How to ensure that the hiring approach is correct

How to get the hiring approach right

Approaches made about contracts with errors in the process are more common than you might think. It is evident that in the past the companies did not hire personnel as they do today, but, in addition, they did not invest as many financial resources as they do today and, to add to INRI, it does not seem that they are doing the best job either, at least if we observe how the international scene of the selection and recruitment of personnel is.

Companies are looking to fill their recruiting funnel with as many candidates as possible, especially “passive candidates,” who have no intention of moving. Employers often advertise jobs that don’t exist, hoping to find people who might be useful later or in a different context

 

Today’s focus has changed, because according to the census data, for example, in the case of how it’s been working in the last few years in the United States, they show that the majority of people who accepted a new job were not looking for one: someone He came and hired them. And this has led to a process where companies are looking to fill their recruiting funnel with as many candidates as possible, especially “passive candidates,” who have no intention of moving. Employers often advertise jobs that don’t exist, hoping to find people who might be useful later or in a different context.

What are recruiters doing?

It seems that in the US job market the recruiting and hiring function has been gutted. What reasons are given to explain what is happening? That many companies in this country (about 40%, according to research by Korn Ferry) have outsourced much, if not all, of the recruiting process to “recruitment process outsourcers,” who in turn often use other outsourcers, usually in India and the Philippines. What do these subcontractors do? Deep monitoring on LinkedIn and social networks to find potential candidates. Sometimes they contact them directly to see if they can persuade them to apply for a position and negotiate the salary they are willing to accept.

Recruiters get incentive pay if they negotiate the salary. To hire programmers, for example, these subcontractors may scan websites the programmers might visit, track their “digital leak” from cookies and other user-tracking measures to identify who they are, and then examine their resumes.

Companies that do the hiring

In companies that still do their own recruiting and hiring, managers trying to fill open positions with new candidates need to be clear about what the jobs require and what the ads should say. When applications come in, always electronically, applicant tracking software filters them for keywords hiring managers want to see.

The process then moves on to yet another new supplier industry that offers a bewildering array of seemingly clever tools that claim to predict who will be a good hire. They use voice recognition, body language, social media cues, and especially machine learning algorithms. But from what we have verified from OUR EDITORIAL, it seems that the big problem with all these new practices is that it is not known with precision if they really produce satisfactory hiring. And this is supported by data, as only about a third of US companies report that they monitor whether their hiring practices lead to good employees. Of course, it is a very low figure, although it is also low for those companies that do it with thoroughness and detail, in addition to the fact that a minority even tracks the cost per contract and the contracting time.

That’s why it’s fine with us when you make the comparison to the field of marketing and advertising, where a CEO, for example, asks his marketing department how an advertising campaign has gone and the answer is: “We have a good idea of ​​how long it took to implement and how much it cost, but we haven’t looked to see if we’re selling more.

Studies and surveys continue in the countries, but the complaint ends up being the same: how difficult it is to hire. There can be many explanations, such as that they have become very demanding with the candidates

 

Talent recruitment

Talent recruitment remains the top concern for CEOs in the Conference Board’s most recent annual survey; it is also the main concern of all top management of organizations. This is highlighted by a fairly recent 2017 PwC CEO survey which reports that CEOs see the lack of availability of talent and skills as the biggest threat to their business.

Eloquent data that give us a clue about the future of this sector

Employers also spend a huge amount on hiring: an average of $4,129 in the United States, according to estimates from the Society for Human Resource Management, and many times that amount for managerial positions, with the country reaching a staggering 66 million jobs per year. Most of the $20 billion that companies invest in HR providers is spent on recruiting. In other words, this evidences what we are saying about the concern that companies have in the international arena regarding the search and selection of personnel.

Why do employers spend so much on something so important knowing so little about whether it works?

Without a doubt, this is where the problem appears. Studies and surveys continue in the countries, but the complaint ends up being the same: how difficult it is to hire. There may be many explanations, such as that they have become very demanding with the candidates, especially in the weak labor market that has resulted from the last great recession caused by the International Financial Crisis of 2008-2009, to which the other great crisis was added. health and economic as a result of the 2020 and 2021 pandemic.

But it is clear that they are hiring much more than at any other time in modern history, for two reasons: the first is that vacancies are now filled more frequently by hiring from the outside than by promoting from within. Internal promotions in the US market currently do not exceed one third.

It seems that one criterion that supports the benefit of outsourcing versus insourcing is that companies do not have to pay to train and develop their employees since they are supposed to come with experience in the market. Hence, only 28% of candidates are internally sourced to fill vacancies, presumably due to less internal development and less clear career ladders.

LinkedIn data indicates that the most common reason employees consider a position elsewhere is career advancement, which is likely related to employers not promoting to fill vacancies

 

What does less internal promotion mean?

