When there’s a job to be filled at your company, keep in mind a few things that are critical to land top talent. Even in this job market top talent is hard to find. Yes unemployment is high but for top talent, the “passive” job candidate, he or she for the most part are not looking. Now I’m not saying that there isn’t top talent out of work in this market because there is, but even the top talent who are unemployed have options. Don’t be a jerk who thinks you’re “holding the golden ticket” when interviewing someone. This is a client driven market but don’t exploit this fact. If you want to attract top, passive candidates, don’t forget that you may need to “sell” your opportunity.
Some basics on what motivates a job candidates and why they are willing to leave their current job:
1)More money
2)Better benefits
3)A better opportunity that offers career growth
4)Less stress/pressure
People stay at their current company because:
1)Paid well
2)They like their co-workers
3)Having job security (which is really a state of mind)
4)Having good benefits
There are some interesting things at work here that are overlooked. If you understand what motivates someone, perhaps you can leverage your interview to attract talent. For a passive job candidate to leave the comforts of what he/she already has, you need to start to understand that they are interviewing with strength on their side. Keep in mind the hardest part of the process of landing top talent is to actually get someone to make a change. Change is not as easy as you think and placing job candidates for over ten years, I can tell you that one of the hardest things for someone to do is to quit their current job.
The main goal of your interview should be that when a job candidate leaves your interview, they are more excited regardless to whether they’re your top choice or not. You want them walking away saying “This would be a great place to work!” Now I know that’s common sense, but my all time favorite saying is “common sense is a rare commodity!”
Some tips that will help:
Make the job candidate feel welcome.
Spend most of the interview listening intently to what the candidate has to say.
Talk up everyone that you work with.
Coming across positive will attract someone to you.
Make sure you do what you say. If you tell the candidate that you will get back to them than make sure you do so in a timely manner.
Some tips that will not help:
No one needs to hear about the nightmares at your company. Perhaps a nightmare for you is an opportunity to others.
Nobody needs to hear if you mess up that it’s your ass. In a job that’s already implied.
Talking bad about people who work for you or who have left will only signal that you will do the same about them.
I can tell you that people hire people that they like. The same holds true on the other side. People want to go to work for people they like. A company is only as good as it’s people. What are you doing to set that stage? Really spend some time thinking about your interview process and how you can make it better. You have one shot at a good first impression.
We will get back to you-never happens.No employer is bothered to tell as to why he/she was not taken,this can really change the image of the company.
It would be great if all interviewers were this savvy.
Going to disagree on one point –
candidates want and need to know about the nightmares at your company – they need to know what the problems are that their talents can be brought to bear on. Even more important, the hiring company (interviewer) needs to know if the candidate has some credible approaches and will be a part of the solution. Its appropriate for the interview to be all about some feel good, can we be team mates together stuff if you\’re hiring for a specific task – manual or knowledge. However, when hiring leadership, an interviewer needs to know if the candidate has a clue, is willing to roll up his (or her) sleeves, and move towards solving the problem. Almost the worst thing would be for the candidate to accept to be blindsided by crises that everyone else. The worst thing – and this often happens – is that existing leadership really doesn\’t know how bad things are.
Tom,
I agree re the nightmares. As long as they are put as “opportunities”, you will see whether you are indeed interviewing “Top Talent”.
That’s right! No one wants to go into a nightmare situation and not be able to make effective changes. That was my point!
Actually, Tom is right to an extent. Nightmares at a company should be a part of the behavioral interview question process. It does help winnow out a lot of unsuitable candidates. Come to think of it, two of the best interviews I ever had (yes, I got the job both times) used nightmares as a part of the interview.
The Interviewer is the face of the company .When the candidate walks in for an interview ,he is making a judgement on the company culture, value,work environment etc.Most candidates vigilantly look around to try and gather as much info they can about the co.
Its extremely crucial that the front desk executive feels good about the company and doest give wrong vibes to the candidate.A candidate is a future resource(asset) and should be taken care of .Interviews not starting on time and making candidates wait for a long time without any info creates an impression that the attitude of ppl is laid back .Similarly, an interviewer showing up in his casual attire( unless one is in the gaming sector “) ) would also put off a candidate thinking that the co.isnt serious about hiring.
I believe there are these and such small things that go a long way if one wants to attract and retain the right talent.
Lavi
This is great advice even for conducting interviews in academia. Thanks for the help!
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful well let me know how it turns out. This is good…thanks for sharing