Hiring with a Sense a Urgency- What's the Rush?

Sep 16th, 2021

“Crazy job market!”, you say.

You interviewed a candidate today, and the next thing you know they are telling you they accepted another offer! Now, you have to break the bad news to your hiring manager and start all over again!

While there is no special recipe to prevent this from happening, there are a few things we can do to reduce the likelihood of such occurrences.

1. Engage with your candidates.

• Understand the reasons why your candidate is looking for a new job, and what your client can offer to meet their needs. Keep this in front of them throughout the process. If you don’t have what they need, do not exaggerate what your client has to offer.

• Make sure you have closed them on money early in the conversation.

• Know what their career aspirations are and communicate to them any promising future your client can have for your candidate.

• lKnow their time frame to make a change, their target date to start a new job.

• Listen for possible red flags during interviews. You need to hit them head-on.

2. Create a sense of urgency with the hiring manager and the recruiting team.

• Before initiating recruiting efforts, communicate with the hiring team the importance of moving candidates in the process quickly. Give your client specific rationale as to why and make suggestions. Be ready to provide pertinent data from reliable sources such as SHRM, department of Labor, etc.

• Communicate with your recruiting team your recruiting project timeline so everyone is in sync and understands the expectations.

3. Create recruiting metrics.

• Recruiters should be given recruiting goals. Based on the goals, create a plan to reach them. This maximizes the use of available resources.

• Be careful here not to go overboard with high goals. The recruiting goals must be realistic and achievable. It is important to keep in mind that if the goals are too high, it will affect employee morale and create turnover. Always celebrate the wins.

• Regularly check-in with your team on their progress and their morale.

• Identify any bottlenecks. Counsel your team and be their enabler for success.

4. Create an efficient sourcing process.

l Tailor your messages to your prospects to make your messages stand out.

• First target candidates that are likely to engage. Use filters on job boards to contact those candidates who indicated they are open to work; go after ‘colder’ candidates next.

• Don’t wait for candidates to get back to you. You need to go after them. Use browser extensions to find their contact information: call, email and text. Schedule ‘call blitzes’ to call your pipeline back to back.

• lRepeat. Don’t just send one email to your candidates. Don’t shy away going after them several times in a short time space.

• lMaximize the use of available resources. Talk with your team, lean on each other for ideas if needed.

There is not one way of making this process successful, but these are some basics to make your team meets your hiring needs.