Hiring the right employees has always been challenging, but this pandemic season has made it more difficult than ever. Now that there are nearly two unemployed people for every available job, most companies are reporting a dramatic uptick in the number of applicants for each open position1. With an increased number of eligible workers saturating listings, it’s even more challenging (read: time consuming) to narrow down the best person for the job.
2020 exposed many talent gaps in growth organizations that found themselves unprepared in a climate of unexpected and unprecedented change in their businesses. As companies transferred to largely remote environments, talented people and great culture evolved from a commodity into necessity. Those shifts are still underway-both in how companies hire and in the traits they’re looking for in 20212.
“We can expect 2021 to continue to bring major disruptions to digital hiring and recruitment,” says OutMatch CEO, Greg Moran. “This will be particularly evident in how the process leverages technology to drive efficiency for both recruiters and applicants alike.”
So here are some suggestions for streamlining your process and getting to the important stuff faster!
When listing a position opening, make sure the role is clearly defined, including reporting structure, daily tasks and previous experience requirements. Take it one step further and consider personality traits that would make a candidate successful in this role, as well as identifying potential growth opportunities for the position. Taking the time to suss out the role and create a compelling job spec will not only help you sharpen your own view of what you want, but it will make it easier to eliminate candidates who don’t meet the requirements. Start off on the right foot by using our position & interview template to work through an effective job description.
Pro tip: Ask others within your organization to read the job description to ensure it not only accurately reflects the expectations of the candidate, but also to look for keywords that may trigger an unintended bias4 (e.g., “competitive”, “determined”).
If you’re not asking every candidate the same questions every time, then how can you really compare the candidates against one another? We recommend using our position & interview template to craft 8-10 questions that you plan to ask every candidate, every time, creating consistency between the interviews and allowing you to weigh their answers more effectively.
Did you know that companies are starting to utilize artificial intelligence software to assist in reducing bias from the entire hiring process? The strategies adopted by these companies include scrubbing identifying information from applications, relying on anonymous interviews and skillset tests, and even tuning the language in job postings to attract as diverse a field of candidates as possible5.
Here at TJA we go through many rounds of interviews with potential candidates to allow multiple team members to participate in interviews and weigh in on the candidates likelihood to fit in our culture. Immediately after each interview, all participants document their feedback and impression of the candidate immediately with no conversation allotted. Interviewers may only talk to one another AFTER they’ve submitted their survey results. This scorecard process eliminates internal biases and opinions that influence others, forcing interviewers to rank each candidate in a clear, consistent way.
This scorecard encourages interviewers to objectively consider the interviewee against a standard set of prompts, creating a “score” to help rank candidates without relying on our subjective opinions. Use our position & interview template to create something similar for your organization.
Similarly, because we interview candidates multiple times, prospective TJA-ers found themselves repeating their story (work history, experience, personal hobbies, preference of cake or pie) over and over again. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does take time away from asking deeper, harder-hitting questions.
To eliminate this problem, we request that candidates upload a video of them telling their story. This allows them to incorporate their personality into the application and shine before their interview. This video can then be shared with all members of the hiring team. The end result: we get to the good stuff faster and make the most of our time with the candidate.
Similarly, we provide the interviewee with a video about the agency, our benefits and our policies so that this information is consistently delivered to each candidate. This cuts down on wasted time during the clutch CEO interview talking about basic information.
Consider tools like Trainual to standardize and document your processes, especially ones that are integral to new employees like benefits, team culture and company history. This way, you can consistently send prospective employees the same information during their dip into the company. Digitized information also allows for quick updates of things like training/onboarding resources, company manuals and more.
It may seem daunting, but a streamlined hiring process is the foundation of a solid employee roster. Download our position & interview template to get started.
Job Posting & Question Guide Prospect Scorecard
Sources:
(1) https://www.bls.gov/charts/job-openings-and-labor-turnover/unemp-per-job-opening.htm
(2) https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2021/02/09/early-hiring-observations-for-2021/?sh=33f8ee1a36c8
(3) https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcperna/2021/01/05/4-ways-hiring-and-recruitment-will-change-in-2021/?sh=7a1a5095d09e
(4) https://hbr.org/2017/06/7-practical-ways-to-reduce-bias-in-your-hiring-process
(5) https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/tech-careers/ai-tools-bias-hiring
