Recruiting Practices From the Job Hunter’s Perspective

When you are looking to hire new people you may have a system that works pretty well for you. You have your own way of advertising, your own system for accepting CVs and applications, your method for doing interviews, your timeline. While you may think all this works well for you, you need to consider it from the potential employee’s perspective, too. Do your hiring practices cause you to lose some good recruits?

First, think about the application process itself. Do you want CVs, or should potential hires fill out an application? Do you want recommendation letters, or just a list of references? A writing sample, or maybe a portfolio…what do you need to see so you know they can do the job? There are a number of different ways people will be applying for jobs, so if you can, try not to be so unique in your system that they do something for you that they cannot easily adapt to apply to someone else. If you are too much trouble, a lot of talented people are liable to throw up their hands and go elsewhere.

A point that might seem minor to you, but is important to employees, is whether or not you notify them at different steps of the process. Do you let them know you received their application? Do you tell them if they are not selected for an interview, or do you save time by only notifying those who are? If people do not hear from you they may assume the answer is “no” (when in reality, you are just slow) and they will move on and take another position even though they would rather do what you are offering.

You probably have a timeline with which you are comfortable. Post a job online for 2 weeks, read CVs for a month (or five), then start the interviews. A short process may not give you time to thoroughly review the applicants. A long process may cause you to lose talented employees who are highly in demand (and you don’t want these people going to your competitors). Sure, some applicants are sitting in jobs and are just keeping their options open, but others need to find a job now, and may not be able to wait around for you. You should consider having a short process, and then devoting yourself during that time to focusing on hiring, so you can move through it quickly but completely.

Remember, in Asia’s tight talent markets you are going to be competing with other employers for the most talented employees. When you are thinking about what you need to offer them to get them on board, don’t just think about salary and benefits; think about making the hiring process as simple as possible. That is a pretty big benefit right there, and they get it right up front.