Why the Best Qualified Candidate is Rarely Hired by Bill Humbert — RecruiterGuy

Most companies do not understand that the Recruiting/Talent Acquisition process mirrors the sales process perfectly. This leads to actions that prevent companies from hiring the top talent, particularly in a competitive employment market.

The top 4 reasons why companies miss the best qualified candidate follow:

1) Poorly written job descriptions. The wrong people in many companies write the job descriptions — Human Resources. Why? The staff in Human Resources many times simply take the most recent job description for a position — and post it. If that job description is more than a year old, most times it is out of date. Therefore, your company sources a pool of the wrong candidates. Then you interview a smaller pool of the wrong candidates. The manager feels pressure to hire one person, so they hire the wrong person. Once the wrong person leaves, Human Resources use the same job description to source another pool of candidates. What possibly could go wrong? Would you like a very strong solution? Have the manager list the 3 goals for the first 3 months of employment. List the top 3 goals for the first 6 months of employment, the top 3 goals for the first 9 months of employment, and the top three goals for the first 12 months of employment. Sourcing becomes crystal clear. Interviewing and selection becomes crystal clear. The annual review results are crystal clear.

2) The application process drives the best candidates away. Since I am an expert recruiting consultant and expert career transition consultant, I am one of the few people who are active on both sides of the desk. You may call me a “Candidate Whisperer”. Unlike most companies, who rarely measure the candidate experience, I listen to people who are searching for a job — and am the twice published author on finding a job. Measure your company’s candidate experience quickly. How many clicks does it take to find a list of jobs on your corporate website? Metrics show that for each click a group of candidates make to find a list of jobs, you lose 50% of the remaining candidates. What important group leaves first? Ever hear of passive candidates (those are top performers)? They are not actively searching, simply taking a look around. If your company forces them to complete an application prior to a conversation to convince them to interview, they are gone without a trace. How much sense does That make?

3) Few Companies Invest in Manager Interview Training. This is a very simple equation. If a manager has not been effectively trained to interview, They certainly have not been trained how to select the best qualified candidate.

4) Reference Checks are the best way to determine Cultural Fit. And neither a background investigator nor someone in Human Resources is the best fit to conduct a reference check. The manager IS the best person to conduct reference checks. They have the 4 Knows. They know the job. They know their expectations for the first year. They know (or should) when a reference raises a flag during their conversation. They know why the previous person left and what they need handled immediately. Obviously, this reference check is more than just asking dates of employment. Discussion of the job, its importance, and the expectation for the first year should all be discussed. Then ask if there is anything that would prevent the candidate from succeeding — better to know now. In my 37 years of professional recruitment, most references want to see the candidate succeed and be happy. Generally, if they do not feel this is the best environment, they let you know…I have stories…4 times references have burst out laughing when They heard who referred them.

If your company decides to implement changes in these 4 areas, recruitment will improve. That is a promise. I can help.

Watch this recent television interview titled, “Why The Best Qualified Candidate Is Rarely Hired” — https://bit.ly/2JBbTLw

Bill Humbert is available for speaking and training contracts.

RecruiterGuy@msn.com 435–714–4425

https://www.espeakers.com/marketplace/speaker/profile/23767/Bill-Humbert

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