A strategy for interviewing and hiring the best candidates

Strategy for Hiring the Best This Year

AJ Ray

Take a moment to visualize the scene. You receive an e-mail from one of the top managers within your company. The e-mail says “Urgent need for …”. What do you do? Do you place an ad in the local classifieds and place some ads on the web? Do you have a file with a stash of old, outdated resumes that you will thumb through? Or do you have a strategy that continues throughout the year?

If you choose the latter, you will have a list of candidates you want to hire, top guns, who are superior in your industry. If you placed the ad and waited for applicants to call you, read on!

Now, visualize yourself in the stands, watching a major sporting event. You are a scout, a talent scout, looking for the best of the best to add to your team. You want the best to create a winning team; the best and most competitive team ever!

The strategy I am referring to is a list of candidates that you and others in the company have been building relationships with for months. At the end of the last year you sat down with the managers and discussed the need for future employees. You made a list, it’s that time of year, and so you checked it twice. Once you had a moment to think about it in depth you started making the rounds, making some calls and finding out just who works within your industry and whom you would like to come to work for your company.

Once this list of names is developed you find out what association meetings they attend. You find out when you or one of the managers might have an opportunity to network with these individuals and you do. Think of it as a New Year’s resolution that will cost you your job if you don’t fulfill it!

Each “Superstar” is assigned to a manager, or someone in the company that can build a relationship with him or her. The process begins. You keep your eyes on the prize.

Now, when that urgent need for a new hire comes across your desk you have someone or several people already identified. You or someone in your company has a relationship with this “Future Employee”. Now you are hiring the best, you know their skills; have a good idea about their values and the contributions they can make to the organization.

I know what you are saying, “Whose perfect world do you live in?” Truthfully, I don’t live in such a perfect world, but this process does make the selection much simpler. By targeting a select group of candidates you reduce the number of candidates you must sift through. Now you have just reduced your risk of lawsuits and you will not have to track applicants for EEOC. Guess what, you also create a diverse group of employees and future employees. You can keep your goals in focus. Not everyone you choose will choose you too. So, you make adjustments, you remove potential employees from the list, you add new ones, life goes on.

In addition, you simultaneously create a referral program. Current staff begins to seek out individuals that would complement the organization and take them into the future, full force.

Keep in mind; you are doing something worthwhile for the company. You are creating “the” company to work with. Creating such an organization may very well be the overall goal of your strategic plan. We have all heard about branding your company and over time you will.

When December comes this year, make your list, check it twice and get ready to bring the best on board!

Articles

Finding Candidates

Interviewing Basics

Interviewing Best Practices

Laws & Documentation

Line Manager / Recruiting Partnership

Post-Interview

Pre-Planning & Retention

Reading the Candidate

Recruiting Basics

Recruiting Best Practices

Useful Links