Hiring can seem like a daunting and overwhelming task.

Finding the right candidates for your roles is like searching for a needle in a haystack. So many candidates, so many resumes, not near enough time. So, how do you simplify the process in order to find the candidates you want to know more about, while still giving all of your candidates a great experience with your company?

With 72% of hiring managers saying that they are struggling to find and source skilled candidates and some industries reporting a labor shortage of anywhere from 250,000 to 400,000 jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, what is the secret to attracting qualified candidates to your posted positions? 

A simple, well-oiled hiring process.

This guide will help you find great candidates in no-time-flat.

What is the Hiring Process?

A typical hiring process begins when an employer sees a need to fill a role and ends when the selected candidate accepts the job offer. 

Seems pretty simple, right?

The steps in between are where things can get sticky, so building out a solid hiring process can help your hiring team become organized and save hours of time on repetitive tasks. These steps can be different by role and by company, but typically there will be 4 main steps: planning, attracting and interviewing candidates, and the job offer. We will dig deeper into these steps throughout this guide.

Planning and optimizing your hiring process will:

• Strengthen and optimize your recruiting strategy
• Save you time by speeding up your recruiting process
• Attract quality candidates for every job posting
• Build an A+ team
• Increase employee retention

Are You Ready to Hire?

First thing’s first, ask yourself ‘What is my hiring need?’. 

Start the planning process with the team hiring manager and any other team members that will be involved in the hiring process to put together a list of tasks and responsibilities for the new position they will be hiring. Many times, if this simple task is skipped, you could be hiring for a position that is unstructured or not needed at the current time.

When you come to the conclusion that the position is a necessity, take the time to put together the necessary skills the position will require, who the candidate will be working with, and what you will need for proper onboarding.

Questions to consider about the role:

• Do you have enough work for the role?
• Does the role fit into the growth of your company?
• Will this position create more revenue for the company?

Questions to consider about the hiring process:

• Who will the person be working with and how will they collaborate with them?
• Who will onboard the new hire and train them?
• Who will ultimately be responsible for the success of the new hire in the first 90 days?

Job Leveling will ensure you understand how the new hire will fit into the team dynamic, who will interview the candidates for the position, and what the specific interview will consist of.

What is Job Leveling?

According to an article by SHRM, job leveling is a “process that defines and evaluates the knowledge and skills that are necessary to perform the job and establishes the job’s duties, responsibilities, tasks, and level of authority within the organization’s job hierarchy.”

In other words, you would use the strategy of job leveling to clearly define the role you are seeking to fill. This entails specific skills the candidate will need to possess in order to do the job at hand,  job tasks and responsibilities on a day-to-day basis, and how they fit into the company’s organizational hierarchy (manager, supervisor, C-level, etc.).

It is important to have the entire role planned out and clearly outlined so employees and employers alike will understand roles and responsibilities in the company, who they report to, what is expected of them, and how they can eventually move up in the company. Having a clear plan of development and growth in the company will ultimately increase employee retention and morale.

Plan & Optimize Your Hiring Process

In today’s tight and uneasy talent market, having an optimized hiring process will keep your recruiting flow moving forward without typical hiccups. Keeping talent engaged and your time-to-hire short, you can be sure you will attract the right candidates.

Your Hiring Timeline

According to survey data collected by Robert Half, when faced with long hiring processes, 39% of survey respondents lose interest and pursue other roles, while 18% decide to stay put in their current job, and 32% said a protracted hiring process makes them question the organization’s ability to make other important decisions.

That’s a lot of forfeited talent.

Keep your hiring process simple and short by planning out your workflows. While each role may have a different workflow, you can plan your general guidelines by department.

For example, if you are hiring developers, your general hiring workflow could be a variation of this:

• Initial phone screen 
• Video interview with technical interview questions 
• Skill assessment 
• Final video interview
• Background check
• Offer

Remember to only include members of your team in the hiring process that will be working directly with the new hire. Cut out any unnecessary interviews, choose skill assessments that showcase the candidate’s skill level in one go, and narrow down desirable candidates for final interviews quickly. 

