Introduction to “Winning Recruiting”

Winning Recruiting is a term we use internally to describe better results for our HR clients and partners who succeed. They select new hires for the right reasons and have a system to do it better than their competitors. Their hires are not replacements. They are new, engaged performers that improve productivity right from the start. That’s winning recruiting.

HR is a full contact sport afterall. No one wants to lose in that arena.

You can do it too. Here are 3 quick and simple steps to get you started in winning recruiting.

Stale Recruiting Results?  

It’s Friday. It’s 1:00. Your week is winding down. Items on your to-do list are pushed to next week. That’s because your staff productivity levels fall off after Friday lunch.   

They are cleaning up their to-do lists too. And watching YouTube videos.   

It’s the perfect time to think about winning recruiting and your hiring process.  

And those lack luster results.   

We know, ugh. Painful.   

But it doesn’t have to be. Spend the next few minutes reading this short article and you’ll have an instant reboot. Then, you pack up your stuff and come back Monday morning.

You hit your desk with fix-it plan and you are off again, with a little extra octane in the tank.  

Have you Concluded that you’re in a Hiring Rut? 

“Obvious #1 – Update those stale job titles  

Here’s the thing about job posts and job boards. Everyone is doing it. And everyone falls into 2 categories.   

Category 1 – People who post job descriptions edited, edited again, and re-edited from aged job description copies written months or years ago that you continue to approve for posting.  Sure. Earnest efforts toward winning recruiting.

Category 2 – People who cut and paste the work from people in Category 1.  

C’mon, admit it we’ve all been in the Category 2 group.   

But here’s the thing, we do this AND expect to see hundreds of resumes in our in-box in a few days. Then we can point to our initial success and begin sorting the same resumes that everyone else is sorting with the same or nearly the same job descriptions because we are Category 1 or Category 2 People.  

So STOP.

Be creative. Be direct. You could rewrite the stale posts to attract the candidates you want. Or:  

You could start simple.

Delete that text in the “Job Title” field and replace it with something that says to the “Click-to-Apply” crowd of applicants,  “Don’t click if you are not qualified”.  Not exactly those words. . . 😉 . . .a Job Title that says, “Hey Applicant, Don’t waste your time “clicking-to-apply”. Don’t waste ours, there are other jobs for you just not this one”.   

It’s the most valuable filter.   

We’ve done this successfully for many clients – some companies, some struggling recruiting agencies – and the results are almost instant. Far fewer resumes and far more qualified candidates.  A step toward winning recruiting.  

Obvious #2 – Refresh that Hiring or Recruiting Plan  

Here is your Monday Team Meeting Outline:  

Open with a statement of your choosing, but the idea is simple: “I’ve let things get a bit stale here, let’s come together to change things up a bit, starting small.”  

Step 1  

Start with an honest assessment of the current results. If someone points to the data, be honest with them.  

“It’s not data we are after, it’s high-quality employees.” You get the idea.  

But offer each Team member an opportunity to share their view on the current state of chaos in your ATS.

Step 2  

Shift to Job Description updates and focus the notion of using them as a filter, not as a collection bin.  

Tell them to start small, with the Job Title. Then they can move to the Job Brief (which should include crucial requireds and comp) – again stressing these elements as a filter, not a collector.  Winning recruiting is in the details at this stage.

Their goal should be to reduce the number of applicants, not to increase them.   

Counter Intuitive, we know.   

Step 3   

Then wrap up the meeting. Sure you may have an initial whirlwind of eye rolling and resistance. Some heavy sighs. But the results will be key – fewer applicants but far greater numbers of truly interested qualified candidates.  Better candidate experience and better focus from your staff. That’s winning recruiting.  

Obvious #3 – Think on the number and types of channels / boards you are posting to.  

You don’t need them all. The idea that an industry focused board is better than the Big Box boards is simply not correct for the vast majority of positions.  

If your job descriptions are properly framed you’ll see more than enough from the Big Boxes because they have the reach.   

Leverage it.   

BUT DO NOT RELY ON IT. Their algorithms have vastly different motives that your own.  

So begin culling your channels based upon results. You can always add them back later once you’ve tightened up those job descriptions

Conclusion – #NotaShocker 

Reducing data is important. But don’t overly invest your attention with the data first crowd. Their results revert to the mean too. Everyone uses recruiting software. Remember it’s about finding quality people, not collecting and sorting tons of data.    

And it’s about to get worse, way way worse. If you imagine that AI is going to reduce data load through focused ever improving efficiencies, you are about to be lost in the coming Data Apocalypse. It’s just a landslide now.