Insider hiring hacks that will take your recruitment from good to great.

Top ten tips that any business can implement, yet few do.

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

Having spent 20 years recruiting in agency and inhouse roles, I’ve work across 9 different countries conducted more than 4000 interviews and hired more than 1000 people. Trust me, I counted!

Things have changed dramatically in that time including the widespread adoption of CRM instead of a Rolodex and something called “Email”. I don’t mind admitting that my first placement (c1999) was made via fax, with a Secretary at the other end of the telephone telling me: “We’re missing pages 52, 53, 57 and 62, please retransmit!”

Attitudes to recruitment have also evolved over recent years, and quality hiring is now seen as essential to any successful organisation. To function optimally hiring needs to be a team game not restricted to Recruiters or Talent Acquisition Managers. As they have become in recent years. Relying purely on Recruiters to define roles, create profiles, engage and interview candidates and then make hiring recommendations is a risky business. Partly because the overall quality of Recruiters can vary immensely but mainly because a good Recruiter is a process specialist, not necessarily a selection specialist. Great Recruiters make a huge difference, but they are few and far between. Here’s why:

i) Recruitment is most akin to a Sales & Marketing role as competition for good people is high and success requires mastery of Omni-channel reach out and Growth Hacking-style engagement techniques needed to source and engage candidates. For this reason, it is very hard for any Recruiter to be completely subjective when interviewing or assessing a candidate when they may have spent days/weeks/months chasing and nurturing them.

ii) People that become Recruiters fall into one of two categories a) Joined an agency because they heard about the earning potential or b) Have been ‘moved’ into Recruitment from an administrative role because they a ‘People Person’. Which effectively means they can talk the hind legs off a donkey!

iii) There are very few barriers to becoming a Recruiter; no qualifications needed, no experience needed, no license needed, no capital needed. Many, including my own first Agency Start-up, began life in a sitting room with a telephone (Pre-Smartphone!) and a laptop. My first placement 3 weeks later paid 10,000 euros.

Recruitment tools of the trade ( Photo by Adrien on Unsplash)

Recruitment is NOT a mystic art; anyone can do it (although usually not well). Having mixed Agency with Inhouse and Onsite roles I don’t ever claim to have seen or heard everything, but several themes repeat themselves. So, here are some inside tips, that you will not hear on any training day, that are guaranteed to improve your hiring quality and long-term retention:

1. Spread the responsibility across the team, several heads are better than one. Together create a list of the top ten traits you see in a successful [insert job title] at [insert company]. Then the worst ten traits and use both lists as templates for who you want to hire.
2. Next list the ‘Must Haves’. This is actual experience that someone cannot do the job without. There should be 3 or 4 max, otherwise you’re not being realistic, and an over-ambitious wish list can waste months and kill morale. Be ruthless with your time and DON’T consider anyone without all the Must Haves. Getting the team’s opinions can make a huge difference, often you will hear that previously considered Must Haves become just ‘Nice to Haves, which can be learnt in a couple of weeks.
3. Create a sample bank of ‘open questions’ that can be adapted for any scenario. You are looking for ‘How, What and Why’ questions that open up the conversation and force candidates to explain things with detail. Avoid Closed Questions that can be answered Yes or No. Don’t lead candidates by suggesting the answer in your question. I still her this happening regularly, and it usually sounds something like this: “What experience do you have using Excel… can you do Pivot tables and basics Macros?”. The candidate translated this as Pivot tables and basics Macros are needed for the job. Most candidate who want the job will answer: “Yes”. Instead just ask what experience do you have using Excel?
4. Use interview scorecards to assess objectively. You may be surprised when you realise that the slightly less dynamic interviewee scores higher than the slick communicator. The opposite of the scorecard is ‘Gut Instinct’. If only I had a pound for every Manager that told me: “I’ve been hiring for 20 years, I usually base it on gut instinct”. Gut Instinct is a euphemism for “Unconscious bias” and in all fairness this didn’t exist 20 years ago, but then neither did Wi-Fi, Smartphones or Google. We’re all using them now so let’s try to evolve our thinking on hiring, and next time a Manager claims to hire by ‘Gut Instinct’, confiscate their iPhone.
5. The two-year rule. Whilst you should avoid presumption when interviewing, one positive presumption that can help is if the candidate has been in a job for 2 years or more. 99% of the time, you can presume they are good at their job because no-one lasts 2 years in a job if they’re not good. The worst employees last 6 months most of the time, average employees last one year, more often than not, and even 18 months if they are seen as borderline. Just don’t presume those who have been in the job less than 2 years are not good as there can be many reasonable explanations for this.
6. It is often overlooked but questions from applicants are a great way to determine who the stronger candidates are. Imagine hiring a Business Analyst who doesn’t have any questions, when their job revolves around gathering requirements? Or worse, a Sales Executive who exclaims they need to know nothing more, they already know everything!
7. Turn stereotypes on their head and reap the rewards. For example, there are few candidates more resilient, more able to multi-task under extreme conditions or more willing to just be at work than a new mother returning to work? How about the jobs that no-one seems to fancy because there is ‘no obvious career progression’? Perfect for a more mature 60+ candidate or possibly two people working part-time. Not only will you get a highly motivated candidate pool who are underserved by potential employers, but you could get your steadiest, longest serving staff this way.
8. Consider and share the pros and cons with the candidates. It’s important to have the right fit from both sides and sometimes candidates need help in evaluating opportunities. Job hunting is a tough business and it’s tempting to accept the first offer. Some of the best interviews I’ve conducted ended with a mutual agreement that the opportunity is not right for the candidate. In this scenario, you will be perceived as honest, professional and often you will have created an ambassador for the company.
9. Never, ever, ever agree to a certain number of CVs, candidates or interviews. It takes one person to fill a vacancy and if that happens to be the first or the tenth person that you meet don’t waste everyone’s time pandering to a Line Manager who can’t decide, or ‘wants to compare’. It’s the same as them saying: I don’t know what I’m looking for. If you have this problem, focus on points 1, 2 and 4. When you have someone that matches the pre-determined criteria, hire them!
10. The ‘perfect candidate’ doesn’t exist. You’re looking for the best that’s available/looking at the time you’re hiring. Again, cover the Must Haves and go for the best current option. If you’re having difficulty with Managers who want perfection use this line: “It’s not impossible to find someone with everything you’re asking, but it’s unlikely. It could happen tomorrow, next week or in 6 months. I recommend considering the ‘Next Best Thing’.

Across a 20-year career I’ve used these techniques myself, coached them into junior Recruiters and attempted (with various results) to train them into experienced Recruiters. I hope they can be of help to you.

Good luck, Anthony Payne.

Disclaimer: All the opinions are my own and do not reflect those of RedCloud Technologies Ltd. This document is provided for informational and discussion purposes only.