Being Flexible Improves Hiring Process and Results

Recruiting in today’s IT industry is a very specific challenge. There is scarcity of candidates with right competencies on the market. One of the best ways to overcome these challenges and improve hiring process is to be flexible when hiring. Many perfect fit candidates, aka Candidate Personas, are already taken, and might never apply for your opening unless you have something incredible to offer at first hand.

Searching for passive candidates

Thus, in searching for the right candidate, employers understand the importance of finding and approaching to passive candidates, the ones who do not actively search for jobs. They have also expanded their search over their national borders long ago. Others are investing highly in building capabilities.

Some have focused their intention on attracting with a compelling compensation packages. There are many other innovative solutions; however, the point is that all successful employers have added a pinch of flexibility into their people strategy in order to find their winning strategy. Some of the most popular solutions include recruitment marketing software that offer solutions for reaching out for passive candidates.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, the battle will never stop. Waiting for “right circumstances” is just an illusion. Thus, in case you find yourself saying, “I just cannot find the right candidate”, it really means that you are ready for a wake-up call. It means that it is time for her majesty, the Flexibility.

Why is it important to be flexible when hiring?

The more flexibility the employer can afford, the greater their success in hiring the right candidate.

This statement is an advice that I have received early in my recruitment career. After eight years of experience, I can tick this off as one of the best advices ever. Additionally, I have learned that flexibility builds its power on information and competence. Thus, the greater the knowledge about the market, the greater the insight into the organization, the greater the capability of the recruiter and line manager, the more flexibility the employer can afford.

Flexibility opens the floor for wider perspective, smarter actions and better hiring results. It works like magic. Therefore, roll out the red carpet for Flexibility, now! Or, at least at the moment you have an open position.

The Puzzle Game

Hiring process always reminds me of assembling a complex puzzle together. The result depends highly on your skill level and the time you want to invest in it. Sometimes, it is obvious which pieces fit together, and sometimes you are surprised that they do not.

The process itself can be daunting, yet it has the power to grasp your attention. Somehow, you become able to reach to new levels of patience because of the awarding contentment when each piece sits perfectly. Once you lean back and look at the perfectly assembled picture, you know that it was worth it.

Transferring a vacancy directly to into a job ad might not be the best way to start the recruitment process. This is especially true if you are looking for the award of a perfectly assembled picture. There is great value in investing some time and effort to take a thorough decision on which position to announce.

Many of my initial discussions with line managers started with high clarity on which position to recruit for and identifying a candidate persona for that position. However, at the end of our discussion(s), the line manager and me would change our minds to such a degree that we would decide to recruit a completely different profile, for a completely different position, sometimes, for a whole other department, in a different country.

Sometimes, we would agree to shift from recruiting a high-level professional to recruiting a specialist position, a graduate trainee, or vice versa. Sometimes we would search two different profiles at the same time, and depending on which one would be a better fit, we would decide.

Such discussions always involved deep insight into current and future department or company strategic initiatives, in depth understanding of the organizational structure and a qualitative talent snapshot such as performance, potential, succession and capabilities indicators. Obviously, pre-conditions for such discussions are the line manager’s clarity on the result and an open-minded approach on how to reach it; while the key factor from the recruiter’s side lies evidently in HR related competencies.

Obviously, a quality discussion based on data insights before the search is a much smarter option than one during, or after the search. It is better to discuss the challenges ahead in order to adjust the approach. You probably do not want to have this discussion after you have wasted 10 days on the battlefield with no success.

Recruiting Software can help you improve your hiring process

Recruiting software are many modern recruiters’ favorite tools for are more streamlined and more successful recruiting and hiring process. Since talent sourcing and attraction is becoming harder and harder every year, many HR professionals say that their jobs have become unimaginable without a help of a recruiting software.

Here, I am not talking only about Applicant Tracking Systems that companies use to manage their applicants. I am talking about Recruitment Marketing solutions that can help you automate, fasten and improve your efforts in attracting and finding qualified candidates.

Solutions offered by a recruitment marketing tool are numerous, and choosing one is not an easy task. The very fist, and most important step, is to identify your recruiting goals and challenges before buying a recruiting software.