Interview Questions

Pre-plan the interview questions you want to ask the candidate and have them readily available during your initial phone and video interviews. These questions will be based on the background of the candidate, their ability to complete the required tasks of the job, competence, and overall interest in the position. The same interview questions should be asked to every candidate. Keep phone interviews to a short 20 to 30 minutes max and video interviews to no more than an hour. We will cover interviewing more a little later.

Throw in a few questions that give the candidate the opportunity to demonstrate how they problem solve and how they are at communicating. This can give you a better understanding of the candidate’s soft skills.

During each of the interviews, make certain to leave time at the conclusion of the interview for the candidate to ask any questions they may have about the position, the teams they will be working with, and about the company. Assure they have a good grasp of the position and what is required.

Recruitment Marketing

Now that you have this beautifully organized and optimized hiring process, how do you attract qualified candidates to your new role?

Build your employer brand

Why would someone want to work for you?

It is important to showcase your company as a great place to work. Not many candidates would want to work for a company that is lacking information about itself online or with a bunch of negative reviews. Your company’s reputation is a great place to start when boosting your presence on the web.

Work on your social media presence. Many candidates will check out your company’s website, but will also head over to LinkedIn and Facebook to see what you are posting about, how your brand looks, and what kind of followers you have. Keep up to date and consistent with posts about your company and have current information in your about sections.

Ask current employees for company reviews and videos. See if they would be willing to answer a few questions about their time at the company, what they like the most about working there, and what could be improved. Typed-out answers are great, but if they would be interested in putting it in video form, it can give it an extra boost and a face to the review.

Transparency into your company policies and culture. More than ever before, candidates want to know what it is like to work for your company. They want transparency into what your company stands for, its policies, and its team members. Recently, digital marketing agency Brainlabs did just that and published their entire employee handbook on their company website, in an effort to showcase exactly what drives their company culture.

Create your job description

There are several things to remember when you are writing a job description that will grab the right audience.

Be concise and clear. Give specific details of what the role is and the necessary skills needed for the job. Be clear in the type of candidate you are looking for and what their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities will look like.

Leave out “nice-to-haves”. Only list the qualifications that the candidate needs to have. Leave out the long lists of skills that would be nice if the candidate had, but aren’t necessarily a part of the job. Including these can deter qualified candidates from applying. In fact, women are only likely to apply if they meet 100% of the requirements, while men will apply if they meet 60% of the requirements.

Avoid Unclear Language and Gender-Specific Terms. Leave out terms like “sometimes” and “occasionally” and instead choose words like monthly or quarterly to provide structure. Avoid terms like “rockstar” and leave out gender-bias terms that would imply you are looking for a male or female for the role. Instead, use inclusive language and pronouns like “they/them”.

Promote your open role

Now that you have your workflow and your job description, it is time to put it out there in the world. But, where should you promote your job open to get the best-qualified candidates?

If you are using an ATS, you will undoubtedly have the option to push your job opening out to dozens of free career sites. This can be a great start to getting your position seen and a great alternative to paying to promote your job if you don’t have the funds. Other free ways to promote your position are by posting on your social media channels, having your current employees share the position on their social media profiles, and including the position on your website’s career page.

If you do have the budget to promote your new job position, check out a number of different industry-specific job boards that fit the candidates you are trying to reach. It is also a good idea to include diversity job boards to discover highly-skilled diverse candidates.

The Candidate Experience 

It’s a candidate’s market and making sure they have the best experience possible could be the key to standing out from the competition. Candidates want to be treated for what they are – humans. So why not take a few extra minutes to make them feel appreciated? After all, you want them to work for your company.

Job Application

This may seem obvious, but keep the job application short. Collecting every last detail about the candidate or asking them to type out their job history is unnecessary when the information is already available on their resume. 

If you need more information about the candidate, feel free to send them a questionnaire after they have applied and have met the job criteria. This will not only be a better experience for the candidate but will save you time in the long run.

Candidate Communication

Communicate, communicate, communicate! 

Communicating at every step of the hiring process is a guaranteed win when it comes to a killer candidate experience. Whether or not the candidate gets the job or not, you will want to keep them in the loop throughout the process. 

Once the candidate applies, send them a quick (and personalized!) email thanking them for taking the time to apply and when they may expect to hear back from you. This lets the candidate know that you received their application and that you appreciate their time. 

