I have thought the recruiting process for hiring staff was very inefficient. I still think it is very inefficient. Not only do companies waste time or resources we also do not do a good job systemically placing the right people in the right jobs effectively. So there is waste is the process of hiring and also a huge amount of waste in not doing well at finding the best fits for people and jobs. So we have lots of jobs filled with people that are less suited to them than others that would love to be doing the job (and who would do very well) if they had only known about it.
[the broken video link has been removed]
The webcast shows an interview with Gerry Crispin. Interesting statistic he mentioned: without an employee referral a candidate had chances of 200-500 to 1 of being hired, with employee referrals they are about 10-15 to 1. He also said about 30% have employee referrals. Honestly the video doesn’t help me too much but I am desperate to have us improve in this area and maybe others can get more than I can from it. If staff are important to your organization, doing a great job getting the best people for your company should be a process you are proud of. I don’t see many examples of organizations that do this well.
via: Recruitment is a Commodity. Make it an Experience! [the broken link has been removed]
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thanks for sharing the info, john. the recruitment experience sucks. my favorite line from gerry (paraphrased) is that “the internet came along and then we just started doing bad recruiting faster.” so true. the thing i like is that we can fix this with simple stuff…it doesn’t require system overhaul, just behavioral modification. ok, maybe it’s not that easy. but it’s a start.
Its simple. Never apply w/o having an employee referral. Period.
My best results in recruiting hinge on two guides, both from my experience, though neither my idea originally.
First: Hire for attitude and aptitude; teach experience. I can teach and train someone do do a job. I cannot instill a positive attitude toward work nor can I create an aptitude, the readiness to learn a skill. A poor attitude trumps everything, so NEVER hire one. I define a poor attitude as one that is closed to new experiences. Yours might be different.
Second: Employee referrals are a better bet than my screening of a general candidate pool. Teams don’t like working with deadwood, and they won’t recruit them. Nothing is true all the time, but this guide has an excellent track record.