for most of us now. If it isn’t, if you rely on adverts in news papers and billboard adverts you may need to rethink your strategy. Those approaches weren’t cost effective before all of this and they certainly aren’t now. Headhunting through digital mediums is also a very useful addition to advertising campaigns at the moment; if you’re looking for something specific you don’t want to be spammed by resumes that don’t meet your qualifications by posting on a job board – that’s where headhunting comes in to play.

The one area I’m sure we’ve all identified as a challenge for the digital world is interviews. Face to face interviews can still exist. But we’re going to be carrying them out over Skype or Zoom now. The important thing here is communication. While, if you’ve been doing this for a few weeks, you may have carried out hundreds of video interviews – this may be all new for your candidates. So communicate with them clearly and openly. I had a friend who was recently hired for a role that told me after her initial screening call she was sent a calendar invite for an interview and she didn’t...

How much can you ask of a candidate? 

Well, much like everything in the world of Recruitment, it’s a bit of a tricky question without a clear cut answer. How much can you ask of a candidate? Well, not much. But that not much might look different depending on the seniority of the role or where your candidate is in your process.

Your brain may have already gone to the simplest solution – we won’t ask anything of a candidate. We’ll interview them based on the resume they submit and hire based on the combination of both. Well, first of all, good luck. That’s a lot of work. But secondly. That may not work:

• Ask too little – Candidate becomes uninterested. It doesn’t feel like they’re earning the role. 
• Ask too much – Candidates decide the role isn’t worth it. 

Candidates want to feel valued. They want the chance to sell themselves, but they also don’t want to carry out a long case study for you and essentially feel like they’re giving you valuable work for free. 

It’s all about striking a balance. 

Let’s step by step our way through a recruitment process and talk about how much you can ask of a candidate. 

Pre-interview

At the very beginning, a candidate hits apply on your job description and they reach the first hurdle we put in front of us. Virtually all of us will ask a candidate for a resume. Most people will have a resume ready to go so that’s not too much to ask of a candidate. 

Lots of us will ask for a cover letter and further information from screening questions. This is where we can start to lose people.

• Cover letters are often rarely read. And even if they are read it rarely gives useful information. 
• Screening questions are great to a point. The average candidate is happy to answer some screening questions usually up to about 10, but after that you’ll start to lose them. After your third or fourth long-winded text box question suddenly your talent competitors who are looking for the same person seem much more appealing. 
• But worst of all, screening questions that duplicate the work of a resume or cover letter. Nothing irritates a candidate faster than having to type in their employment history while also attaching a resume. 

Interviews

This brings us on to interviews, which is already asking a lot, given that it may involve multiple conversations with multiple people. This takes time, which is a huge ask and truly shouldn’t be underestimated. If you’re asking someone to essentially sell themselves to you for a portion of their day, you need to respect that ask. For more senior or technical candidates it’s certainly acceptable to ask them to prepare a short presentation, but keep it very specific, concise, and relevant.