Don’t let processes get in the way of a good hire, and other lessons
It takes talent to find talent. Recruiting well requires many skills — the ability to attract people to an organization, to differentiate it from others, to sell it to a candidate, to be creative in finding good candidates, to listen, observe, assess and really probe an individual’s track record.
A company’s ability to choose the best candidates gives it a competitive advantage, but recruiters don’t always get the respect they deserve.
“The recruiter is often considered the entry-level job within HR,” says Maureen Neglia, director of RBC recruitment for RBC Financial Group in Toronto. A lot of HR professionals get their start in recruiting and many believe that all that’s really needed to be a good recruiter are some basic interviewing skills. That’s a mistake, says Neglia.
“Organizations really undervalue the importance of the role, how much they need to invest in it and how much they need to pay that role,” says Neglia. “The capability of the recruiter is the true differentiator of a world-class recruitment function. The time an organization puts into building capability of the recruiter pays off in terms of the quality of hires that they’re able to make.”
HR departments shouldn’t be afraid to say they need recruitment help, she adds.
When you’re hiring for key roles in your organization and you don’t have the skills in-house, “have the sense to outsource the job to the professionals,” says Neglia. “There are some key roles within an organization and bad hires are very costly.”
The art of the interview
HR recruiters often miss out on excellent candidates for all kinds of reasons, including unrealistic expectations, a lack of preparation or the inability to see a candidate’s potential. That’s the word from several top recruiting specialists, who’ve had years of experience working in the field.
“Hire for fit, train for skills,” advises Sameera Sereda, a recruiting specialist at The Counsel Network in Calgary, who adds that an in-house HR person should know the company and the corporate culture really well. “A lot of people make the mistake of hiring who they think has the best skills and don’t pay attention to someone who might not get along in that particular corporate culture.”
Put personal biases aside with respect to personality, and think about who’s going to fit in best with the company, says Sereda. “Most people are attracted to people like themselves. You find you really get along with somebody in an interview, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the best person.
Sereda says she likes interviews to be very conversational “because that is what really provides an insight into a person’s personality. I find that when they’re at ease they disclose more. If you’re able to open yourself up and share some personal information, they might too and all of a sudden you get a really good insight into who they are as a person. Those are soft skills that I believe are more important than skills that you can train people for. As long as they’re bright and they’ve got a foundation, it all comes back to fitting in with the company.”
HR and line managers
Sereda encourages HR people to interview a candidate more than once. She normally does an initial phone conversation, then a screening interview. When the interviewing manager meets with the candidate, she sits in. “Most HR people skip that step,” she says, saying that’s a mistake.
“People interview differently at different stages. They have off days. Somebody who interviews really well may not actually know what they’re doing, versus someone who didn’t interview very well for a particular reason, but is actually a very strong candidate. So if HR people actually spend more than one session with that individual, they get a bigger and better picture of that individual.” During the second interview, simply sit in the background and let the hiring manager ask the questions. You can give your feedback later as to whether the candidate was consistent with his answers or whether he seemed really nervous this time.
“If you let it go after the first round, I think you’re doing it a real injustice. Stick with the candidates for as long as you can to be able to add most value to the team that’s doing the hiring,” says Sereda.
It’s the recruiter’s job to coach the hiring leaders, says Simon Parkin, American Express’s recruitment leader for Canada and Latin America.
The HR person may be able to look at the candidate in a more objective, professional manner. A manager who’s hiring for a certain position isn’t necessarily assessing the good versus the great candidate. “(They) may not be thinking, ‘Three to five years down the road, is this person going to be good for the next level, or good for my job?’” says Parkin.
“Hiring leaders don’t necessarily see the big picture. And recruiters can identify candidates who will eventually be involved in pipelines down the road internally that can really benefit the company.”
The need for speed
Time pressures can prevent organizations from getting the best and the brightest candidates. The focus isn’t always about finding a quality hire, it’s about getting somebody through the door.
“More corporate environments are more metric-driven these days, where there’s a stop watch from the start to the end of a job and the recruiters may be evaluated in that,” says Parkin.
