Recently FullStack PEO’s VP of Business Development – Daniel Fuller – sat down with Recruiting Experiences‘ Amy Oviedo to learn more about her experience as an entrepreneur. We had a chance to ask Amy about recruiting, what companies should know, and recent industry trends. Amy has some great insights to share!
Q: When it comes to recruiting, what are some basic guidelines a company should follow?
A: Our core values outline this pretty well – Focus on:
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Simplicity – Hiring processes need to be efficient, eliminate bias, and demonstrate that you’re easy to do business with. Candidates have a lot of choices so anything you can do to make it easier and move them through your selection process quickly will help ensure you get the best talent into your process.
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Excellence – Focus on the quality of candidates and within your process. Demonstrate the great things about working with you and provide a positive experience with each interaction.
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Reliable – Follow up on commitments during the interview process. Over communicate and give the candidate an opportunity to interview you too. Be transparent.
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Kindness – Job searching is a full-time job. Be empathetic to what your interviewee is going through and make sure to communicate quickly once you’ve made a decision.
Q: Generally, what does the recruitment process entail?
A: Our process starts from the moment a company identifies a need within their team to hire/fill a position. Generally, a job description is a good place to start – we recommend having a ‘job listing’ too that is more sales-oriented and speaks to your Employee Value Proposition – answering ‘why would someone want to join your team’. From there, recruiters sit down with the hiring manager and complete an intake to best understand the must-haves, nice-to-haves, duties, projects, team make-up, interview process, comp range, and anything else that would help us find the right match for the team. While we do post positions, in this market, it’s all about outbound search. We reach out to past candidates, our personal networks, and utilize the power of LinkedIN and internet sourcing to find a pool of candidates. Like Sales, we’re building a candidate funnel and doing multiple outreaches to get someone engaged in the process. We manage the full interview process and ensure positive candidate experiences (like timely feedback) are built into our processes. In the end, we’ll work with the hiring manager to negotiate and move through the offer process. Our job isn’t done until you have a happy new hire joining your team.
Q: What are the benefits to having an outside organization (such as Recruiting Ex) assist with a company’s recruitment process?
A: There are so many factors to consider when selecting a Recruiting partner. If you have the headcount and resources to hire an internal recruiting team, it’s always my recommendation. When you aren’t ready for that step or just need surge support, RecEx is a viable Fractional Recruiting solution to expand your talent reach. We partner with our clients and serve as an extension of your team and brand. We’ll integrate into your systems as much or as little as you want us to which provides a different candidate experience than traditional contingency recruiting firms.
Q: What are some areas where companies often fall short during the recruitment process?
A: The most common issue we run into is hiring teams not being on the same page in terms of requirements and what the new hire will truly be doing. When there’s no alignment on who we’re looking for, the interview and selection process falls apart pretty quickly. It’s also helpful to turn to an expert on compensation decisions – the market is changing quickly and comp is a big factor in the decision – open conversation early to avoid wasting your (or the candidate’s) time. In terms of preparing for the process, we often find that organizations underestimate the time it takes to find the right fit. Do you want the best talent available or the best talent available right now? Agreeing to a realistic timeline will help teams prepare to carry additional workload and set appropriate expectations for candidates during the interview process.
Q: What are some trends in recruiting that you’ve seen in the past two years? What has changed since the beginning of the pandemic?
A: Recruiting is a bit of a mess at the moment and Recruiters are in higher demand than ever. There are 11.3M+ open jobs in the US and unemployment is at an all-time low at 3.5% (representing 5M US residents). The Great Resignation drove 44% of US workers to change jobs in the past 12 months. To respond to this, we believe companies will turn to international/offshore workers, gig workers, consultants, and will begin to invest in more training to upskill their current and newly hired workforce. Remote work will continue to rise although we believe hybrid work with flexible schedules is the future of work. Wages are on the rise and average tenure will take a huge cut over the next 2 years as the Great Reshuffling continues. There are two outcomes we’re predicting will come from this focus on building PeopleFirst environments – the wage gap will lessen for underrepresented groups and the demand for higher education will continue to decrease in alignment with a need for organizations to invest in more training. For our part, we’ve developed Recruiting Certification and a coaching platform to help address the Recruiter shortage.
The biggest trend we see is one you might not expect – Kindness matters. Recruiting processes with a focus on kindness and positive candidate experiences are making a difference for companies that are embracing a kinder approach to recruiting.
Thank you to Amy for sharing her knowledge and insights into the recruiting process. To learn more about Recruiting Experiences’ services, visit their website.