First Impressions Count
There’s never been a truer saying than, ‘first impressions count’ when it comes to recruiting the top talent, the best of the best.
If your hiring process is slow and sloppy, the top talent will run a mile.
Think about this for a minute. The top talent knows they’re valuable. They know their self-worth, their talents, and that any organisation would be lucky to have them onboard.
So, when they’re ready for a new challenge, they’ll come across a smorgasbord of job offers, and in this fast-paced world we’re living in, when people take the time to respond to your job opportunity, they expect their time to be respected in return.
Your recruitment process is the very first impression you’ll make on a potential employee. If your process sucks, top talent will notice, and your business will risk losing valuable employees. To get A-grade talent through the door, your recruitment processes must be solid.
How does this statistic sit with you? Would you be in the same boat – worrying about losing potential talent to an opposing firm?
You may gain some comfort in knowing your ‘competition’ is feeling this way too, or you may take it as a wake-up call to beef up your recruitment process and blow your competition away by snatching the best talent off the market. Robert Half surveyed 100 Australian HR managers, and the above result was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to recruitment worries.
79% of Australian HR managers worry about losing top talent to competing job offers
Here are a couple more stats they discovered that you should know:
- 67% of HR managers in enterprise organisations have lost a candidate because their recruitment process took too long. That’s more than HALF. Did that get your attention? This is really happening.
- 55% of HR managers believe the length of the process has increased over the past three years, with this rising to 66% for large organisations
Are you in the game to win the best candidates?
No one likes losing. Ever. And this is especially true when it comes to recruitment. Let’s be brutally honest. When you lose the perfect candidate to another company, it sucks. They’re about to benefit from the experience, the knowledge and the skills that the candidate was willing to give you. But you were too slow, too unorganised and you didn’t seem to care. Well at least, that was the sour taste left in your candidate’s mouth.
Our top 6 tips on how to avoid losing top talent:
Prioritise your recruitment process
Make sure the job is well defined and selection criteria are clear (what will your ideal candidate need to be successful in this role)
Have the paperwork ready
Ensure you have all employment paperwork ready to go.
Time management
Have you got the time it takes (advertising, shortlisting, interviewing, offer of employment, paperwork, induction)?
Get pre-approval
Get pre-approval from upper management BEFORE you start the recruitment process, so that you can move quickly when you find the right person. If it takes more than two days for an offer to be signed off, you’ll end up on the losing side of the recruitment race.
Clear communication
Be a clear communicator and candidates will love you. From the start, explain your process and keep in contact. Let candidates know every time you’ve moved on to the next step in your process. A quick email or text message could make or break you. Simply saying ‘we’re currently reviewing your application and will be in touch shortly’ makes the candidate feel important and respected.
Partner with a recruitment agency
Partner with one of the best recruitment agencies Perth. If you don’t have time to give the process the love it needs, consider outsourcing it to a recruitment agency. It’s what they do day in, day out. They know how to recruit top talent and how to communicate with them to keep them happy. Invest in explaining the role, set aside some time to interview a shortlist and let them manage the process and candidate experience.
You’ve got to move fast to secure good talent
If you’re not 100% committed to your recruitment process, top talent won’t be 100% committed to you.
Real feedback from top talent looking for a job change In the last week alone, the team at Sense Recruitment had two top candidates pull out of job applications for the same reason…The process was taking too damn long. They lost all interest in working for a company that showed no commitment or interest in them. We’d say this is a fair call, and they were without a doubt, exceptional candidates who have already been snatched up by other organisations. The companies are kicking themselves, but it’s too late. You snooze, you lose!