Is Your Process Sabotaging Your Search?
Don't let your organization's hiring process drive away talent. Here are some tips to update employment screening and keep promising candidates engaged.
This article is brought to you by Insperity.
Great employees can catapult you to even greater business success, but when your focus isn’t on the value of human capital, your productivity, bottom line and investor appeal may suffer.
Have you ever found the right employee for a job, but before you make an offer, that promising candidate accepts a job with one of your competitors? If this happens often, you could be losing candidates to your own process. It may require taking a stroll in their shoes to learn how to improve the hiring experience. Here are some tips:
Craft a Brand Experience
Whether you realize it or not, job seekers view your organization through a consumer lens. A favorable, positive impression of your brand and your company is likely to be shared with peers, on social media and beyond. Even candidates you don’t hire can become great brand ambassadors.
Streamline Employment Screening
What seems like due diligence to you may seem unnecessarily long and frustrating to your candidates. To eliminate hold-ups in your screening process:
Have signed disclosures and consent forms for third-party background checks.
It’s the law. Depending on jurisdiction, you may not be able to conduct criminal background checks until after a conditional offer of employment.
Provide your vendor correct information.
Lots of people have the same or similar names. Confirm the name, spelling and Social Security number of your candidate before sending it to your vendor. It’s a turn-off when candidates are contacted for verification.
Create and use a consistent written policy. This ensures all candidates are treated the same and helps you determine unnecessary checks that can be eliminated.
Provide adverse results in a timely manner.
Again, it’s the law. Candidates must be given the opportunity to challenge the report. Don’t sit on negative results because you don’t want to hurt any feelings or you’ve disqualified a candidate.
Use Talent Assessments Thoughtfully
Talent assessments can help you guide employment development, but they can sometimes feel negative and cumbersome and can result in candidate drop-offs, so choose them wisely.
Communicate Consistently with Job Candidates
Engagement on a regular basis is essential to keep talented candidates interested. Tell promising candidates what screening checks you’ll perform and how long they should take.
Engage with candidates consistently and periodically and be sure to communicate even if you don’t hire a candidate. They may have the skills you need at a later date or might refer your next star employee. You don’t want to risk leaving a bad impression.
Focusing on your hiring process can pay big dividends in the human capital game. By finding top talent and ensuring they become top employees, you can make your company as attractive as possible to potential investors.
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of Middle Market Growth.
Jill Chapman is a senior performance consultant for Insperity Traditional Employment Solutions, where she is responsible for talent attraction methods and technologies. To learn more, visit insperity.com/acg.
