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How to enhance your recruitment process

Hiring new employees for your organisation can be an exciting process but it can also lead to lots of frustration for the hiring team and the candidates. 
 
 
At The Human Element, we believe that it is vitally important to have a well-thought out recruitment strategy that helps you plan better and engages candidates throughout the interview process.
 
 
What does it mean to have a well thought out recruitment strategy and an engaging process? There is no magic wand that works for everyone but knowing the best practices can definitely help you attract and hire the best talent for your organisation. We have a few tips on how to ensure that the process is efficient and effective in getting you the right talent, within a satisfying turn-around period.
 
 
Here are our best practices:
 
 
  • Know how the role contributes to the success of the organisation and what would be expected of the employee. We see too many employers not being clear on this. Many new employees do not fully understand their role and their contribution, which leads to a lack of engagement, and performance results that do meet the required standard. Having this information at the start of the recruitment process provides clarity so that you are able to screen better and interview candidates knowing how they will add value to the organisation and what they will be expected to achieve. 
 
  • Know what you want. Your organisation cannot be everything to everyone. It’s important to know what you want when you’re looking for talented individuals to join your organisation because this helps you target the right individuals. Skills, education and experience is important and having an open mind allows you to attract a diverse group of suitable candidates. 
 
  • Know where you will target your ideal candidates. So many recruiters do not use effective methods to source candidates and often put out an advert, crossing their fingers that the right candidate will apply and be found among the 100’s of CVs’. This traditional method is often a reactive way to find talent and while it does work, it is not as effective to finding a large pool of talent. Also, knowing where to place your advert is important – look for your ideal candidates where they are. This increases your chances of attracting them to your advert. 
 
  • Know who will be involved in the interview and decision making process before you start the interview process. How often have you been ready to send an offer of employment to a suitable candidate – only to be told that they need to be interviewed by an Executive or that they should complete a Psychometric assessment? This leaves a bad impression on the candidate and often further increases your time to hire. If you know the process up front – you can easily communicate this to the candidate up front. They will appreciate you for sharing and it will help them plan their time accordingly. 
 
  • Make the process fun and engaging for the candidates. I have seen too many hiring managers “grilling” a job seeker almost as if they are attending an exam. The purpose of the interview is not to intimidate the candidate but rather determine if the skills, experience and values are an alignment with the organisation and the team they will be working with. Remember that as much as you are interviewing the candidate, the candidate is also interviewing the organisation to determine if it is a good fit for them. It’s a 2-way process where each party sells themselves, and highlights how they will add value to each other. 
 
 
Having a clear recruitment strategy and ideal talent profile allows you to not only make the right hiring decision and make the process efficient – it also allows you to keep your candidates engaged throughout the process. We cannot emphasize enough that having a world class hiring process can help you attract and win over the best talent in the market. 
 
 
As Talent Management Specialists, it’s a our passion to help organisations attract, hire and retain talented employees who will contribute to the success of the organisation. 
 
 
If you would like to know more about how we can help you with our Talent Acquisition Audit, Hiring or Consulting services – please get in touch at elin@humanelement.co.za. 
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How to attract and harness talent with an EVP

Talent Management has become a buzz word over the last few years, with many companies looking at various ways of attracting, engaging and retaining talented professionals to help their organisation achieve its business goals.

In my view, the most crucial factor to attract, engage and retain talent is for an organisation to create an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that defines the essence of your organisation and what an employee (and potential employee) will receive from your company in exchange for the skills, capabilities and experience they bring to your company.

The EVP should be unique, something that gives your company a competitive advantage in attracting, engaging and retaining talented and high potential employees.

An organisation with a clear and tangible EVP will stand out among the rest when it comes to attracting, engaging and retaining talent. Organisations no longer have the luxury of having access to a large pool of talent because skills are scarce and talented professionals are few.

Developing an EVP which is clearly communicated to all prospective employees and well known to current employees has the potential to make your organisation an employer of choice. What is important is that all the value you promise to offer to employees in exchange for their skills and expertise must be fulfilled.

