Our Search Process What We Do and How We Do It
6 Keys to a Highly Effective Search Project
Insure internal organizational readiness and alignment. The hiring manager should work with the key stake holders to optimize alignment with the job specs and required candidate qualifications before the recruiter is brought into the picture. Since a lot of the heavy lifting in recruiting is done during the first two to four weeks, any changes after the launch should be avoided if possible.
1
Establish a process and set expectations. The hiring manager must articulate what they expect from the recruiter in terms of the information they need on each candidate, who will do the interviewing besides the hiring manager, required coordination with any of the other stakeholders, i.e. HR and other functional leaders, who makes the offer and who conducts reference and background checks, etc. If possible, it is recommended that weekly updates are scheduled to help keep the process on track.
3
Conduct an initial planning and specification meeting between the hiring manager and the recruiter. Make sure the recruiter understands answers to these three critical questions:
(a) what “great” candidates look like and the mandatory qualifications vs. “nice to haves”.
(b) what the candidate will be expected to accomplish in the first year on the job so the recruiter can incorporate questions about similar accomplishments into their initial screening process.
(c) how best to present and “sell” the opportunity to the candidate. Beyond the obvious career growth opportunities and financial reward possibilities, most candidates also want to know something about the person they would be reporting to, other leaders in the organization and the corporate culture and values.
2
4
The recruiter and hiring manager must agree on the candidate screening process. The end result of this process should be a written recommendation by the recruiter that reflects a consistently applied process of discovering incremental factual information along with a subjective evaluation that allows the hiring manager to easily and quickly decide if the candidate should be interviewed.
5
Hiring managers must provide immediate and meaningful feedback to the recruiter on each candidate. Giving detailed feedback on why they liked or didn’t like a specific candidate, whether based on an interview or just a resume and recommendation, is critical to on-going calibration of the candidate assessment process.
Hiring managers must provide immediate and meaningful feedback to the recruiter on each candidate. Giving detailed feedback on why they liked or didn’t like a specific candidate, whether based on an interview or just a resume and recommendation, is critical to on-going calibration of the candidate assessment process.
Both the hiring manager and the recruiter must insure a positive “candidate experience”. Candidates rightly expect and certainly deserve ongoing feedback throughout the process. Many great candidates have become frustrated and disillusioned with a company because of little or no feedback, an interviewing process that takes too long or an organization that can’t effectively sell an opportunity. Remember, the best candidates are also interviewing other companies and will likely have a number of opportunities to consider.
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Candidate Sourcing Strategy
A
D
Send email campaign to our industry network and extensive candidate database of over 30,000 industry professionals to create awareness of the opportunity, generate interest and candidate referrals.
C
E
Search major job boards and social networking sites for potential candidates.
Develop target list of companies to recruit from using telephone, social media and
email recruiting.
We work with you to get to know your company, background and culture along with an understanding of your business objectives
so we understand how this position
contributes to the overall success of the company.
B
Most often, the best candidates are not actively looking to make a job change, so we must be prepared to “sell” them on the benefits of the position and the company in terms of career development.
Candidate Screening and Assessments
Our candidate assessments focus on 3 areas to determine who we will recommend:
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Does the candidate possess the hard skills (like technical expertise or industry experience) and soft skills (leadership, communication style, adaptability for example) necessary to be successful in this role?
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Does the candidate have the will and motivation to do the job?
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Will the candidate likely fit into the company’s culture?
Here’s the basic outline of our screening interview questions:
a. basic qualification and skills alignment
b. job / career progression / reasons for employment changes
c. education and training
d. accomplishments
e. motivation for making a change and time-table
f. preferences in terms of company size, stage, industry segment and cultural preferences
g. compensation expectations
h. companies they are currently interviewing with and where they are in that process
i. relocation options
j. other issues such as non-competes, travel restrictions, citizenship status, etc.
Candidate Recommendations and Ongoing Process
On average, it will take 2 - 3 weeks before we start recommending candidates who have completed the evaluation process. Along with the resume, we provide a comprehensive, written evaluation of each candidate we recommend.
Moving forward, through the offer and acceptance stage, we stay engaged to schedule follow-up interviews, check references and provide on-going feedback from the candidate while continually selling the opportunity to emerging top candidates.