
Ask any recruitment company now and they are all likely to say that demand has gone through the roof and candidates, who didn’t have the confidence to move at the beginning of the year, now have a number of options to choose from if they’re looking to move.
This doesn’t, and isn’t necessarily, meaning that salaries or rates are starting to increase. It does however mean that clients need to be more decisive and move as quickly as possible to secure the talent they require.
Tips for hiring managers
– Plan your hiring process, how many interview stages do you want? Do you want to use a testing process? Will you meet face-to-face? You don’t have to reduce your process to counter market conditions, you just need to ensure it runs as smoothly and as quickly as you can make it.
– Interviews provide a window into what its like to work with you and your company. Make sure your interviews are open and informative. Every candidate should have a good experience and finish the interview wanting to work for you, regardless of whether they are right or not.
– Speak with your recruitment partners to set expectations, when you want CVs, when you will provide feedback and when interviews will take place. This will help to add urgency and momentum to your search.
– Get details upfront of salary / package expectations and be honest as to whether you can meet them. Under offering a candidate causes a lack of confidence, employee brand damage and means you are likely to lose the candidate you want and could mean you are back to square one.
– Be decisive – you can’t afford to wait once you have finished your interview process. If you have a candidate you like, move forward with them
– Be prepared for the candidate to negotiate. We are seeing this more and more in the current market. It’s not the candidate being ‘greedy’ or ‘awkward’, it’s about getting a deal they’re comfortable with. I’m sure everyone at some point has negotiated a package, it is just part of the process.
– However, don’t bend to much. It has to be right for both parties and mean you’re on an equal footing. If you feel you’re giving away to much then it’s likely you are and you may be better focusing on another candidate.
– Provide feedback to everyone, it baffles me that HM still don’t provide feedback sometimes. If a candidate has given up their time to meet with you the least you can do is give them some feedback. Don’t be that person!
– And impress your second choice – in a market with lots of options be prepared to not always get your first choice candidate.
If anyone has any questions on this, feel free to drop us a comment!