It’s Q1. How do I compete in this hiring rush?
Recruiters wear multiple hats: sales, coach, executive assistant, internal and external liaison. While many of us have been planning for 2016 hiring in Q4 of 2015, we typically walk into the office after the New Years with this news - we need to hire more than planned. Q1’s competition for talents is fierce. Here are 3 tips for hiring managers and recruitment professionals when it comes to winning this hiring rush:
1.) Incentivize internal referrals
I am not talking about just asking your employees to refer their friends to the company although you should encourage that, but I am talking about asking your top performers and hiring managers to refer top performers they had previously worked with. That question typically hits multiple buckets - culture fit, competency, and someone they had worked with.
2.) Personal recruitment structure
I can speak for myself. When times are busy, I tend to pack my schedule, which is a productivity killer for recruiters and headhunters. During peak time, sticking to a 35-30-35 rule. A 35-30-35 rule is a mental rule of how to organize your time. I would recommend recruiters to spend 35% of their day on interviews, 30% on admin work (filling out evaluation, pushing candidates along the interview process, meetings) and 35% proactive outreach.
Why so much time on proactive outreach? It takes time to build a pipeline with proactive outreach. If you don’t dedicate time to build that pipeline daily, very soon your pipeline from applications will dry up, and you will have to build an alternative pipeline from scratch.
3.) Reach out to recruitment partners
Many companies try to reduce cost per hire. But if you have a dire need for a revenue producing hire, the revenue a right hire will generate will cover the additional cost fairly quickly. If you work for a startup company, your partnership with a recruitment firm can serve as free marketing for your organization. Rather than looking at it as a cost, you are getting free marketing AND candidates at the same time.
Hope you find the tips above helpful. If you have other recruitment tips and suggestions, please share them in the comment below.
