Getting Creative with Your Hiring Process

A recent study found that the talent shortage is the top emerging risk for organizations worldwide. With everyone trying to attract, hire and retain qualified candidates the "fight for talent" is real and the competition for solid candidates is a never-ending battle.

It is necessary to be creative in the hiring process and to be mindful not to drive candidates away.

Over 51% of current U.S. employees are disconnected from their jobs and are currently searching job boards looking for new opportunities.

91% of current U.S. employees say they would consider leaving their jobs if offered something better from somewhere with an excellent corporate reputation.

The fight for talent isn't necessarily finding a gem in the 3.5% of unemployed nationwide, but finding employees that are disconnected as they're working for your competitors.

The talent is there… you just need a hiring process that is easy and a job ad that is enticing, and promising so you can get them to apply.

In this week's article, I'll go over how to combat the battle of finding qualified applicants and creating a hiring process that makes people WANT to press the button and WANT to work for you.

We can make an instant impact by increasing the number of qualified candidates by not overstating the qualifications of the job.

A recent study done by Harvard Business showed that out of 1000 men and women, 46% of them said they would not apply for a job they're "not qualified for" because they don't want to waste their time and energy "knowing they won't get the job".

Wildy unqualified applicants will apply to any job however there are qualified, valuable people you are scaring off because you're overstating the qualifications needed for a job.

1. Women - Women apply for jobs that they are 100% qualified for. If they don't believe they have the qualifications you're asking for, they won't apply.
2. People with integrity - If you post job ads with too many rules/qualifications you're telling honest people not to apply. People with integrity may believe that they might not fulfill one or more of the job's qualifications therefor they're not applying.

In that same Harvard Business study, 15% of the men and women claimed they did not apply because they were following the guidelines about who should apply.

How many of these people are qualified people that have great potential but they are simply not applying because employers are scaring them off with long lists of difficult requirements?

Remember to validate your job ads. You can't expect a candidate to apply for your job with near impossible qualifications if your top performer wouldn't have applied for that job when they began their career.

Perhaps, change your target market. Lower the needed years of experience, or target different job worlds and bring them into your own. Find people that never would have applied.

If you find applicants that previously wouldn't have been viewed for the position, remember to talk to your team and create an onboarding and training process to get them up to speed. Always deliver what you promised.

You need to expect employees to grow into the qualifications in their time working for you. If you can't expect them to grow into their qualifications, it might say more about your leadership than their potential. Let people flourish under your direction.

Don't set the bar so high you can't reach it yourself.

It's time to get creative with your job ads, download my guide 5 ways to increase qualified applicant flow.