A sense of urgency is important, says Tim Collins, president and founder of StaffLink Solutions in Toronto.
As the market picks up, there will be multiple offers to the best candidates. “When the person first arrives to an interview you have to treat them right from the beginning as though you really want them to work for your organization, not the opposite,” says Collins.
“Treat the interview process as an opportunity to market your company,” he says. “You’re the front-line of communication. There’s a tremendous PR opportunity. You’re not going to hire every person you interview. But if they have a positive experience, that will affect five, 10, 20 other people.”
Don’t waste time when an ideal candidate is first identified, says Paul Dodd, principal, co-founder and owner of Head2Head Inc., a leading provider of recruiters.
Many people still believe they have to see a set number of candidates before choosing the right one. “Meanwhile, the first person was an absolute diamond and the process runs on because the hiring manager dictated it. But by the time they come to their conclusions two or three weeks later, the first candidate’s gone because another organization has been a lot more efficient at moving them through their recruiting process, says Dodd.
Look beyond job boards to find candidates. And don’t forget about passive job-seekers, who may be interested in joining your firm but who aren’t actively looking. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to people. Look at “networking, alumni, referrals, chat rooms, student alumni groups, whatever,” says Dodd. “The corporate recruiter’s behaviour tends to be corporate-centric, they tend to wait for the proverbial roast duck to fly through the window.”
What trips recruiters up?
“Some of the worst résumés are the best candidates, because they don’t have the time to invest in polishing up their résumé,” says Parkin of American Express. “Some people look at a résumé and think this individual’s great and you’ve almost put someone on a pedestal without even meeting them.
Some recruiters like to control the conversation and talk a lot, adds Parkin. They forget that their job is to listen. “When you’re selling the company you probably want to talk a lot, but it’s a two-way conversation and you can’t lose sight of that.”
Some recruiters tend to hire the person who had the best interview, not the best person for the job. Someone who’s more polished will come across as being more capable when in fact they’re merely selling you on themselves, as opposed to somebody who may be a little more reserved.
“Everybody’s going to be nervous going into an interview. You have to bring them to a level of being comfortable and being at ease so that it’s a two-way conversation and they don’t feel that you’re sweating answers out of them,” says Parkin. “I’ve seen recruiters like that and there’s no way they have the amount of success that somebody who actually treats a candidate like a person and has a two-way conversation.”
Parkin calls it interviewing by fear. “If you use fear tactics, you’re not only going to throw them off but you’re going to get them to think they never want to work for this company,” says Parkin. If they have a bad experience, they’ll probably think the recruiter has just wasted their time and will probably tell their friends about the experience.
Try to move away from the standard questions most recruiters ask — the ones that everybody’s expecting to hear. Don’t ask, “Where do you see yourself in two to five years?” People usually have a rehearsed answer for that one.
Also avoid asking “what’s your greatest flaw?” People are often “coached to use something that’s not too negative but can be turned into a positive,” says Parkin. “Half of them will say, ‘I work too much.’ It’s right out of the book. And it’s pretty funny to see.”
Instead, “ask someone ‘what’s your greatest accomplishment?’ and leave it open-ended like that,” adds Parkin. It will tell you a great deal about the candidate and you’ll probably learn a lot about them.
It’s one thing to say you know how to do something, it’s another thing to actually be able to provide proof. Ask for an example of a time when something specific happened. If someone says, “I get along with people,” have them give you a time when there was conflict and they were able to resolve it.
Coming up with that real-life example is tough on candidates. It separates good candidates from weak candidates, because those who can come up with an answer right away, or those who can come up with really good ones, are those who can think on their feet.
Ann Macaulay is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
Top tips for recruiters from the experts
•Hire for fit, train for skills.
•Try not to focus too much on a wish list for each job.
•Probe, don’t just accept what’s written on the résumé.
•Put personal biases aside.
•Interview the candidate more than once.
•Have a sense of urgency to avoid missing out on the best candidates.
•Treat the interview process as a chance to market the organization.
•Look beyond job boards — network and use referrals.
•Put the candidate at ease.
•Move away from standard interview questions.
•Work closely with the hiring manager — give him notes and let him know what you’re thinking.