That hiring efforts are no longer focused on entry-level jobs and recent graduates, since companies must be good at hiring at most levels, because the candidates they want are already doing the job elsewhere. These people don’t need training, so they may be ready to contribute right away, but they’re much harder to find.

Retaining talent increasingly difficult

The second reason hiring is so difficult is that retention has become difficult: companies hire their competitors and vice versa, so they have to keep replacing people who leave. Data from the US Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 95% of hires are made to fill existing positions. Most of those vacancies are caused by voluntary turnover. LinkedIn data indicates that the most common reason employees consider a position elsewhere is career advancement, which is likely related to employers not promoting to fill vacancies.

The root cause of most hiring, therefore, is drastically poor retention.

How can this situation be fixed?

– Track the percentage of vacancies filled from within.

– To manage well, it is necessary to measure by monitoring hiring.

– Require all vacancies to be posted and filled internally. Most companies are surprised to learn how few of their vacancies are filled from within, because they don’t have people who can manage different and larger roles.

Internal job boards were created during the dotcom boom to reduce worker turnover by making it easier for people to find new jobs within their current employer. Managers weren’t even allowed to know if a subordinate was looking to move within the company, for fear that they would try to block that person and he or she would leave.

But during the Great Recession, employees didn’t give up, and many companies reverted to the old model where managers could prevent their subordinates from moving internally. JR Keller of Cornell University found that when managers were able to fill a job with someone they already had in mind, they ended up with employees who performed worse than those hired when the job was posted and anyone could apply.

The common sense explanation for this is that few companies really know what talent and capabilities they have.

Internal job boards were created during the dotcom boom to reduce worker turnover by making it easier for people to find new jobs within their current employer. Managers were not even allowed to know if a subordinate was looking to move within the company, for fear that they would try to block that person and he or she would leave

 

The stages to cover to reach the hiring

There are several stages that are also part of the process and which we detail below:

1º) Definition of the vacancy

The hiring of new people is justified by the fact that they require skills and abilities that can be assigned to the execution of specific tasks, without which the business cannot advance.

For this, it is necessary to be clear about:

– The mission to be carried out.

– The skills and abilities that it requires.

– The area of ​​the company where the need is sought to be met.

– The salary that will be offered.

– The working day that the person will fulfill.

2º) Search for potential candidates

The search for profiles can be carried out in various ways and from various sources of information.

Regarding the sources from which to search for profiles, you can:

– Use the internal database of the Human Resources Department.

– Go to other means of disseminating vacancies such as job boards and social networks.

Regarding the modalities of recruitment, we can distinguish:

– Internal recruitment: you use people who are already part of the company and who could potentially carry out the new job. The advantage of this is that these people are already familiar with the activity of the company, its mission and vision.

– External recruitment: you look outside the company for people who can fit the profile you require, hoping that they will bring with them new airs and ideas to the conception of the business and the organization.

For a more agile and simple management, it is necessary to rely on tools that automate the recruitment process such as:

– Altamira Recruiting, an ATS that in addition to helping you manage your selection processes, allows you to improve your employer brand. Thanks to an intuitive interface, the tool offers the creation of a personalized job portal optimized for SEO. Thus, you can easily publish your job offers, receive spontaneous applications and communicate information of interest to the candidates.

– Beetween, an online ATS that has advanced multiposting and sourcing features, application management and collaborative recruitment. Thanks to its Talent Pool or talent base and the possibility it gives you to personalize your Career Site, you simplify the candidate selection process and improve your employer brand.

– Bizneo ATS, a personnel recruitment and selection software that includes the dissemination of job offers, the management of applications and the hiring of personnel. Its powerful ATS (Safe Work Analysis) helps you reduce the number of administrative tasks with which you must comply.

– Factorial HR has an ATS software capable of managing all the selection processes, through the creation of offers and personalized forms, as well as the publication of job offers on LinkedIn and Indeed. It offers a personalized employment portal, which is automatically fed with the information that the company already has in its database.

– Kenjo, a talent selection, recruiting and candidate management tool. With this software you save time searching for qualified personnel for your company and centralize all the information and profiles of the ideal candidates in the same easy and secure platform.

– Personio, a personnel management software that accompanies you in all your HR processes. HH., from selection and hiring, to vacation management. It manages and publishes job offers on various portals at the same time, thanks to its analytics being applied to establishing the most effective recruitment channels.

Internal recruitment: you use people who are already part of the company and who could potentially carry out the new job. The advantage of this is that these people are already familiar with the activity of the company, its mission and vision

 

3º) Preselection of the best profiles

After having different interesting and attractive profiles, discard those that do not fully adapt to what you are looking for, in terms of the hard & soft skills necessary to meet the objectives of the position.

4º) Application of tests

The preselected people will have to pass a series of tests from which it is verified that they have the necessary skills required by the position.

Existing assessment techniques include:

– Logic exams.

– Psychological tests.

– Math problems.

