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Talent attraction. It’s essential if you want great people working for you. The problem is business leaders are not educated on the importance of proper Talent Attraction techniques, and instead, recruiting is left to employees who treat it as an administrative or compliance function rather than the sales process that it really is.
Therefore, the best talent is never making it to their doors, which means a loss in productivity and profit.
Here are the top five tips CEOs can embrace now to turn this around and improve talent attraction to their companies.
CEO Tip Number ONE – Hire a recruiter who enjoys the hunt!
The primary reason that any business has difficulties attracting the most talented individuals is their process mirrors an administrative process instead of a sales process. Recruiting often falls on Human Resources but they are administrative or compliance in nature. Better to find an experienced sales professional to handle this.
Example: During the Spring of 2021, my client hired an HR professional as a contract recruiter. He worked for 3 weeks before receiving an offer himself for a full-time position, which he accepted. He left my client in a lurch without 2 weeks’ notice.
The director of HR immediately reached out to a senior HR professional network to see if anyone knew a good recruiter who was available. I saw the note and replied that I was available immediately. She hired me on the spot as a contract recruiter for 3 months.
One of the positions that I needed to recruit was a full-time recruiter. I coached her on the job description. I strongly coached her to hire someone with previous successful recruiting, not Human Resources, experience – and went on the hunt. After a month passed, we had 4 candidates. Three candidates applied online. Their previous experience was in Human Resource positions. The recruiter that I recruited was referred to me by someone in my network. I called that person. They worked for a national recruiting firm and were successful, so they were promoted to manager of their office.
During our call, I asked them if they preferred hands-on recruiting or managing recruiters. They enjoyed the hunt.
CEO Tip Number Two — Learn how successful recruiters source candidates, screen them, and close the top ones. Conduct a sales interview.
When interviewing a potential recruiter for your firm, interview them as you would a sales candidate. Returning to the story of the recruiter that I recruited, we interviewed all 4 candidates in a panel interview format.
Remember the contract recruiter who left without notice? Suddenly, he was interested in this position as a full-time position. The panel included the HR Director and several engineering managers in person in a company conference room. I attended on Zoom.
He was the first candidate that we interviewed. The interviewers each asked a question and listened to the response. Then the next person asked their question. The good news was that everyone heard the question and the response. The bad news was that no one asked a follow-up question. Finally, my hands were tired of me sitting on them and I asked if I could ask a few questions. Their immediate response was, “Yes!”
Since I have recruited candidates successfully for 40+ years, I stopped the practice of nicely accepting responses without asking a follow-up question. When I asked him if he had ever practiced direct recruiting, his response was, “Yes. I post the positions on Indeed or on our website.” I responded that “direct recruiting is independently sourcing and calling a potential candidate. Tell us about a time you directly recruited a candidate who was hired.” His stammering and pained look on his face told the tale. I could see the expressions on the panel’s faces. They were all in pain, too – except they realized they were asking the wrong questions and accepting the wrong answers.
The other two “Human Resource recruiters” walked down his path of posting and praying that the best candidate would magically appear. Finally, we reached the candidate that I directly sourced and recruited. Despite attending the interviews on both days on Zoom, I could see and feel the relief from the HR Director and the engineering managers when he demonstrated that he knew how to recruit and was successful in doing so. He told stories to back up his claims.
Since I knew what my client was able to pay for this position, I closed him before the offer was extended. I spoke with him today, and he is happy at my client’s company and is doing such a fabulous job, they do not need me.
CEO Tip Number Three — Hiring managers need to be taught how to effectively interview candidates.
A manager who has not been formally trained on how to effectively interview candidates, has not been trained on how to select the best-qualified candidate.
Example: One of my clients heads up a well-known consumer product company that most people know, and you have probably walked on their product more than once.
They brought me in to source and recruit candidates for several positions. One of those positions was a database administrator. I sourced several qualified candidates who could be successful in the position. They all would require relocations.
One candidate voluntarily shared with us that his wife would remain “back home” where her parents lived for his first year with my client. That information raised a huge flag for me. The IT Manager chose that candidate to extend an offer. With my experience, I cautioned the IT Manager that their offer should include a clause requiring the wife to relocate within 6 months. Their only child was a baby, so school was not a hindrance to their move. Despite my caution, the IT Manager decided to hire that candidate without the clause. My job is to deliver the candidate that the IT Manager chose. I was successful. He started his new position and made some nice contributions. After 6 months, he said that he had to move back “home” to be with his wife and baby. The hiring manager asked me why I let her recruit this candidate. I reminded her of my advice to select someone else.
CEO Tip Number Four — Always check references
The hiring manager must conduct the reference check.
Why? Consider the psychology behind reference checks. If I call a hiring manager or executive and identify my position as a recruiter, we typically will have an adult (executive/manager) to a child (recruiter/HR) conversation. They feel that they do not need to fill me in with details.
If the hiring manager calls the reference and asks substantive questions, they are far more likely to receive a reference that is spot on. Why? What goes around comes around and if they want to discuss another one of their candidates in the future, it is better to be straight.
CEO Tip Number 5 — Become a goal setting culture and benefit from higher productivity and profitability. The CEO sets the example.
The Gallup polls highlight that employee engagement is very low – around 36% for professionals. What is that level of engagement costing your business in productivity and profitability? Would you like to learn a simple way to improve the selection of the best candidates, engage them immediately, and then retain them?
Require your hiring managers to include the 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, and 12-month goals in the job description for each position before you open a new or replacement position.
This one step will receive pushback from everyone, except the top candidates. The best candidates want to know what the first year looks like.
Below is a list of the benefits and outcomes to include with these goals. This becomes a process where a company may recruit exactly the candidate they need, engage them immediately, and retain the top talent.
9 benefits and outcomes to include with your goals:
- The manager has truly analyzed what they expect from the new employees over the first year.
- The recruiter knows exactly what the expectations are for the first year – and the skills and experience required to meet those goals.
- Some candidates will decide the position is not for them because they do not have the experience, skills, or possibly, the drive to succeed. They may decide that they have already met those goals and want to try something new. Best to let them pass.
- During the phone/Zoom screens, use these goals to create interview questions to determine if their skills and experience meet those goals.
- Use one of the 8 different ways to structure interview questions based on the required goals for the first year. This process separates the wheat from the chaff.
- Meet as a team to determine if everyone agrees this candidate would be successful in this position (or possibly another position).
- Extend an offer to attract them.
- During a new employee’s company onboarding, the hiring manager should sit down with the new employee to review the quarterly goals for the first year. Ask the new employee if they have any questions. Encourage them to come to the manager if they need them to run interference for the new employee or assistance to meet a goal.
- One of the 12-month goals should be to set the 3-month goals, 6-month goals, 9-month goals, and 12-month goals for the next 12 months.
Remember, a goal-setting and goal-achieving employee is, by definition, an engaged employee. Engaged employees typically become RETAINED employees because they are making positive, measurable impacts – and having fun!
Through understanding that recruiting is really a sales process, not an administrative function, and following these 5 important CEO tips will have you securing the best talent through Talent Attraction.
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About Bill Humbert:
Author Bill Humbert is RecruiterGuy.com. His recruiting experience reaches back before computers were on desks in 1981. Humbert speaks nationwide to companies, associations, and colleges and universities on talent attraction and career search. He knows the pitfalls and successes of job search from the employer’s perspective better than most. His latest book is Expect Success: The Science of the Over 50 Career Search.
