Headhunting the Old-fashioned Way: A Case for the Human Touch in a Dot-Com World

By Henry Evans

Who’s really surprised that the Internet has become a gigantic virtual job fair? It’s a natural application of the technology. The more than 5,000 online job sites attest to this. Web destinations like monster.com, hotjobs.com and careerpath.com do a nifty job of marketing to job seekers and employers alike. Many of these sites say they provide employers with turn-key recruitment solutions. Monster.com, for example, says on their homepage that they deliver "cost-effective and efficient recruiting solutions, including real-time job postings, complete company profiles and resume screening".

Recruitment made easy! If only that were true.

Granted, never before have so many job seekers had access to this kind of exposure. Nor has it ever been easier to peruse career opportunities at companies across the country. That being said, the main thing Internet recruiting has done is create a flood of resumes for employers and a revenue stream for the likes of www.monster.com. Not surprisingly, this "recruitment-made-easy" environment is also a turn-over-made-easy environment. Indeed, these thousands upon thousands of online job postings are feeding the job hopping syndrome gnashing away at corporate America. This is particularly true in the technology industry for certain types of high-in-demand professionals. A recent study shows that the generally accepted turnover rate in some of these fields is around 50%. Some companies in the technology industry lament that the average worker switches jobs every six months. Might as well hire them for a project because that’s all they’re hanging around for anyway.

One thing is for sure: the appetite for new hires in today’s job market is driving an unparalleled feeding frenzy. McKinsey & Company had this confirmed through a year long study involving 77 companies and almost 6,000 managers. They concurred that the most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be talent. And even as the demand for talent goes up, the supply of it is going down. Seventy five percent of top corporate executives surveyed said that their companies are either chronically short of talent or suffer talent droughts.

So, is the Internet fundamentally changing recruiting? Not really. What it is doing is underscoring the need to get back to basics. Employers will have more resumes to wade through now and, in this tight job market, more pressure to hire the right person for the job. A recent issue of Employment Management News reports that a survey of HR professionals at 162 organizations shows that almost half are dissatisfied with their employee-selection practices and are planning major changes, an increase in recruitment budgets foremost among them.

There are some things that don’t need to change, however. It doesn’t matter how many employment websites eventually emerge or how slick employee resumes get. There are some tried and true rules to Recruiting for Success that we have utilized for over thirty years. They won’t be made obsolete by a computer anytime soon. It still takes a human being to manage this process:

  1. Develop a straightforward, detailed position description.
  2. Prioritize the qualifications, experience and personal qualities you are looking for in the candidate.
  3. Make sure the candidate profile is understood and supported by everyone involved in making the selection.
  4. Determine the scope of available compensation options and be able to describe the package in its entirety.
  5. Make sure that interview questions are developed before the interview; build them to reveal how well the candidate fits the profile.
  6. Stick to the script. Make sure the interview questions are written out for your staff or anyone else who will be interviewing applicants.
  7. Train everyone in your organization who will be interviewing candidates on proper and improper interview questioning techniques.
  8. Take copious notes in interviews; rank each candidate on predetermined criteria.
  9. Ask the candidate to complete a pre-employment application and include a provision in the application form authorizing background and reference checks and waiving an applicant’s right to sue based on those checks.
  10. Develop a reference checking protocol before you dial the first number.
  11. Identify and call three references who know the candidate professionally; make sure you speak to each one.
  12. Include a provision on the job application that makes it clear that false or misleading statements on job applications may result in immediate discharge.
  13. If you don’t have the time to properly research and interview the candidates, don’t do half the job; retain outside assistance to do it right.

The Bottom Line

Finding and keeping your next new hire will require a good bit more from your organization than the Monster Board can do for you. Recruiting is a people skill. Make sure you put it in the right hands.

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