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Is it hard to find good candidates, or are hiring managers persisting with outdated thinking about what an ideal candidate looks like?
HR Leader recently spoke with Kennedy Reid Group's Stuart Freeman (head recruitment coach) and Jessica Currey (executive search consultant) about the best ways to tackle a "candidate-short" market. The conversation kicked off with the age-old challenge: how to convince hiring managers that they need to think outside the box about what makes an ideal candidate.
This conundrum isn't new.
Recruiters working in the hiring market day in, day out know that the best way to find a good candidate is to look for the right attitude and transferrable skills. The challenge is that line managers often feel more comfortable hiring someone who ticks all the boxes for the experience they need. But what do organisations do when those candidates simply don't exist?
Ms Currey commented "Whilst we do like to focus more on the person, there still does need to be an element of 'they've got to bring something' so it's not so difficult for the manager to spend [time] training, because it's all about time at the end of the day, they [the candidate] still need to deliver results. But I think the struggle has just been trying to find that right balance."
"Historically, people who don't have a lot of experience in recruitment would typically look for things like specific skills, years of experience, maybe where the person's worked, what industry backgrounds they come from, etc — all the things that we know that typically people look at. Unfortunately, they're entirely the wrong things to be focused on when you're hiring staff. So we are constantly in an education process with our clients, talking to them about focusing on the individual, as opposed to experience," Mr Freeman said.
"One of the things Jess and I know to be true is that if you focus on the person as opposed to the experience, you will get a better recruitment outcome, both for the candidate and the employer. And what that kind of looks like in a diagram that we use pretty frequently is the old iceberg diagram. And that is that what you can see on a resume is that tip of the iceberg that's sticking out of the water. So that's things like specific skills, years of experience, etc. And everyone tends to focus on those things, but really what you need to be doing is looking below the surface at things like attitudes, values, motivations, what that person's intrinsic drives actually are and focusing on those, with the premise being that typically you can train most people in most things," he added.
Mr Freeman also highlighted that employers need to step back and think about what's in it for the candidate, and if they want someone with all the exact experience they need in their new role, they need to consider where the learning opportunities are.
"Our consultants will ask clients the question, which is really there to challenge the client, 'If someone's doing the exact same role at another company now, what might be the motivation for them to come to your place of employment to do the exact same role that they're doing there?' So people are looking to develop their skills and learn and so forth," he said.
For more on working in a market where it's hard to find candidates, listen to the full podcast with Ms Currey and Mr Freeman below.
The transcript of this podcast episode when quoted above was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation, click below:
RELATED TERMS
The practice of actively seeking, locating, and employing people for a certain position or career in a corporation is known as recruitment.
Shandel McAuliffe
Shandel has recently returned to Australia after working in the UK for eight years. Shandel's experience in the UK included over three years at the CIPD in their marketing, marcomms and events teams, followed by two plus years with The Adecco Group UK&I in marketing, PR, internal comms and project management. Cementing Shandel's experience in the HR industry, she was the head of content for Cezanne HR, a full-lifecycle HR software solution, for the two years prior to her return to Australia.
Shandel has previous experience as a copy writer, proofreader and copy editor, and a keen interest in HR, leadership and psychology. She's excited to be at the helm of HR Leader as its editor, bringing new and innovative ideas to the publication's audience, drawing on her time overseas and learning from experts closer to home in Australia.
