Employee On-boarding—Recruiting and Selection
Written by Michelle Wachtel, SPHR
New employee on-boarding has been a hot topic as businesses experience and attempt to navigate the battle fields of the war on talent. Most of America’s top workplaces understand that on-boarding begins with the candidate experience during the selection process and starts long before a candidate even engages in interviewing. Your company’s recruiting brand is established whether you are making a strategic effort to define and refine it, or not.
If you are not strategically considering your recruiting and selection processes part of your recruiting brand and on-boarding process, you could be missing out on talent in an already tough market. What your employees are saying to their friends and family about working at your company is critical to your recruiting brand, as is what candidates who are considering working for your company say to their friends and family.
Referrals from current employees remain the best sources of talent. When a respected member of your staff refers someone they know to work for your company, that is an indication your brand is likely strong. Your employee feels good enough about the company to recommend it to someone they know. (S)he is putting their own reputation and credibility on the line by making that recommendation. Your brand could exponentially become more sound attracting more and more talented employees or, conversely, be weakened by an ineffective on-boarding process. If your process negatively impacts your brand, you will find yourself with even more openings and significantly handicapped on the talent battlefield.
The first step of the on-boarding process that will affect whether a candidate has a good experience and is set up for success in your organization is the recruiting and selection process. We’ll discuss further how this part of the process sets the tone of the candidate’s experience and can be maximized to strengthen your company’s brand for other candidates.
Whether a candidate has been referred by a current employee, sourced by a recruiter or applied directly, their experience is critical to a successful start, long tenure and builds your recruiting brand/reputation. Attracting and retaining talent is the number one concern companies are sharing across the globe. Therefore, it should be the top priority in most organizations, yet few organizations are investing in the time and infrastructure to build systems and processes to change the way they interact with current and potential employees.
Here are a few tips that can positively impact your company’s ability to attract and retain quality employees with an effective and efficient recruiting and selection process.
Timing is everything!
This can be the most challenging part of recruiting and selection, but it is absolutely crucial to the candidate experience. In our drive-thru, instant gratification world, would you expect the timing for contacting a candidate to stay the same as it was in the past? When even fast food restaurants and Starbucks have apps to place orders and reduce the time to serve their customers, employers need to recognize the change and speed up their pace. Contact a prospective candidate within 24 hours, if only to thank them for their consideration and give them a heads up on your timeline.
Ideally, a member of Human Resources or the hiring manager should be able to reach out the same or next business day to show enthusiasm and outline the process for the candidate. Most of us have access to email on our phones, so there should be no excuse for carving out a few minutes to send a quick message to get the process started and begin to build rapport with the candidate. Especially since attracting and retaining talent is a priority for your organization.
The initial communication should include a request to schedule an initial telephone call to determine further interest from the company and the candidate. If you skip this step and call the candidate, you’ll likely play phone tag and waste both of your time. With called ID, few people answer a call from a number they are not familiar with. And if the candidate is currently employed somewhere else, they shouldn’t be accepting your call during working hours anyway.
The Initial Conversation
Once you’ve scheduled your initial telephone conversation, prepare a list of questions that will help you and the candidate determine if you’d like to proceed to a more formal interview. This conversation should be brief and relaxed. It is your opportunity to begin to determine if (s)he is a good fit for your company and (s)he will be assessing their fit, as well.
Begin the conversation thanking the candidate for their time and outlining what you’d like to cover in the call along with your selection process in order that the candidate knows what to expect. Next, cover the basics of the position and company information with enthusiasm. Ask the questions you’ve prepared making sure to cover any “deal breakers” for you and the candidate like technical skill requirements, work schedules and compensation.
Yes, you read that correctly, it is ok and I recommend taking a temperature check in the initial call to make sure the candidate is within your price range. Skipping this step because it is uncomfortable or you learned not to discuss compensation too early can be a costly mistake. Not only will it cost you and the candidate wasted time and productivity, it may mean that you end up paying more than intended or budgeted for to hire the candidate after you’ve determined they’re the best person for the job. That can lead a bad taste and taint the on-boarding and start for the candidate and your company. Candidates generally appreciate candor and transparency, making the topic of compensation easier to have than you may think.
Conclude your conversation by thanking the candidate and reminding them of the next steps in your process. If you mutually agree to move forward, establish a preferred method of communication and a timeline as to when (s)he can expect to hear back from you. Then, stick to your timeline. Even if you need to send a message to say things have been delayed, follow up with the candidate as you indicated you would.
Interviewing
Having interviewed thousands of candidates over the last twenty years, my style is very conversational and effective at determining whether or not a candidate may be a good culture fit for the organization. I recommend having two people conduct the interview and one of the two focuses on the culture fit while the other asks questions related to technical skills necessary to do the job.
There are many styles and question options to use when conducting an interview. Choose one that is best for your organization and works to help you assess the candidate’s fit for role and company. The initial interview does not need to be lengthy and can be abridged if it becomes obvious the candidate is not a fit. It is not necessary to waste time continuing with your interview if that is the case. You can simply and honestly tell the candidate the reason it doesn’t appear there will be a fit or thank them for their time and get back to them at a later date.
It is often a good idea to have candidates return for a second interview to explore their fit further and answer any questions they have formed in between meetings. Do your best to schedule second interviews soon after you determine you will continue to consider the candidate and follow up with the candidate quickly. Remember: timing is everything! Since the candidate has taken the step to interview with you, they are now actively considering a change. If they were a passive candidate previously, that has changed and another offer might be considered, if someone else approaches them before you are able to make an offer.
Selection
It is best to schedule additional time immediately following an interview for a debrief with those involved in the selection decision. A point person from your company should follow up with the candidate(s) about the decisions reached during the debrief per the expectations set during the initial conversation and interviews.
If there will be a delay in scheduling or decision making, get back to your top candidate(s) to keep them engaged and demonstrate your interest in continuing the process with them. Don’t leave a candidate waiting in limbo, especially if you told them they’d hear back from you by a specific date. The other offer may come in prior to yours. If the opportunities are both attractive, a candidate may opt to accept another offer and assume you are no longer considering them.
Follow up
When you have made your decision on which candidate to hire, contact the candidate immediately. Let them know a formal offer will be coming but you wanted to extend it verbally first and make sure all details are covered in order to ensure acceptance. (We’ll cover more of the offer details in the next article.)
After the offer is formally accepted, contact any remaining candidates to thank them for their time and let them know the position was filled by another candidate. If any of the other candidates may be reconsidered in the future, let them know.
If a candidate who is rejected asks for feedback, give them a brief, honest reply. They may seek additional training or education and become a stronger candidate for you in the future.
Every interaction you have with a candidate throughout the recruiting and on-boarding process builds your brand and will be shared. The more positive you can make the experience, the more likely you are to continue to attract and retain quality employees.
