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In a highly competitive business environment, human talent often makes a difference between a successful company and a mediocre one. However, attracting top talent is not always easy, as modern employees are looking for companies that align with their mindsets, career goals, and, of course, monetary expectations. Besides, the very notion of a ‘perfect’ employee can be very misleading — once again proving that perfectionism can be a tricky path that leads nowhere.
At the same time, setting the bar too low can disrupt company performance and corporate morale, to say nothing of financial losses. So, how should businesses find that golden middle between unrealistically high and disruptively low expectations? More importantly, how can they find perfect candidates for each job opening — and, preferably, quickly? Below are the main recruiting strategies to optimize your search for the best human talent.
Critically assess job requirements
Here, the goal is to objectively analyze the skills, both hard and soft, necessary for each new job opening. This may sound like an obvious thing, but in practice, that’s where the first challenges arise. Carefully consider which skills and personal qualities are truly essential for the job and which ones are a desirable bonus. In most cases, you will see that the obligatory skills list is usually not that long. In other words, keep an open mind, or you risk limiting the number of potential candidates.
Create a job ad for the right people
After identifying the right skills and qualities for the job, create a job description that clearly speaks to the right candidate. First, you need to clearly enumerate all the job responsibilities and expectations from a candidate. Second, but equally important, is to consider the overall tone and voice of your job ad — it, too, should appeal to the right people while communicating your company values. So, choose the words carefully — because your job ad is that first impression that counts.
Expand candidate search
Next, you should try to diversify your recruiting channels. With a clear candidate picture in mind, you should be able to identify the best search platforms where your prospect hires are active — starting with LinkedIn as the obvious choice and moving on to more specialized sites. Another suggestion is to consider your current employee networks — if you already employ people with similar skills, they may have former colleagues, alumni, or peers they can refer to. Leveraging the professional networks of your current employees is a great recruiting strategy that can bring amazing results.
Embrace flexible work models
Modern businesses actively embrace hybrid and flexible work models for a good reason. First, adopting remote models helps them expand their candidate pool and encourage more diversity by employing people from different countries and cultures. Second, flexible work models appeal to independent, self-motivated professionals who can manage their time and work without much supervision. Both are essential for many high-responsibility positions, so if you truly want to attract top talent, you should get ready to offer candidates the flexibility most of them expect.
Prioritize passive candidates
While it’s unwise to ignore active candidates directly applying to job ads, a passive candidate pool usually has more potential. Since such professionals are not actively looking for employment, it’s up to the recruiters to identify the best talent and reach out to them. Once again, LinkedIn, specialized professional platforms, and the networks of your existing employees are great resources to get started with the search for passive candidates. In some cases, it also makes sense to tap into the network of your competitors, but if so, businesses should be prepared to offer some really lucrative advantages — not only regarding monetary compensation but also regarding work flexibility, job security, career opportunities, and other non-financial perks.
Customize recruiting & interviewing stages
A candidate-centric recruiting approach is always a winning strategy in the long run. This involves every stage of the recruiting pipeline — from the moment you first interact with the candidate to onboarding newly hired talent. However, interviewing is clearly the most important stage that calls for the most attention and customization. A customized interview approach implies not only asking job-specific questions but also adjusting the number of interviews for each job opening. For example, the first interview may evaluate overall job proficiency, while the second stage could be aimed at assessing a candidate’s cultural fit or, on the contrary, their highly technical skills. The devil is in the details here, but the main thing is to treat each job opening and each candidate individually.
Focus on soft and transferable skills
You do not necessarily have to break your interviewing process into several stages, especially with non-technical positions that do not call for a separate conversation with a tech lead or other relevant decision-makers. But even if you aim for only one interview, it’s best to prioritize soft and transferable skills rather than acquired, hard knowledge. In today’s world, previous skills tend to become obsolete very quickly – unless coupled with a desire for continuous growth.
So, consider asking creative interview questions to evaluate a candidate’s critical thinking, behavioral patterns, and any other soft skills necessary for the job. And, of course, keep in mind that, with some jobs, upskilling and training may be more affordable than hiring someone with the available skills; so, check any transferable skills candidates might possess.
Check references to assess cultural fit
Assessing a candidate’s cultural fit may be one of the most challenging recruiting stages because there are simply not enough hard metrics to rely upon. Checking references can help a lot, but keep in mind that not all candidates readily provide those. There can be many reasons for such reluctance — starting from not wanting to inform the current employer about considering new employment opportunities. So, if you ask for references, do that delicately and do not push. Explain your reasons for wanting to talk with a candidate’s former colleagues and managers and be prepared for the refusal. In any case, you will get some new food for thought after hearing the candidate’s reasons for not offering any feedback from past employers.
Optimize your recruiting pipeline
Building and maintaining a recruiting pipeline is one of the best strategies to optimize the search for perfect candidates. All potential hires you interact with should become a part of your candidate pool — even if they proved unsuitable for a previous job opening. Soon enough, a new opportunity more suited to their skills may arise. So, your previous applicants are the first place to get started with a new search — but to make sure the recruiting pipeline is well-optimized, it’s important to make a good impression on your candidates. A candidate-centric approach generally achieves this, and maintaining communication with past candidates (over LinkedIn or similar professional sites) strengthens the impression. As a side bonus, this strategy also helps maintain a positive company image — a crucial factor in attracting the best human talent.
No doubt, most of these strategies imply continuous work, but that’s what building a great team that leads a company to success is all about. Our final tip is to keep investing in your employees even after you’ve found that perfect candidate. This involves proper onboarding, training, and upskilling programs — anything that can help your team and your company grow. After all, nourishing positive company ethics is the surest way not only to hire but also to retain the best human talent.