– Case studies.

– Group activities.

– Personal interviews.

5º) Selection

With the results obtained from the skills tests and the interview, the person(s) who will occupy the position within the company are selected. In addition, it is time to communicate the company’s decision to all shortlisted candidates, whether they have been selected or not.

6º) Recruitment

Once the person has been chosen, it is time to formalize the process.

For this, it presents the selected person with the economic (salary), professional (type of contract, duration of the contract, trial period) and benefits (social security, premiums, etc.) offer. This stage is where any type of negotiation is carried out and the future relationship is formalized, in accordance with the law. In other words, the contract is signed.

7º) Integration

Now that the person is already part of your team, you have the responsibility of ensuring their integration and adaptation to the company. For this, the Human Resources Department must implement processes such as Onboarding and provide integration activities such as team building.

8º) Training

Once the person has been hired, there are still issues to take care of. The evolution of profiles within the company is only possible by monitoring them.

Likewise, the company must have an internal Training Plan that considers the training needs of the people. Replacing them contributes to better long-term results.

The most obvious purpose of a selection process is the hiring of personnel. A candidate who must adapt to the values ​​and needs of the organization and the vacancy itself.

However, and in the same way that we have been taking care of the phases through which the selected applicant has passed, we must carry it out correctly.

External recruitment: you look outside the company for people who can fit the profile you require, hoping that they will bring with them new airs and ideas to the conception of the business and the organization

 

Some keys to achieve it

What is staff recruitment?

The hiring of personnel is the closing of the recruitment and selection phase and the formalization of the entry of the candidate as an employee. This is the final moment in which you sign the contract and the necessary legal adjustments are applied. But below we point out certain factors to take into account, not only the legal aspects, but also the negotiation of the employment contract itself, as follows:

a) Policies in personnel hiring processes

Personnel hiring policies are the exclusive competence of the Human Resources director. Along with the rest of the functions, responsibilities and issues that Human Resources carries out, it is necessary to establish the general hiring guidelines. And how should these policies be established, we mean the forms?

Policies should be:

– Spacious.

– They should not be fixed and immovable.

– They can be modified at any time a substantial change in practices is considered necessary.

b) The salary band in the hiring of personnel avoiding discrimination

Human Resources policies should set elements related to hiring. First of all, salary bands should be registered.

This is a crucial point because if a salary is set by type of job performed, discrimination is avoided. Also a fixed salary for work can help avoid problems in the negotiation that suppose a heavy task for the person who is going to hire.

But the salary band also has other problems. And it is that in certain jobs it is necessary to be flexible given the lack of people for those jobs. Other elements that are fixed are vacations, the title of the position, but what is fundamental are the internal rules of the company.

This must be made clear at the time of hiring, since the employee must know what they must abide by within the company and, in addition, it must be made explicit that they abide by it. Finally, it is also necessary to determine how to treat the data that the employee is providing.

c) Personnel hiring process

The hiring process as such is not excessively complex. More than the process, the important thing is the previous moments. That is, the process of recruitment and selection.

If these previous processes have been carried out well and the company’s policies are clear, this process is simple. The problem would be when one of these elements fails.

For example, when the job description or the wording of the offer is poorly done and the candidate did not expect what is now proposed or when there is no established salary. This does not have to be due to a failure, it can also be due to the flexibility that the company incorporates in these processes.

d) Tips for the hiring process

In that case, it is necessary to negotiate and some aspects must be taken into account for the staff hiring process:

– You cannot offer any salary or benefits. Talk beforehand to be clear about what you can and cannot offer.

– Be aware of who you hire. If we are talking about a qualified profile, with experience and/or difficult to find, you will have to play your best cards to attract them.

Other important elements to consider:

– You have to keep in mind what happened in the selection process. Many times it is necessary to answer some questions to the candidates or to clarify certain elements.

– It is necessary to fulfill what was promised, since it is clear that if something has been promised, now it cannot be breached. For this it is essential that there are forms of communication between the processes and a record of activities.

Once the person has been hired, there are still issues to take care of. The evolution of profiles within the company is only possible by monitoring them

 

e) Errors in a recruitment and selection process

It’s all a matter of studying what is the value of that job in the market, since there must be some minimums that cannot be lowered and some maximums that it is not advisable to raise.

What is the optimal choice?

As always the best thing in all good management is anticipation, in this case, the most optimal thing is to talk about the salary before the end of the selection process. You eliminate the candidate’s doubts and make things clear so as not to waste time.

Know how to “sell” the company well

In any hiring process, the best thing you have to sell is your company, the opportunities you offer or the social benefits you have. If you have these clear, you can face the negotiation.

Finally, have all the legal documents ready: work contract, specifications, registration with social security, bank account, so it is advisable to prepare a check-list with everything you need and avoid problems of lack of documentation.

This information has been prepared by OUR EDITORIAL STAFF

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