For each next step in the process, make sure you have an email that goes out to the candidate. Ready for an interview, send them an email that makes it easy to schedule a time that works best for both of you. Ready to send them an offer? Make it easy with electronic signatures. Is the candidate disqualified or not right for the position? Let them know! Send them a personalized email about why they weren’t considered and a couple of takeaways. Going the extra mile for your candidates helps them improve and keeps them feeling good about your company. You never know, they could be a fit for a position at your company in the future.

Structured Interviews

Earlier, we touched on pre-planning your interviewers and your interview questions based on the role you are hiring for. This is a critical step in keeping your interviews structured. There are a few more ways you can conduct successful interviews:

Start with a short, qualifying phone interview. Give a quick overview of the role and the company. Measure the candidate’s fit for the role based on their previous experience and see if the candidate is truly interested in the role. Always make sure to respect the candidate’s time by being on time for the interview and ending the interview on time. You should follow up with a quick email thanking the candidate for their time.

Follow up with an in-depth video interview. If the candidate did well in their initial phone interview and has completed any necessary questionnaires or skill assessments, it is time to have a one-on-one video interview. This is where you can spend extra time getting to know the candidate and going more in-depth about the job and the skills needed. Ask specific skill-based questions to access their knowledge and skill level. Pay attention to body language and social cues, as this will help you as the interviewer make any necessary shifts in how you interview. Making the candidate feel comfortable or playing to their strengths will give them the opportunity to shine.

Combat your biases

There is no place for biases in the hiring process; they still exist. So, what can you do to combat your biases and give each candidate a fair shot?

Educate yourself and acknowledge your own bias tendencies. 

According to The Office of Diversity and Outreach at UCSF, unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.

Knowing your personal biases will help you combat them during the hiring process and recognize the negative effects of bias within your organization, as well as the benefits of uncovering bias in decision-making processes. 

Use the right tools

Using technology to help you in your hiring process can save you valuable time on everyday mundane, repetitive tasks and save your company money.

Using an applicant tracking system can organize your hiring process in a snap. Post your jobs through your ATS to multiple job boards at once, organize your candidates per role, and keep communications all in one place. Save precious time by automating emails and other day-to-day repetitive tasks so you can spend more time getting to know your candidates.

In today’s hiring environment, having a video interview tool that is reliable and fast is a must-have. Choose a tool that compliments your hiring goals and streamlines your interviews. Candidates expect to connect fast and have less technical glitches.

Another must-have is a reliable skills assessment tool. With a multitude of assessment vendors who make the process smooth and even fun, give your candidates access to the best way to showcase their talent and skills.

Onboarding

A smooth onboarding process is crucial in employee retention and engagement in the first month of employment. 

Deliver what you promised in the interview process. If you mentioned a specific amount of time for training and who they will be training with, make sure their trainer is there every step of the way with an outlined process for success.

Make the new hire feel important on their first day. This can be especially hard with more remote workers being hired every day. But, take the time to welcome the employee and even have them schedule time with key employees to get to know who they will be working with and how to get in touch with them. If you are still in the office, show them around, take them to lunch, or do something special to recognize them on their first day. Communicate with your new hire throughout the day to see how they are coming along and if they need any help or have questions.

It’s Time to Get Started

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to hiring, you can still make the process reflect your company’s values and optimize it to give your candidates the best possible experience.

This guide can help get you started and as you grow, be sure to add in more of what works best for your company and candidates.

Ready to get started with your hiring process? Start a free trial of JobScore today.

The post Simplify Hiring: Your Strategic Hiring Process Guide appeared first on JobScore.

Today our CEO & Founder, Dan Arkind gave a presentation on 5 hiring hacks for founders at the 2015 Launch Scale event in San Francisco. Thanks again to the paypal startup blueprint program for the speaking invitation.

Get the slides for 5 Hiring Hacks for Founders here >>

Also, if you like this presentation, please subscribe to the blog, we only had 7 minutes to speak and we’ll be publishing the 6 other hacks we prepared here in the coming weeks.

The post 5 Hiring Hacks for Founders appeared first on JobScore.

