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Attracting The Best Candidates

Previously, we spoke about how to present yourself properly over video. Now let’s talk about the other side which is the employer. How you can bring in the best candidates.

Without doubt, the best candidates across the board will seek out worthy employment after proving themselves over time, wanting what is best for them as well as having the chance to work with good people. We know that there are good candidates that will go the extra mile every single day and will perform in times of crisis. In dealing with this generation of professionals namely millennials, Gen Y, Gen Z and the rest, recruiters have to position themselves as good and worthy employers.

1. Communicating using the English language

In times of recruitment, we use English. If you are doubtful of this language skill, then the best solution is to hire a recruitment agency and you’ll have that covered. Hire a recruitment agency that will listen to you and put your requirements to text with the spelling and grammar all in order. There’s also one more dimension to this and it’s about getting the language right. A recruitment agency will tailor make your requirements of a said position into sentences that carry the clearest meaning to your words. They will also make sure that there are no unnecessary repetitions as well.

2. A good image

Have you ever ordered an appliance online? It usually comes with an instructional leaflet. As you read it, you find some strange sounding English, probably written in their country; And your reaction? Funny, teasing, laughing? You find that they need a lot of improvement in English and they get hit on their image.

If the image of your company is important to you as it should be, make sure all your recruitment messages get proofread. It’s a good idea to go through your websites, social media and all company communications too.

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3. Send out clear meanings and put out a reasonable offer

Be clear of what you’re looking for in a candidate’s experience and even personality wise. Sit down with your internal team or external recruitment agency and communicate to them what you need a candidate to be in a certain position such as:

  1. Number of years of experience.
  2. Level of job exposure.
  3. Having own transport.
  4. Your own KPIs, unique for the candidate which may be a step up from the candidate’s last job.
  5. Any other reasonable expectations.
  6. You could even query and filter from Linkedin.

You should also think about a reasonable offer package and not just a laundry list of things to do which we will come to later.

Have you ever seen a job description which seems to repeat itself on the same key point? That’s what you want to avoid. Ad spaces are limited so you’re better off being more concise and avoid making the position and requirements sound over the top.

4. Engaged Employees

If your employees are happy working for you, that’s good. But if your employees are engaged with you, your vision, your company’s goals as well as the overall KPIs, then you’re looking at engaged people. This is also one of the strengths of a recruitment agency. They understand the market trends, needs and have a good grip on future scenarios. With this in mind, a sensitive recruitment agency will be able to find suitable candidates as they understand the saying, “Who we hire determines how far we go”.

While there are many looking for jobs right now, your priority is to hire the best fit and while that may not always be possible, be flexible.

5. Writing that Job Description- Clarity & Less is more

Much can be said about the above. Much more than in this post. As an employer, you understand the price and value of ad space. You want to fill every nook and cranny with the job requirements to feel satisfied that what needs to be said has been said. Your ad then comes out looking like a to do list rather than an attractive career opportunity. A laundry list as they say, of things to do, and if not done, the hired one gets un-hired. It also reflects on you as being a hard taskmaster as opposed to a forward looking boss.

Hiring is not an easy thing so we need to be clear. We can hire anyone these days but what do you get and how far can you go? Bearing in mind, the world economy has changed and is fast changing ever more. With information technology’s tentacles in every area, is there any escape from hiring capable people who understand how things work in this era?

Try your best to avoid putting out an exhaustive list of requirements like a JD which sounds like this for a junior designer as an example:

Job Description

  1. Prepare concept by rough layout art with copy, size, style for approval.
  2. Prepare layout for customer communication for products on press, social media, websites and others.
  3. Task scheduling and monitoring competitor ads and social media posts.
  4. All other tasks of the marketing department as deemed fit by the head of department.

What does this look like to someone who applies? As just a job to get by? Is it inspiring, especially for a young creative person looking to make their mark in this world? Is it quite overwhelming, too vague or too broad that the reader might think, “How much do they want?” , “Is it worth my time” , “ What is their mindset about this industry?”

Let’s try changing that approach just for this blog.

Job Description

  1. Are you good in creating layouts, with text, fonts and styles with your creative fingertips?
  2. Would you like the enormous challenge that we have for you? Of preparing striking layouts for our customer’s communication needs across print and social media?
  3. There’s also the juggling of multiple duties such as scheduling, monitoring of competitor ads and social media posts which makes our place a busy nest of activity with never a dull moment. Teamwork and supporting each other is our motto.

Now how does that sound?

Perhaps changing the text from “telling” to “asking” with an added tagline denoting support and teamwork can make that difference.

Go ahead now. Put on that new approach without sacrificing your needs in the long run. Writing a compelling job description can be done with bit of time spent researching and changing yourself in an ever changing job landscape.

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