How to get better at recruitment

The title image was generated by AI based on the "recruiting hell" command.

"One should take as a rule of thumb: it is better to have less quantity, but higher quality. - Vladimir Lenin

Hi! If you're here, there's a good chance you're looking for implementable ideas on how to improve recruiting on an ad hoc basis. If you are short on time - point 1 will help you increase results 👊.

1. Hiring Manager writes to candidates on LinkedIn

The whole idea is based on the fact that candidates are 50% more likely to respond to messages written by prospective supervisors than by recruiters. In my opinion, this is because they feel more trust in them - they know they're the ones they'll be dealing with on a daily basis, so supervisors risk more when they lie. Recruiters, on the other hand, can stretch reality when recruiting, and they won't face as much punishment for it as a Hiring Manager, because they are only active in the recruitment process - then they don't have daily contact with the prospective employee.

The supervisor does not need to know how to search for candidates on LinkedIn. It is enough for the recruiter to present him with 10 promising profiles of people to whom the HM will write a personalized message.

Good morning Anna - I see that IAM solutions is something you are really good at!

I am a team manager, and I am looking for a person just like you. Can we talk about it?

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Good morning Christopher - your experience at IAM caught my attention!

I am a team manager, and I am looking for a person just like you to join the team. Would you like to talk about it?

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Think about it for a minute - would you open such a message if you were the recipient? I certainly would - it is short, specific and, in addition, pleasant to receive, and in both cases the manager appreciates my experience, which I like.

How do I send such a message without having a premium account? Any LinkedIn member can send an invitation to anyone, and attach a message to the invitation, as long as it fits within the 300-character limit. The whole difficulty is based on convincing the manager and recruiter to work together. If they don't know what to write - let them use the above messages!

Writing a message by a future supervisor means a 50% increase. That is, if the recruiter's response rate is 40 percent - the manager's will be 65 percent! I don't know if this is something that acquisition talent can afford to ignore.

2. Interesting job offer

A candidate invited by a Hiring Manager wants you to send him a job offer? That's great! It is worth ensuring that such an offer does not deter, but attracts responses with its content.

Does the offer target both genders?

Unfortunately, it is still standard to have offers on which they list 6-8 requirements, when in fact the key is to meet 1-2 conditions. Especially among women, there is a tendency not to apply if you don't meet all the conditions.

In my opinion, you will do yourself, and the people applying, a favor and actually specify the key qualifications as essential, and list the rest - if any - as nice to have's. The person creating the job offer should have a good understanding of what the core competencies actually are.

But if I list just 2 conditions, I'll be flooded with 100 candidates who think they meet them, someone in the recruiting department will say right away

And very well - I will answer. And if you list 10 conditions as key, you will get 20 resumes, of which maybe one will be suitable for further process. There are people who apply regardless of whether they are suitable or not. What we're doing - narrowing down the catalog of necessary qualities - is we're actually letting desirable candidates get to us. And after all, it's better to be able to pick through the candidates to select the best ones than to report that we didn't receive matching resumes this week either, right?

If for some reason you need to include 7-8 criteria, you can write - "feel free to apply if you pass just one of the belows", and then list the requirements.

Determine the time frame of the process

You probably have a planned process structure. Share it with the candidate. By including information in the job offer about how long the recruitment process takes, the structure of the process and what happens when, you make the candidate more likely to apply for the role - because they feel more confident knowing what is planned.

There are two sides to this medal - by listing such things in your job offer, you are, in a way, committing to these deadlines. Organizing your time to fit into the schedule may be difficult for you at first, but trust me - being verbal and knowing that you can be relied on is deeply rewarding. In addition, you get that sweet feeling in the back of your mind that no thing got away from you - which is very valuable in our time.

At the end of each job offer, it's a good idea to include a phrase that reassures the candidate that he or she will get timely feedback. A suggestion I've come across reads as follows:

Whatever the result of the interview, our recruiter contacts you quickly, either to make you an offer or to tell you why you haven't been selected. It's feedback that's never easy to hear, but it's helpful for future interviews.

3. Follow-up!

19/20 candidates admitted that it's much worse to wait than to receive unfavorable information for them - keep this in mind when recruiting! If you say you will send information by Wednesday - send information by Wednesday, even if the information is that there is still no decision!

Every Friday send people an update on - where they are in the process! Even if there is no update - making sure they remember makes them enter the weekend well

It's the people who are in the process - changing jobs makes a huge difference in their lives! People have loans, families and other commitments; how do you think they will choose an employer who communicated with them as they were candidates, or one where communication is sporadic?

And how do I know all this, am I so smart myself?

No! While writing this post I used the book "The Robot-Proof Recruiter" by Katrina Collier. From her book I took all the statistics given here, and the content.

Katrina gives many more examples in her book. I can only encourage you to read her content - it made me understand how to humanely reach out to people!

I'm Kacper, and I run an employment agency in Cybersecurity. I'd love to read what you think of this post on LinedkIn - the link to my profile is in the footer of the message.