The word closer invokes the image of a sliver-tongued salesperson: someone who can sell water to a drowning man. In recruiting, closing isnt about superhuman negotiation skills or techniques to get people to sign on the dotted line. There’s just one rule for recruiters who close:

Only submit candidates that you already know how to close.

95% of a recruiter’s job in closing a candidate is done before the candidate is presented to a hiring manager. Recruiters who close learn what it will take for someone to accept a job and share this information with the hiring manager before the first interview happens. Closers get hiring managers the intelligence they need to hire candidates before the process begins in earnest.

For a closer every submission yields one of two things: a hire or more information about what it will take to fill a job (so the next submission is better). Closers understand that the hiring process is iterative. Closers listen. They know there’s no problem with hiring managers saying NO, as long as they explain WHY offering direct, constructive feedback so the next candidate they screen and present is more likely to close.

Recruiters who close tell the truth and build trust. They speak plainly and aren’t afraid to deliver bad news. They grease the wheels of the hiring process through clear communication, and rarely have candidates rejected for the same reason twice.

Closers unearth the good, the bad & the ugly and diplomatically share this information, managing expectations so that there are no big surprises in the interview process.

The “process” of closing is really just reconfirming what you learned before interviewing started and make sure that things don’t change as time passes.

The post The Secret to Closing Candidates appeared first on JobScore.

Job descriptions are marketing documents, and writing great ones is an art and not a science. Most job descriptions read like something out of a boring internal process manual… describing what someone is supposed to do and listing ideal qualifications for new hires. Great job descriptions are nothing like that – they help job seekers imagine what it’s like to work at your company and inspire them to apply.

The hallmark of a successful job description is that when someone reads it they either want to apply themselves, or they immediately and enthusiastically recommend it to a friend. Great job descriptions cause people to act. Great job descriptions are viral. Most great job descriptions, like most great advertisements, are short. People have a limited attention span. The purpose of your job description is to “hook” people so that they spend more time investigating your company and take action. No matter how much information you put in a job description, interested applicants are likely to do research elsewhere: your website, the press, blogs, your employee’s social networking profiles and sites like Glassdoor.com. So, don’t try to pack details into your job descriptions… focus on inspiring people to learn more. Don’t try to write job descriptions from scratch! A good first step is to search a few of the larger job boards for positions similar to the one you are trying to fill. Go ahead and incorporate things you like from other job descriptions into your own. But don’t do this too much, and never cut-and-paste directly: the uniqueness of your job description is often what makes people want to take action.

A framework to write great job descriptions

Job Title

If possible, use a standard and easy-to-understand job title. On many job boards your job title is displayed as a search result (the headline)… so spruce it up a bit if you want more people to click on it. Come up with a standard/simple title first, then once you’ve finalized the rest of the job description, come back and try to create a compelling headline. For instance “Software Engineer, C# expert for a hot start up” or “Entry level Sales Associate, be mentored by the best.” If you aren’t inspired to write a snazzy headline, no problem: a simple, descriptive job title will work just fine.

About Us

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Unless you work for a large, successful or popular company most people reading your job description won’t know who you are or what your company does. At the start of a job description, ideally in as little as two sentences, highlight why someone might want to work for your company. Here are a few ideas of things to include:

• What industry you are in and what your company / product does
• What your work environment is like (closed office, cubicles, open floor plan, nerf balls flying around, library-like silence, etc.)
• Your mission / what your company is trying to accomplish
• Some relevant statistics about your success and/or market position
• How big you are (number of employees, revenue, years in business, etc)
• Key aspects of your culture and values
• Bios of veteran leadership

The goal here is just the facts. Keep it very short. These few sentences establish the context for people to get into the “meat” of your job description. This is not your company history and a complete list of benefits… you are never going to get all of the information about what makes your company great into a concise job description, so we strongly recommend that you create a separate careers website where people can learn more about your company. About us information is not“boilerplate” that goes at the top of all of your job descriptions. What makes your company attractive will likely vary for positions in different departments. Engineers, salespeople and controllers don’t usually join a company for the same reasons. Customizing the “About Us” contents for different audiences will help make your job descriptions more successful. Depending on your hiring goals this means that you may need multiple micro-careers websites where different types of employees can learn what it’s like to work for your company.

