You’ve posted the job ad with specific requirements, you’ve screened and pre-screened pages of resumes and candidates, and yet . . . nothing. Despite your best efforts and strategies to find the “right” candidate, no one seems to fit the bill. Not finding the right candidates is exasperating and may leave you wondering why it’s so difficult to find good talent. When your search leads to dead ends, it’s time to wonder if maybe your recruitment needs to be reevaluated. Here are some mistakes you may be making.
Common Recruiting Mistakes Companies Make
Your Job Ads Are Dull and Uninspiring
To hire great people, you must be able to sell and market the job ad in a captivating, appealing manner. Similar to selling products with catchy phrases, recruiting should be a marketing and sales activity. Unfortunately, poorly written job ads often convey the wrong information or are filled with unnecessary verbiage. When the details of the position or your expectations are unclear, job seekers will likely pass.
You Leave Potential Candidates Hanging
To nab the best talent, respond quickly. Don’t expect candidates to wait while you leave them hanging for two or three weeks. Be specific and clear about where prospects stand in the process. Something like, “We’re currently scheduling the first round of interviews over the next few weeks” is more effective than, “Thank you for your application; we will be in touch.” Transparency lets them know the length of the process and makes them less likely to lose interest if they don’t hear back right away. Replying in a timely manner also shows that you respect their time and want to give them the courtesy they deserve.
You Rely Solely on Interviews for Evaluation
Interviews are good for having insightful conversations, but can't always prove whether candidates have the right skills and experience. To receive more than canned responses, try incorporating trial assignments, team interviews, administering personality assessments using companies such as SkillSurvey, or other creative ways of drawing out candidates’ real personalities and abilities.
Check Out The HiringThing Guide to Increasing Your Applicant Traffic
Amping up your recruiting game isn’t difficult; it mostly involves examining your current practices and identifying holes. Shaking things up and improving your strategy with a critical eye can go a long way in improving the quality of candidates you attract.
The Hiring Happiness® experts at HiringThing have created The HiringThing Guide to Increasing Your Applicant Tracking to help organizations examine your current practices and increase their applicant traffic by learning:
- How to reassess the hiring process (and why applicant traffic is down).
- What today’s job seekers want.
- The new rules of recruiting.
- How to take your recruiting strategy to the next level.
In addition to giving you expert-level insights and actionable tips to improve your hiring process including checklists, audits, and organizers to help get you started thinking about how to increase your applicant traffic.
About HiringThing
HiringThing is a modern recruiting and employee onboarding platform as a service that creates seamless talent experiences. Our white label solutions and open API enable technology and service providers to offer hiring and onboarding to their clients. Approachable and adaptable, the platform empowers anyone, anywhere to build their dream team.
