When it comes to organizations, although the actual hiring is performed by the Business Units or the departments, considering the Business Units or the departments bring the actual monetary value back to the organizations, the Human Resources department actually plays a very critical role in hiring employees into the organizations. The Human Resources Department, specifically the Talent Acquisition (TA) Department is more or less the face of the organizations that advertises the organization itself towards attracting talent. In this regard, The Talent Acquisition department has a few tenets to follow to ensure that hiring is at its best and that they leave an impression on the candidates who don’t make it as well to aspire towards being a part of the organization in the future.
Detailed and Descriptive Job Description
This aspect of hiring takes an effort hand in hand between both the Hiring Unit (HU) and Talent Acquisition. Unless it is a mass hiring, the hiring unit must be able to document the job description of position in contention as accurately as possible which must entail what that position would do on a daily basis. The talent acquisition must possess the acumen to understand and explain it to a prospective candidate to be innately understood. If this step is followed religiously, the first gate of filtering the right candidature to the respective position will be superlatively effective.
Call it discussion
This may be one of the smallest virtue, but it carries off immense value to the whole process. When usually the TA calls the candidates, they mention that there would be a scheduled interview. Instead, if the usage of the phrase “A Scheduled Discussion” prevails, there would be a lot more value added to the process.
i. For one it would ease the tension of the candidate to begin with and the candidate would feel a lot more relaxed and confident
ii. In the process of not just calling it a discussion, but also orchestrating the same, there may be a lot of positive outcomes from the discussion as compared to an interview which would tend to become more of a Question & Answer session.
Explain the Context and Content
There is most often this hideousness from the side of the hirers in explaining the entire Context and Content of the position in contention. This usually is taken care of by the actual HU who is in-charge of carrying out the technical and departmental discussions. Therefore, it is very important that both the context under which the position is being hired for and the content of the position be explained with keen detail. It will very well help the candidates put themselves in the clear perspective of the position in contention and yield a much fruitful discussion
Articulate Clearly
Whether one would implement the step above or not, it is mandatory that the HU representatives or interviewers articulate themselves clearly. When an interviewer seeks an answer to a question and not have been answered satisfactorily, it would require an extra mile to go further and articulate themselves as to what exactly they are looking for. For instance, if there is a specific answer that you are looking for sitting in the interviewer’s chair, then ask the specific question. It is always safer not to assume that the candidate would know what you are looking for. For, a discussion or an interview is not a mind-game or telepathy. This will definitely yield much better value to the discussion
Feedback Mechanism
Having had a good discussion if possible, it is also of utmost importance that there is an extremely good feedback mechanism. This keeps the candidate engaged with the organization. It is almost the prerogative of the TA to provide the candidate with a detailed feedback irrespective of the feedback being positive or negative from the rounds of discussions that have taken place.
In addition, it is the duty of the TA to respond to the candidate with a feedback immediately after the discussion proactively, rather than the candidate reaching out to the TA in desperation. This would really help build a great brand value for the organization.
Keep the Cycles Short
It is understandable that there could be many reasons that can be offered to justify the delay in the process of recruitment. However, it is always in the best interest of both the organization and the candidate that the hiring cycles be kept as short as possible. As much as business and business outcomes are important for the organizations, it is equally important hiring the best fit candidate who would contribute towards the sustainability and growth of the business and organization. This essentially means that both HU and TA should set time aside importantly for the process of hiring.
Setting Expectations
It is again the prerogative of the organization hiring to set clear expectations to the candidate. It must include the Pay Bracket with in which the Candidate would fall into, the culture of the organization, the vision and mission of the organization and the department, the Strategy and so on. This not only helps set the expectations of the candidate, but also helps the candidate understand what they are getting into as an organization. Having understood all the above elements of the organization, if a candidate chooses to be employed at the organization, it certainly will be a win-win situation for both the organization and the candidate.
For, having understood all the above mentioned elements and then getting into a commitment with the organization, it is only ethical and moral on the part of the candidate to comply with the organizational culture and rules.
Last Words
Having been on both sides of the table, these are some of the tenets of the business, that I have followed and I expect organizations to follow to be an attractive organization that the candidates would choose to be associated with.
In my experience, I have seen, the technical panels, the mangers and HR Business partners multi tasking between Business Meeting and Hiring Discussions. This is a strict No-No. For one would be effective in neither discussions, which would most often result in either hiring an inappropriate candidate or rejecting a valuable one. Secondly, it shows disrespect towards the candidate who has chosen to spend their time with the organization. This would result in the negative brand value impact of the organization.
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