About the Job

Start with an introductory sentence or two about why the position you are trying to fill is a great job. This should help people visualize your environment and where this job opportunity can take them professionally. A few ideas for your intro:

• Why is the job open? If it’s for a good reason (i.e. growth, someone was promoted, big new customer win) definitely say so.
• Opportunity: Are you going to train this person? Do they get to work with a great boss? Will they develop leading edge skills? Is there something unique or special about this team? Is this a growth area of the company? Is this working on a project of special significance? Does the job pay exceptionally well?
• Lifestyle: How many hours will they need to work? Will they have to travel? Will they get to hire or manage other people? What are their days going to be like doing this job?
• Team style: What are the common attributes of the top performers on your team? Do you share common interests? Are you morning people or night owls? Procrastinators or planners? Softball or Scrabble?

Follow the introduction with some short bullet points about day-to-day job responsibilities. Think in terms of specific, discreet tasks that the person will do in this job. Go ahead and focus on some of the more exciting and interesting things you need someone to do, but don’t fib or exaggerate. Whenever possible, avoid using internal company jargon when describing job responsibilities. You know you’re done with this section when after re-reading it you’re ready to email it to your most talented and discerning industry contacts with the subject line “Check out this great opportunity at my company.”

Requirements

This is not a laundry list of things you’d like someone to know, it’s the absolute bare minimum requirements for the position. Try to keep this list to 4 one sentence bullet points or less. Here’s a good way to think about requirements: for every requirement you add, you’re tacking on two weeks to the length of time it will take to fill this job. Requirements are your “knock-out” criteria. This is the “if you don’t have these, please don’t apply” list. For instance, for an administrative assistant you’d probably want someone who is personable, organized and who has a can-do attitude. Having 10+ years of administrative assistant experience or a background working in the insurance industry are just nice to have. Rank the importance of your job requirements, listing the most important criteria first.

Nice to Have

This is the laundry list of things you’d like someone to know. Try to list no more than 10 bullet points describing things that “it would be great” if applicants knew. Rank these nice to have criteria, listing the most important ones first. This list should take up less than 1/3rd of the entire job description and you should spend less than 1/8th of your time writing this section. Most people spend 90% of their time on this laundry list and label them “requirements.” This is a big part of why most job descriptions aren’t very good. Resist your temptation to spend lots of time writing up the “and the kitchen sink list” – it won’t help you generate great candidates. We promise.

Keywords

Don’t forget your keywords. Most job seekers search for jobs on job boards with keyword searches. Don’t omit obvious buzzwords and standard industry lingo from your descriptions as this is how many job seekers will find your job. If the person you’d like to hire could be searching for jobs with different titles, it’s usually a good idea to include them in the job description to make it easier to find. It’s usually best to work your keywords into the “nice to have” section. If you can’t make that work, try adding a keywords section at the bottom of your job description with the words you couldn’t work into the prose. This ain’t pretty, but it works.

Personal Style and Focus

Don’t hesitate to make your job descriptions reflect your personal style. Share a little bit of yourself in job descriptions, as this makes it easier for like-minded people that will mesh well with you and your team to apply – and prompts those who are very different & who won’t fit in to move on. Spend most of your time on the first few sections of the job description – about who you are and why your job is great. These are the things that help people visualize themselves or their friends in a job and make it viral. Remember, the purpose of job descriptions is to get people excited and to get them to apply (so that you have great candidates to choose from), not to discourage people and make them feel under-qualified. If you really, really want to build out your laundry list of requirements, go ahead, but don’t put them in the job description… create a separate, internal document that you use to evaluate candidates on phone screens and interviews. Great job descriptions are short and inspirational, not long checklists.

Why writing great job descriptions makes hiring easier

If this seems like a lot of work, it’s because it is. But it’s worth it. If you follow the framework above you’ll be ahead of the game because before you speak with anyone about your job you’ll be able to articulate:

• What your company is all about
• Why someone should be interested in your job
• What someone will do on a day-to-day basis
• What the knockout criteria are
• A prioritized list of “nice to have” criteria that will make someone stand out.

