As Eta Consults continues to dive deeper into work with our emerging brand businesses, I've been fascinated about the relationship between job "opportunities" and job "challenges."
The workplace for the skilled has changed and no longer are companies in our space holding all the power when it comes to the hiring process. Candidates have a variety of options facing them; which makes the recruiting process a bit different. I'm out of school now for almost 25 years, and looking back on my interviews; both those where I've been a recruit for and those I've been recruiting, I can assure that times have indeed changed.
For one, a company's reputation amongst the pool of applicable clients matters. In some cases, a candidate may have a longer historical view of the brand than the hiring manager. If this is the case and you're the hiring manager, be ware. Your positioning of an "opportunity" may be seen by some candidates as you selling them on something that is less than true. That great opportunity you're pushing may simple be seen as a huge, daunting challenge that supercedes the gig.
Here are some other tips when recruiting senior level talent:
- Sell to them. Senior talent is evaluating you too during the process. You must sell them on why they should join your team. And YOU are an important aspect of this. Don't think they are not assessing your skills and management techniques too.
- No platitudes. After a certain point in the process, partner with them in your conversations. If you've exposed them to the team they'll manage, have frank discussions about isnights and ideas on where you'll take the business together. Don't talk to them in cliche's or "what ifs," speak to them in present tense.
- Engage them. Respond to emails and thank you messages. As previously mentioned, you are being reviewed too. How you interact during the recruitment is likely a good measure of how you manage people. Big timing a candidate is a huge no no and can cost you teir 1 talent.
- Manage the Recruitment. If you're senior and you're using in house HR to help you, let them do just that, and help you. But if you turn over all of the communications to them, you will have issues. Emails that aren't written to convey your message properly are just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine being the recruit who is trying to develop a raport with the potential boss and then having a level inserted into that relationship. It speaks to management style and it's a loser.
- Get Everyone on the Same Page. I know it's popular to have candidates run a gauntlet of people for interviews. Make sure they are aligned with the same message. This includes long term vision for the business, how much money was or will be invested in the company. Management styles and corporate culture. Also consider having the candidate meet with a smaller number of people for longer periods of time.
We are advising our clients on how to identify the right characteristics for their candidates; once you do this, don't allow them to slip through the system because they score you low on their evaluations.