Recruiting Essentials

A 3-Step Approach to Win the Best Workers in the Post-COVID Hiring Tsunami

Your hiring process has always been a two-way street. While you’re evaluating candidates, they’re evaluating your culture. From the moment you contact candidates through the assessments, interviews, background checks, and job offer, you have an opportunity to demonstrate how your company values and treats its employees.

To establish and/or maintain a reputation as a great place to work, you must treat every applicant with the same care and consideration as you would a cherished customer. And that begins with the speed and the manner with which you respond.

Before the pandemic when the labor market was insanely tight, I bet you remember receiving an application a day or so after it landed in your Inbox, reviewing it and thinking, “Wow! This person is a PERFECT match for us!” But when you called them to invite them in for an interview, you discovered that your perfect match had already taken another job. And if the job they took was with your competitor, that bruise didn’t go away for a while. To have any chance at the best and the brightest workers who were laid off or furloughed and are now available, you must be prepared to quickly assess, interview, background check, hire, and onboard.

MIMIC AMAZON PRIME

Amazon Prime members receive one- or two-day free shipping on millions of items. They also have access to instant tracking so they know seconds after they push the “buy” button that their order has been received. Immediately, Amazon lets them know their order is processed, and not long after, they’ll get an email letting them know their item has been shipped. This email provides package tracking information and the expected delivery date. The shopper is then notified once the package is delivered and often receives a photo of the delivered package on their front door mat. Finally, Amazon sends a follow-up message to find out if the customer is happy and wishes to leave a review or wants to order additional quantities of the product.

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Your hiring process should include a similar tracking feature that applicants can follow with ease so they know where they stand each step of the way. If you need additional information or you want candidates to take an assessment, notify them and orient them on the process that will follow.

Try something like this: “Thanks for completing the application, Caleb. To determine if we’re going to be a good fit for each other, we’d like you to take a brief online assessment that most applicants complete in 15 to 20 minutes. You can take this assessment on any Wi-Fi-enabled device at your leisure within the next 48 hours. After you complete the assessment, we will contact you by text within 24 hours with the next steps. Here’s the link…”

TRACK AND NOTIFY USING THE 3 P’s

To win the recruiting wars in the post-Covid hiring tsunami you must lock in the 3 P’s in your applicant tracking;

Make all communication PERSONAL.

Go to extreme measures to avoid being seen by your candidates as robotic or too automated.

Stay POSITIVE.

Demonstrate a warm, kind, upbeat or even amusing relationship with your applicants. Be genuine and show your appreciation for their time and interest in joining your organization.

Be PUNCTUAL.

Follow the Amazon Prime example by providing continual updates to all applicants letting each know where they stand in your hiring process. Being unresponsive or slow on the trigger is the surest way to lose a ‘perfect hire’ to your competitor.

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL:

If, for any reason, the applicant is disqualified and is no longer in consideration for a job with your company, do the right thing and notify them promptly—and whenever possible, explain why this is so. Remember that every job applicant is human, and like you and me, they will feel the pain of rejection even if they weren’t all that excited about the potential of working in your business. Your applicants are also customers, or potential customers, who are likely to become either advocates or adversaries of your brand. And if their experience in your funnel is either amazingly good or amazingly bad, they are going to tell the world about it.

Side note: Balance Point and Snag-a-job are the two excellent HR applicant tracking services that I recommend to my clients. 

ERIC CHESTER

About Eric Chester is a leading voice in the global dialogue on employee engagement and building a world-class workplace culture. He's an inthe-trenches researcher on the topic of the emerging workforce and the dynamics of attracting, managing, motivating and retaining top talent. Chester is a Hall-of-Fame keynote speaker (yes, he was the keynote at the ORLA Hospitality Conference in September) and the author of 5 leadership books including: Fully Staffed (2020), On Fire at Work: How Great Companies Ignite Passion in their People without Burning Them Out (2015), and Reviving Work Ethic (2012). Learn more about Eric at EricChester.com.