•Remember some of the best candidates have the worst résumés. Busy people engaged in their jobs don’t have the time to polish up résumés.
A company’s ability to choose the best candidates gives it a competitive advantage, but recruiters don’t always get the respect they deserve.
“The recruiter is often considered the entry-level job within HR,” says Maureen Neglia, director of RBC recruitment for RBC Financial Group in Toronto. A lot of HR professionals get their start in recruiting and many believe that all that’s really needed to be a good recruiter are some basic interviewing skills. That’s a mistake, says Neglia.
“Organizations really undervalue the importance of the role, how much they need to invest in it and how much they need to pay that role,” says Neglia. “The capability of the recruiter is the true differentiator of a world-class recruitment function. The time an organization puts into building capability of the recruiter pays off in terms of the quality of hires that they’re able to make.”
HR departments shouldn’t be afraid to say they need recruitment help, she adds.
When you’re hiring for key roles in your organization and you don’t have the skills in-house, “have the sense to outsource the job to the professionals,” says Neglia. “There are some key roles within an organization and bad hires are very costly.”
The art of the interview
HR recruiters often miss out on excellent candidates for all kinds of reasons, including unrealistic expectations, a lack of preparation or the inability to see a candidate’s potential. That’s the word from several top recruiting specialists, who’ve had years of experience working in the field.
“Hire for fit, train for skills,” advises Sameera Sereda, a recruiting specialist at The Counsel Network in Calgary, who adds that an in-house HR person should know the company and the corporate culture really well. “A lot of people make the mistake of hiring who they think has the best skills and don’t pay attention to someone who might not get along in that particular corporate culture.”
Put personal biases aside with respect to personality, and think about who’s going to fit in best with the company, says Sereda. “Most people are attracted to people like themselves. You find you really get along with somebody in an interview, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the best person.
Sereda says she likes interviews to be very conversational “because that is what really provides an insight into a person’s personality. I find that when they’re at ease they disclose more. If you’re able to open yourself up and share some personal information, they might too and all of a sudden you get a really good insight into who they are as a person. Those are soft skills that I believe are more important than skills that you can train people for. As long as they’re bright and they’ve got a foundation, it all comes back to fitting in with the company.”
HR and line managers
Sereda encourages HR people to interview a candidate more than once. She normally does an initial phone conversation, then a screening interview. When the interviewing manager meets with the candidate, she sits in. “Most HR people skip that step,” she says, saying that’s a mistake.
“People interview differently at different stages. They have off days. Somebody who interviews really well may not actually know what they’re doing, versus someone who didn’t interview very well for a particular reason, but is actually a very strong candidate. So if HR people actually spend more than one session with that individual, they get a bigger and better picture of that individual.” During the second interview, simply sit in the background and let the hiring manager ask the questions. You can give your feedback later as to whether the candidate was consistent with his answers or whether he seemed really nervous this time.
“If you let it go after the first round, I think you’re doing it a real injustice. Stick with the candidates for as long as you can to be able to add most value to the team that’s doing the hiring,” says Sereda.
It’s the recruiter’s job to coach the hiring leaders, says Simon Parkin, American Express’s recruitment leader for Canada and Latin America.
The HR person may be able to look at the candidate in a more objective, professional manner. A manager who’s hiring for a certain position isn’t necessarily assessing the good versus the great candidate. “(They) may not be thinking, ‘Three to five years down the road, is this person going to be good for the next level, or good for my job?’” says Parkin.
“Hiring leaders don’t necessarily see the big picture. And recruiters can identify candidates who will eventually be involved in pipelines down the road internally that can really benefit the company.”
The need for speed
Time pressures can prevent organizations from getting the best and the brightest candidates. The focus isn’t always about finding a quality hire, it’s about getting somebody through the door.
“More corporate environments are more metric-driven these days, where there’s a stop watch from the start to the end of a job and the recruiters may be evaluated in that,” says Parkin.
A sense of urgency is important, says Tim Collins, president and founder of StaffLink Solutions in Toronto.