Some elements to consider when developing your organisation’s EVP are:

  1. Branding: How you position your company as an employer of choice is extremely important to attract talent. Many employees want to be part of a brand they can resonate with, one where they can see the valuable contribution they make to assist an organisation achieve its objectives. Organisations who have strong CSI initiatives are also becoming more and more attractive, because employees want to be part of activities that “give back” to society at large.
  2. Recruitment process: This is extremely important. The experience candidates have at the start of the recruitment process will ultimately determine whether the employee does in fact want to work at the organisation. Remember that as much as a hiring manager wants to assess whether the candidate is a good fit for the organisation, a candidate is equally evaluating whether the organisation is a place they would like to be employed by. How you treat a potential employee through the recruitment process gives a perception of how you will treat them once they are hired.
  3. Attractive remuneration and benefits: The emphasis placed on structuring the remuneration and benefits (monetary and non-monetary) offered to current employees and potential employees is crucial. Employees (and job seekers) are motivated by several factors, and if your company’s remuneration and benefits structure is able to incorporate various motivators, employees will most likely accept an offer and stay with your organisation over the long term.
  4. Career pathing: Most employees and jobseekers want to be employed by an organisation that offers them opportunities for further professional development and growth. If your organisation does not value professional development, career pathing and succession planning as an important component towards attracting and retaining employees, there is a likelihood that turnover will be higher than normal.
  5. Performance management: How your organisation manages and rewards performance not only drives a high-performance culture but also fosters an environment where employees feel valued and in turn will put in a great deal of extra effort, if they know their efforts will be recognised and rewarded.

As the war for talent continues, organisations are required to become more and more dynamic, innovative and strategic in how they win the war by attracting and retaining the best talent, as well as engaging (through factors like rewarding and developing) talent from within the organisation.

Companies like Apple, Google and others have gotten it right. Perhaps now, more than ever before, is the best time to start developing your company’s EVP, so that just like Apple, Google, and other businesses, your organisation will become an employer of choice.

At the Human Element, my goal is to help your business thrive through effective, efficient and impactful management of people systems and processes. I understand the challenges businesses face when it comes to managing business outcomes through people (having more than 10 years of experience in human resource management across small, medium and large multinational organisations; and as a business owner myself) and I know the benefits of having impactful HR systems that aid in achieving outcomes, motivating, inspiring and engaging employees.

Contact me at elin@humanelement.co.za | +27 60 970 9455 to talk about your Talent Acquisition and Management, Human Resources and Employee Coaching needs.

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How to attract the right candidate for the vacant job

Every now and then, it’s important to evaluate and assess your recruitment efforts over the past year and look at ways to enhance your efforts in the month, quarter and year.

Let’s consider a few matters to help you with this evaluation. Have your recruitment efforts changed during this talent scarce marketplace? Have you amended your practices in a way that gives you the highest chances of success in attracting, acquiring, onboarding and retaining Top-Talent?

Successful Talent Attracting and Acquisition is like marketing and lead generation. Think about it this way – finding the right Talent for your organisation is very similar to finding the right Customers – it’s important to know what you are looking for, where you will find them and how you will connect with them.

Often, these additional factors can make Talent Acquisition a lot more difficult if you are not clear about these things.

It’s like marketing your products and bringing them across to customers as being everything, to everyone. And in reality, this is almost impossible.

So just like in marketing, when you want to get the best quality talent, it will help you to outline:

  1. Who and what you need,
  2. The specific qualifications and experience required,
  3. Your organisation’s employee value proposition,
  4. Your organisation’s culture, and
  5. The personal qualities needed to be tremendously successful in the role and organistion

Here, you will find a gift to help you with this “marketing” of your organisation to the kind of Talent you want and need. This document is a simple guide to placing vacancy ads on job boards that will increase your chances of attracting the best talent.

At the Human Element, I specialize helping you make sure that your Talent Acquisition needs are met by helping you with the most challenging parts of your recruitment process, helping you attract the right talent and helping you develop your employee evaluation proposition so you can acquire the right Talent.

You can reach me on elin@humanelement.co.za | +27 60 970 9455 to find out how I will help you.

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