Are your recruiting and retention strategies nimble or numbing?
Posting ads, scanning resumes, calling meetings to discuss candidates, scheduling interviews … the hiring process can be long, cumbersome and tedious. And if approached in a slapdash or hurried manner, or by sticking to “the way we’ve always done it,” can result in the wrong hire and decreased productivity and progress.
Utilizing the services of an outside recruiter can do wonders for your approach, provided you go in knowing what you’re looking for — and not looking for — and make those requirements clear.
Consider these points.
What skills are required? It sounds obvious but calling up a staffing agency and saying “We need a Med-Surg nurse” isn’t terribly helpful. Be specific. A skilled staffing partner can work wonders with information such as preferred shift, some background on management, challenges in that workplace, continuing education opportunities and all the details on benefits.
What’s the culture? Professionals, especially those in hard-to-fill positions, know their value. They want a workplace that is challenging and exciting as well as one that offers the compensation figure they’re after. Provide any and all information about workplace diversity initiatives, the current staff makeup and anything else that lays out the personality of your company.
How are you different? Sometimes the buyer has to be the seller. Arm your recruiting partner with everything that makes you the best imaginable place to work. Compensation and benefits, sure, but the intangibles such as after-work meetups and other social opportunities go a long way as well, especially for the Millennial job seeker whose mantra is work-life balance.
Employers demand transparency from employees. Potential employees, quite understandably, demand it from employers. Making sure that you’ve laid out a complete picture for a recruitment and staffing partner ensures that a full, complete and accurate job description goes out into the world — and comes back in the hands of the prefect candidate.