As the market picks up, there will be multiple offers to the best candidates. “When the person first arrives to an interview you have to treat them right from the beginning as though you really want them to work for your organization, not the opposite,” says Collins.
“Treat the interview process as an opportunity to market your company,” he says. “You’re the front-line of communication. There’s a tremendous PR opportunity. You’re not going to hire every person you interview. But if they have a positive experience, that will affect five, 10, 20 other people.”
Don’t waste time when an ideal candidate is first identified, says Paul Dodd, principal, co-founder and owner of Head2Head Inc., a leading provider of recruiters.
Many people still believe they have to see a set number of candidates before choosing the right one. “Meanwhile, the first person was an absolute diamond and the process runs on because the hiring manager dictated it. But by the time they come to their conclusions two or three weeks later, the first candidate’s gone because another organization has been a lot more efficient at moving them through their recruiting process, says Dodd.
Look beyond job boards to find candidates. And don’t forget about passive job-seekers, who may be interested in joining your firm but who aren’t actively looking. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to people. Look at “networking, alumni, referrals, chat rooms, student alumni groups, whatever,” says Dodd. “The corporate recruiter’s behaviour tends to be corporate-centric, they tend to wait for the proverbial roast duck to fly through the window.”
What trips recruiters up?
“Some of the worst résumés are the best candidates, because they don’t have the time to invest in polishing up their résumé,” says Parkin of American Express. “Some people look at a résumé and think this individual’s great and you’ve almost put someone on a pedestal without even meeting them.
Some recruiters like to control the conversation and talk a lot, adds Parkin. They forget that their job is to listen. “When you’re selling the company you probably want to talk a lot, but it’s a two-way conversation and you can’t lose sight of that.”
Some recruiters tend to hire the person who had the best interview, not the best person for the job. Someone who’s more polished will come across as being more capable when in fact they’re merely selling you on themselves, as opposed to somebody who may be a little more reserved.
“Everybody’s going to be nervous going into an interview. You have to bring them to a level of being comfortable and being at ease so that it’s a two-way conversation and they don’t feel that you’re sweating answers out of them,” says Parkin. “I’ve seen recruiters like that and there’s no way they have the amount of success that somebody who actually treats a candidate like a person and has a two-way conversation.”
Parkin calls it interviewing by fear. “If you use fear tactics, you’re not only going to throw them off but you’re going to get them to think they never want to work for this company,” says Parkin. If they have a bad experience, they’ll probably think the recruiter has just wasted their time and will probably tell their friends about the experience.
Try to move away from the standard questions most recruiters ask — the ones that everybody’s expecting to hear. Don’t ask, “Where do you see yourself in two to five years?” People usually have a rehearsed answer for that one.
Also avoid asking “what’s your greatest flaw?” People are often “coached to use something that’s not too negative but can be turned into a positive,” says Parkin. “Half of them will say, ‘I work too much.’ It’s right out of the book. And it’s pretty funny to see.”
Instead, “ask someone ‘what’s your greatest accomplishment?’ and leave it open-ended like that,” adds Parkin. It will tell you a great deal about the candidate and you’ll probably learn a lot about them.
It’s one thing to say you know how to do something, it’s another thing to actually be able to provide proof. Ask for an example of a time when something specific happened. If someone says, “I get along with people,” have them give you a time when there was conflict and they were able to resolve it.
Coming up with that real-life example is tough on candidates. It separates good candidates from weak candidates, because those who can come up with an answer right away, or those who can come up with really good ones, are those who can think on their feet.
Ann Macaulay is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
Top tips for recruiters from the experts
•Hire for fit, train for skills.
•Try not to focus too much on a wish list for each job.
•Probe, don’t just accept what’s written on the résumé.
•Put personal biases aside.
•Interview the candidate more than once.
•Have a sense of urgency to avoid missing out on the best candidates.
•Treat the interview process as a chance to market the organization.
•Look beyond job boards — network and use referrals.
•Put the candidate at ease.
•Move away from standard interview questions.
•Work closely with the hiring manager — give him notes and let him know what you’re thinking.
•Remember some of the best candidates have the worst résumés. Busy people engaged in their jobs don’t have the time to polish up résumés.