Often when you’re getting started you can’t answer some of these questions. That’s fine: just do your best. No matter what you write down, it’s likely things will change when you start interviewing candidates. If you end up making lots of small adjustments along the way, you’re doing the right thing. Job descriptions are living documents: as you learn more about what gets people excited and who will be the right fit, update your job description so that everyone stays organized and focused. Job descriptions are often the first step for candidates. They set the tone and manage expectations for the entire interview process. Often, all that happens in a world class hiring process is re-confirmation of what candidates initially read in a job description. Great job descriptions will frame the dialog you have with candidates, and if everyone knows what to expect, the entire hiring process with be smoother. Job descriptions keep everyone honest and on track. Plan your work, then work your plan. If the plan’s not working, adjust.

Ask for referrals and you’ll get advice. Ask for advice and you’ll get referrals.

Try not to work on job descriptions by yourself. Hiring is not done in a vacuum. Ask everyone who is going to work with the person you are trying to hire to contribute to the job description. If you do this, you’ll generate many, many more high quality referrals. There are two primary reasons for this:

• When people influence the “whats and whys” of a job they are more likely to promote it. It helps them develop a sense of ownership, which makes them more likely to tell the people they know about the job and encourage others to apply.
• People can’t help themselves. When they read job descriptions and give feedback they are mentally running through the Rolodex of people they’ve worked with before. Their feedback is often based on experiences with specific people they know well… and hopefully their participation will prompt them to help recruit these people they already know, like and respect. If no one on your team has ever worked with someone like the person you are trying to hire, your expectations may be unrealistic and/or you may be looking for a person that simply doesn’t exist. Listen carefully to people’s feedback.

More reasons to ask your team to help write job descriptions:

• People will think you are a better manager. If people feel like they have a say in who gets hired and why, in their mind you instantly become a better boss.
• Occasionally, team members will “step up” and volunteer to climb the learning curve for a hard to fill role, immediately solving your “hard to fill” job and replacing it with an easier to fill one.
• The more you tell a story, the better it gets. The best way to craft a great story is to tell it, see how other people react and ask for suggestions on how to make it more compelling. You don’t have to incorporate every idea, but some of the best copy in job descriptions has come from people “parroting back” part of your story, often simplifying it. If you go through this feedback and iteration before you publish your job description, you are likely to get better results.
• Your team will interview better. Some groupthink and consensus around what you are looking for and why people should work for you and your company can be a good thing, If everyone participates, the team will provide a consistent and unified message about what’s going on, what the job will really be like, and who will likely be a good fit.
• You can’t see it all. The people you work for and the people who work for you have a different perspective of what people are doing on a day-to-day basis and/or what makes a job good or bad. Capturing this information prior to meeting candidates can help you avoid pitfalls in the interviewing and hiring process.

Ask people outside your company to help write job descriptions

• Asking for feedback and input on a job description is a great way to stay in touch with colleagues and generate referrals.A dialog about what’s happening in your company, what you are looking for and why is usually a pretty interesting conversation to have with someone who works in a similar business. An email that asks “Do you know any good c++ engineers looking for a new job?” is nowhere near as much fun as these sorts of chats… and let’s face it, you need a budget to “do lunch.”
• If you do this the right way, people will feel like they are an “insider” who has the “first crack” at a unique opportunity. They’ll call their friends and say “do you want a first look at this job with my friend so-and-so? It sounds awesome.” Asking for advice makes people feel special and is a great way to unearth coveted passive candidates.
• Finally, people outside your organization are often a great reality check. You may think that you’ve written something great, but don’t lose sight of the fact that you are the boss and your team might just be blowing smoke. People outside your company have less of a stake in your hire (and don’t work for you) – they can tell you if your hiring profile is realistic and whether the story you’ve put together is actually exciting.

Walk your job description over to the marketing department

Posting great job descriptions can be some of the best PR and marketing work your company will ever do. Job descriptions are usually how people within your industry first hear about your company – and often how they will keep track of it over time. Writing job descriptions that engage people in your industry isn’t the same as writing marketing collateral targeted at customers, but the marketing department’s instincts can serve you well. Great marketers will often have interesting angles on how to differentiate your job in the marketplace and how to attract attention for key company needs.

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