The Hub of the Recruiter's Wheel
Think of a recruiter’s search for top candidates as being like a wheel. Every search in the recruiter’s wheel is built around some sort of hub. The question is, “what does the right hub look like?”
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Not only does the hub create predictive success, but it also controls and influences everything else about the recruiter’s search! Whatever you put at the center of your search will also be your source of power. The power of a wheel always emanates from the center outward — never the other way around.
One of the most common mistakes I seen is a recruiter having the "wrong hub" at the center of their search. My observations are the result of coaching hundreds of recruiters in multiple different industries across hundreds of job families, helping them conduct more successful searches.
Having the right hub is first defining what success looks like for the job being filled. What I find most often as the hub for the recruiter’s search is either a traditional, skills laden person description, and/or a traditional HR job duties list. Either of those are very weak hubs.
Since the obvious goal is to complete the search with a successful hire, i.e. someone who meets and/or exceeds expectations for job performance, and who will thrive in your culture, why not first begin with the end in mind? You may recall this is one of the principles from the book written by Stephen Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
This means creating the most powerful search hub for the recruiter’s wheel. This is achieved by creating a performance-based job description. That type of description answers the question, “what does the person have to do to be judged a top performer?” Every job typically has four to eight performance objectives that defines top performance outcomes. Some of those objectives will have sub-objectives.
There are actually three different approaches to creating this style of job description. If you’d like to see what a well-constructed performance-based job description looks like, contact me.
Every recruiter’s wheel contains a minimum of eight complimentary spokes.
Solution
Establish the Correct Spokes for the Wheel
The spokes each merit a post of their own, but here’s a summary of what those spokes are.
Intrinsic Motivation: Establish the intrinsic motivators for the job. This includes branding the job which should also tie with the employer’s mission objectives. This will include developing an EVP (employee value proposition) from which compelling recruiting messaging can be crafted. Too many recruiters focus on extrinsic motivators.
Consultative Recruiting: Passive candidates especially must be nurtured through a well-designed recruiting process and that means selling the next step in the process rather than initially focusing too early on the end result. This includes a focus on the candidate and mapping their needs through critical, well-planned steps that are tied to critical intrinsic motivators.
Evidence Interview Assessment: Fighting against biases and artificial job requirements is the key to gathering evidence the person’s ability and motivation correctly align with performance outcomes within the performance-based job description. This includes using a well-designed talent scorecard that is used by every member of the hiring team so that correct evidence is gathered, biases are reduced, and the same standard applies to evaluating every candidate.
Uncovering Hidden Objections: Becoming aware of candidate concerns and objections takes a deliberate approach. Uncovering what the candidate is thinking is important. Equally important are the thoughts of the candidate’s closest advisors. This may be a “significant other”, trusted colleague, mentors and the like who will be consulted about the job opportunity. Testing for these should be part of each step of the consultative recruiting process. Incorporating techniques like a “1 to 10 question” for both the candidate and hiring manager is a good place to start
Trial Offer and Pre-Close: The objective is to never make an official offer without first testing it. Gaining verbal acceptance before the formal offer is extended is a critical part of this process. Correctly utilized, this can be a helpful deterrent to a top candidate being susceptible to accepting a counter offer.
Pre-Onboarding Process: The time from candidate accepting an offer, giving their current employer notice and the first day of employment at their new employer is critical. It’s one of the most neglected steps of the process. There are several positive things that can be done to help monitor the candidate throughout the process and which smooth the transition into their new job.
Onboarding for Success: The onboarding process should be designed as a natural extension of the recruiting process. One of the most important, and often overlooked aspects of this process, is ensuring the person isn’t surprised by anything in the job, has clear performance expectations, and knows what they will doing during their first few weeks and months. A key foundational step is being sure the real job is what’s described in the performance-based job description.
Decide to Act: Taking action is critical to improvement. Become proactive. Review your recruiting and hiring process and layout an action plan to identify your gaps and weaknesses and put the plan into action.
We’ve come full circle now. The wheel is complete with the correct hub and all eight supporting spokes. The new employee’s work is exactly what was defined in the performance-based job description. We’ve begun our recruiting process and ended it with the end in mind!”. You'll discover more about this Performance-based Hiring method here.
Learn what the "hub of the Recruiter's Wheel" and the 8 predictive spokes of a predictive search are. #hiring #recruiting #interviewing
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