People
Power – Human Resources at your Fingertips
By Susan
Marsh
Hiring
Too Fast!
Technology has done much to accelerate the recruitment and
hiring timeline for all industries, including fitness. In
a sense, the easier it is for companies to source candidates,
the faster everyone must respond. The best applicants are
snapped up as quickly as they become available, and hiring
managers are demanding faster and faster turnaround times
to fill their open positions.
Companies are working hard to develop streamlined hiring
practices that shorten the gap between finding a qualified
candidate and making the offer. In the past, a month was
considered extremely efficient, but now two weeks is deemed
by some pressured employers as too long. No one wants to
fall behind in the race for the top talent.
Everyone is familiar with the barriers that slow down the
process: hiring managers who drag their feet or face delays
in getting hiring approval, references who never return
calls, candidates who feel hurried and end up catching an
untimely case of cold feet. They all combine to add days
and even weeks to the process.
There are however important distinctions between speed and
haste. Hard-pressed hiring managers who try to cut corners
by skimming over carefully thought out interview questions
or reference checking are more likely to end up back at
the drawing board after an ill-fitting match. And rushing
a candidate to accept an offer may trigger a last-minute
bailout.
Going too fast without a focused process invites disaster.
You’ll miss the best candidates, as well as lose candidates
along the way because candidates will feel that you’re
disinterested, disorganized, desperate or all of the above.
The disconnect often occurs because companies don’t
think of hiring in the same way as other important business
practices. If your goal is to find the best people in the
shortest time, you have to adhere to a process, with all
the analysis and discipline that goes with that.
Here are some tips for narrowing the hiring time
span at various points along your selection process.
Sourcing
One area where companies fall short is by not having a predetermined
sourcing strategy specific to the function and/or seniority
level of the position. Do you use advertising only? The
Internet? Although most hiring managers will start with
their existing applicant pool, you’ll also need a
set plan for opening a wider search if your well of applicants
runs dry. Ideally, sourcing strategies should be different
for different positions in your organization. How you search
for a personal trainer will be much different than your
search strategy for a sales consultant. I recommend identifying
a strategy for each separate job grouping based on what’s
been proven to work best and fastest for those types of
positions. You can’t apply a one-size-fits-all approach
to every job posting.
Prescreening and building a short list
If you have a top-notch, frequently updated applicant pool,
much of your prescreening duties have been done for you.
For resumes that flow in after the opening is announced,
invest the most effort in candidates who’ve emerged
via employee or member referrals. These tend to be the strongest
in terms of quality and fit, since by nature your employees
and your members would only recommend those people who will
reflect well on themselves. They also would know best what
the company is looking for. (If you don’t already
have one in place, your organization should consider a referral
bonus or “finder’s fee”).
Responding to potential candidates
One of the most foolish things hiring managers can do is
to sit on the resumes of top candidates for days without
taking action. I know most managers and supervisors are
extremely busy, but one of the primary reasons for this
is that they have to struggle with mediocre candidates,
having lost the very best because they delayed taking action
on their resumes. I recommend screening and sorting resumes
the day they’re received to determine whether the
pile contains any superstars. Contact the superstars that
very day, and if you’re unsure, treat them all as
superstars. Arrange for a meeting or phone interview within
one to three days. My experience tells me that the odds
of actually hiring a superstar candidate from a resume you
have had for over a month are zero.
Interviewing
After initial phone conversations, consider scheduling a
single, in-person "power interview" in which a
promising candidate can meet with all the decision makers
at once, instead of having to undergo a series of interviews
over the course of several days or weeks. You can even hold
these meetings after hours, to ensure more people will be
available. You can also schedule some job related testing
to do during the same appointment.
Reference checks
At the time you compile your short list for interviewing,
you can begin the task of reference checking. Waiting until
you’ve decided on a finalist is too late, since this
can be one of the more time-consuming elements of the hiring
process. Consider using reference interviews as part of
your screening process as well.
Most importantly, don’t be tempted to skim over this
essential part of the hiring process. Make it a communicated
policy in your organization that if a manager or supervisor
hires a new employee without two or three references in
hand, it’s grounds for dismissal.
Making the offer
Don’t let the good ones get away while you’re
putting together your offer – clear the way for the
offer to be made and accepted. If references are not complete,
make the offer contingent upon them.
Once you’ve made the verbal offer, follow up with
an acceptance letter, rather than an offer letter, that
basically states, "We’re glad you’ll be
joining us," and perhaps mention some of the immediate
projects the candidate will be working on. Psychologically,
make him or her feel like part of the team even before the
job begins.
If your candidate doesn’t accept right away, perhaps
he or she is waiting to hear from another potential employer.
To know where you stand, make sure you keep an open dialogue.
If he or she is interviewing for other positions, discover
what the timeline is, and be ready to let the candidate
go after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Have another
thoroughly screened candidate waiting in the wings for such
a contingency.
Always follow up 24 hours after the offer. Some might see
this as badgering, but that won’t be the case if you
treat the candidate as if he or she is already part of the
team. Don’t issue time-bomb offers that expire after
a particular time. You don’t want a wavering candidate
to feel pressured and later experience buyer’s remorse.
Any way you can make a candidate feel valued will help him
or her to feel good about the decision. Deliver the offer
with excitement and enthusiasm!
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