Today’s blog is a shout-out to all the recruiters, HR experts and business owners in the crowd. We know your pain. And it’s not dealing with customer complaints or supply issues (although those are a real pain in the butt, there’s no denying it). Your biggest pain is recruiting well.
Whether you own a bakery, a law firm, an architecture firm or an accounting practice – the success of your business and your capacity for referral relies on your team. If they’re a great fit for your business, you’ll be able to scale your service without compromising on any promises you’ve made your customers. A great fit can mean a multitude of things, but in my book it translates as:
- Having a skillset appropriate to their role
- Being of an enthusiastic and emotionally generous disposition
- Able to interact professionally and kindly with clients in a timely fashion
- Willingness to be involved in the culture of your business
- Courteous, warm and respectful manner with other team members
If any one of these qualities are not met by a recruit, you will soon find your service standards diminish. (The only omission I’d make for that is skillset: it’s possible to train a staff member to complete tasks in the manner you require if they are enthusiastic and dedicated.) If you make enough poor recruiting decisions or hire desperately just to put a warm body in a seat, your revenue will be negatively affected. Rather than being able to confidently continue to finesse your business by working on it, recruiting poorly means a Director ends up stuck working in their business. Which kinds of defeats the purpose of recruiting at all, when you think about it.
When you hire poorly or have unaddressed cultural issues within your business that lead to regular staff turnover, it’s really hard to grow a stable business. Regular turnover chews up your mental space, it concerns clients and staff, and it costs you time and money.
Here’s the thing: it is tough to find talented new recruits. They’re not dime a dozen. If they were, everyone would have amazing businesses full of dynamic employees. (They don’t, btw.) In my experience, the best recruits aren’t mooching around listlessly waiting for the perfect job to fall into their lap. They’re not mindlessly scrolling Seek for months on end. Rather, your ace new recruit is likely to be engaged in their current job, but they may latently sense that a career change could be on the horizon. They’re not inveterate job-hoppers – rather, they’re individuals who will put themselves forward for a new role that looks irresistible.
Great recruits will change roles for a job that promises growth, a great working environment and the status of working with a terrific employer. It needs to be a really attractive and outstanding role for them to consider leaving their current role. And that’s not because they’re snobby or fancy – it’s because they are dedicated to their work. That’s the kind of person you want on your team. Someone who hasn’t got glazed eyes from hours of being exposed to dull adverts on Seek. And how will you find them?
On social media.
You want to pique the interest of an ideal candidate during the flow of their normal day – which inevitably involves hanging out on social media. Whilst posting your job on Seek.com and similar websites is useful, it can also lead to a whole bunch of run-of-the-mill applications. What you need are several extraordinarily good applications from motivated candidates. Quality, not quantity.
Of course, not all social media marketing is the same. Some of it is really dire, and consists of naff stock photos and poor, uninviting copy. A powerful recruitment advert will be a mix of bespoke graphic design that really appeals to your ideal candidate, paired with ripper copy before being delivered to the right demographic via the magick of the interwebz.
If you are trudging through endless substandard job applications – or simply not receiving any applications for your role – think carefully about different ways you can make your next recruitment drive really stand out and connect with the right candidates. The cost of recruiting poorly is simply too big a drain on your business to get wrong, or to execute in a dull, half-hearted way.
Thinking you could do with some help when it comes to attracting better candidates and recruiting right? Check out Ruby Assembly’s Social Media for Recruitment eBook, which details our brand-spankin’-new offering for recruiters, HR experts and employers here.
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