Let’s face it, the current hiring climate is tough. 2020 has presented challenges for all types and sizes of organizations, including their hiring of new workers. In currently working with over 3000 employers, we have most certainly learned that “having a plan” is of the utmost importance.
Building a plan for your hiring does not need to be complicated, nor does it need to be executed by a team of strategic HR professionals. Rather, it requires putting some thought into the end goal. For instance, your plan could concentrate on the skill set that you are looking to add to the team, the timeframe in which you want to hire, or what you value most in new employees. Posting job ads without this plan will surely add extra time, busywork, and budget to your hiring effort. Whereas being mindful of the end-result throughout the process will help to bring focus and a set of priorities throughout the entire hiring process. Additionally, communicating this plan to others within the organization solidifies leadership and vision and helps to allow others in your organization to assist in identifying qualified candidates.
Hiring systems or Applicant Tracking Systems do not help you come up with your hiring plan. Rather, they simply help you to execute it. The best ones can be customized to your existing hiring workflow, engage your job applicants, and should be very simple to use.
Hiring is tough… particularly now in 2020. Do yourself and your company a favor by thinking through your hiring plan. What skills are valuable to you? What intangibles do your most valuable current employees have? What industries and/or other companies have produced the best employees for your organization? No matter how simple the plan, take a couple minutes to create one. You will be amazed at how much easier it will be to find your perfect candidate, once you determine the specifics of what and whom you are really searching for.
