Hiring Opportunity - Gained or Lost?
(Washington, DC) Hiring a new employee to join your staff is a great opportunity for your company, office, or organization! It can also be a way to waste the opportunity as well.
Unfortunately, a lot of the ambition, creativity, enthusiasm and commitment that new employees can bring is lost through poor orientation, poor hiring practices, and a failed transition into your work place.
There’s a lot that can be done to capture this human potential which benefits the employer, and simultaneously helps the new employee at the same time. This in essence is a perfect scenario and the way things should work in the hiring process, but often don’t.
Change is inevitable. Organizations do not have to grow stale, and become less effective, or less responsive to the needs of their key stakeholders if they keep the flow of new employees moving in to refresh and revitalize the work place. In a nutshell, I’ll try in this post to share some ways you can keep the flow of new employees who are creative, healthy, productive and eager to work for you flowing into your organization.
LET EM SPEAK!
Don’t be afraid to let your present employees talk and share with the world (in an unscripted fashion) what’s so great about working for your company, agency, or organization. The most credible and powerful draw you will have in drawing new hires to your work place is for your present staff to candidly share why they like work there in the first place.
I interview candidates regularly. I juggle my focus between the employers and the job seekers so that I can bring all sides to the middle, where the hiring activity actually takes place. At some point during the interview process, I can see in the eyes of the candidates, a spark or passion ignite and an intense desire is created to work for the employer. When this passion is managed correctly, and in line with the employers objectives – a ‘win-win’ scenario takes place. You end up getting a diverse group of people who are really passionate about helping an employer get the job done. Sometimes, it’s the employer who’s really passionate about hiring an candidate. When both the candidate, and the employer really want each other – that’s the magic I hunt for daily.
Just the other day, I was talking with a candidate who I felt would be a great fit for a locally based multi-billion dollar government contractor. I understood clearly what the employer wanted and I felt I could help them meet their objective perfectly with a candidate I had in mind. Unfortunately for me, the candidate was fixated on working for another local employer. Finally, after I had done my very best in laying out all the benefits the job offer and the employer had to bring to the table – I was politely declined when the candidate told me they really wanted to work for another company.
When I asked why, she told me that she had visited the other employer’s Youtube channel and had watched how the employees had loved working there, and what the culture was like and how they could prosper at the company. This company (comSCORE) had gotten it exactly right. But, don’t take my word for it. Watch this video, and then decide for yourself if this is a company you’d like to work for.
COMPETITION FOR TOP TALENT IS FIERCE
Now if you are hiring for a position that is similiar to comSCORE, can you see how their Youtube video has made it a very challenging proposition? Their present employees basically do the selling of “…come work for comSCORE. It’s great here!”. No matter what I said, or how great the opportunity I was presenting on behalf of the employer I was representing could be, comSCORE’s employees put up a barrier that I could not break down. In this competition for one new hire, comSCORE got it right, and they beat me at the opportunity to hire this candidate. You can do the same thing to0. There is nothing stopping you from taking advantage of a valuable resource that you already have working for you already, and that is your present employees!
Unless you’re a bad boss, they’ll be happy to share their experience with the world about why you’re one of the best places to work.
In my next post, I’ll try to focus on ‘BAD BOSSES” and how they may be ruining new hire opportunities by doing such things as communicating contradictory behavior patterns, allowing low or poor performance standards, and exhibiting a sense of indifference to people.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Hoffman is a Northern Virginia WIA Eligible Training Provider serving the greater Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area which includes the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, & West Virginia. Hoffman is the principal of the David Hoffman Agency, a DC licensed employment agency and a supporter of the National Career Readiness Credential (NCRC). Hoffman has been advocating for DC integration of the NCRC by DC employers.
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