3 smart ways to make the job search more inviting for candidates

In an attempt to find the best of the best workers – given the skills shortage – employers are beefing up the vetting process by festooning their help wanted ads with provisos that tell job seekers about the requirements dictating whether they should apply.

In doing so, however, businesses run the risk of turning off qualified professionals who don't want to endure the rigmarole that the application process entails, a human resources expert has warned. She's calling on business owners to clean up their act.

Writing in Forbes magazine, Liz Ryan, a former Fortune 500 company human resource senior vice president, noted far too many businesses are going about the hiring process all wrong, packing job listings with details that cause potential hires to see why they shouldn't apply for the position instead of why they ought to. In short, recruiting is not about exclusion; it's about inclusion.

Bad hires can be costly
You wouldn't know it, though, based on even a cursory review of listings in online job search engines. The ads' specificity may derive from poor past experience, as promising resumes that seem to speak to candidates' qualifications turnout to be false-positives. Indeed, based on a recent survey conducted by Robert Half, nearly two-thirds of senior managers have interviewed candidates whose resumes were impressive but turned out good only on paper. These misfires may stem from the abundance of resumes companies receive, averaging 40 per job opening, the poll found.

Business owners know from experience the fallout from hiring the wrong person. More than 90 percent of respondents in a separate Robert Half poll said a poor hiring decision at least somewhat adversely affect the team's morale. On average, companies squander $14,900 for each bad hire who comes aboard, according to a 2017 survey commissioned by CareerBuilder.

Rosemary Haefner, chief of human resources at CareerBuilder, warned there are no shortcuts to finding the right fit.

"The best thing hiring managers can do is put in the time and effort on the front end to make sure they have the best available pool of applicants for every job opening," Haefner advised.

Haefner's entreaty echoes Ryan's, who offered the following tips for how business owners can make the candidate search more effective:

1. Clean up job ads
Ryan said that instead of listing never-ending "essential requirements," many of which are unrealistic for even experienced workers to achieve, managers need to rein in their expectations and keep their descriptions short and to the point. They should also include information that the job seeker expects to see, such as what the position pays.

2. Ditch online job applications
According to Ryan, "[the] application process is a window to your corporate soul," but it's hard to for applicants to make out what that is when they're busy filling out never-ending applications. In lieu of application tracking systems, managers should make use of other resources, like those at LinkedIn, which make candidate evaluation simpler.  

3. Become more communicative
Communication is pivotal during recruitment, enabling business owners to learn more about a candidate's potential soft skills. Understanding breaks down, however, when managers don't keep job seekers in the loop.

"We make them wait weeks between communications," Ryan intoned.

Businesses can address this issue by being more respectful of candidates' time and giving them a timeline about when they'll hear back, Ryan added.

Here at Hudspeth Law Firm, in addition to providing legal representation to businesses of all sizes, we also offer practical solutions for how to strengthen your hiring, managing and firing processes so they're structured in a manner that gets candidates' attention for all the right reasons. Please take advantage of our free consultation to see how we may be able to help in these or other matters. If we can't help you, we'll put you in touch with someone who can.

Categorised in: Business Law, Starting a Business in Arizona

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