WHAT RECRUITERS LOOK FOR WHILE MAKING A HIRE
Mar 17, 2016
Last week I had the opportunity of moderating a couple of panel discussions for the HRM Asia’s New Gen Recruiting Congress which looked at how recruitment has changed over the years and how recruiters/ talent acquisition leaders could keep themselves abreast of this change. The first panel which I moderated discussed about the quality of hire and had global as well as regional talent acquisition leaders from advertising, fin tech and software companies. While the discussion was catered to helping HR, recruiters and talent acquisition in ensuring high quality hire, I picked up a few pointers which job seekers can keep in mind during the job search.
1. Chemistry with hiring manager: Most talent acquisition leaders regarded chemistry with hiring manager a very important quality they look at while deciding who to hire. As long as the candidate can meet the necessary skills requirement, this proves to be one of the most important criteria for hire. HR managers and talent acquisition leaders have witnessed people exceed expectations under the right manager and on the flip side, have also observed a highly skilled employee unable to perform up to her/his potential if they don’t share the right chemistry with the manager. In fact, hiring manager satisfaction within the first 3 to 6 months is the most important criteria in deciding the success of a new hire.
Take away for job seekers: It is extremely important for job seekers to make the interview a dialogue where they can understand the hiring manager and see if they can work well together. Asking questions around challenges of the role and expectations of the hiring manager in the first few months ensures that you are on your way to be a successful new hire.
2. Culture fit: One of the top reasons why people leave new jobs within the first few months is culture misfit. It is very difficult to predict how people will fit in with the company. To mitigate the risk of making a hire which does not fit well with the culture of the company, recruiters ensure that the candidates meet a couple of more people other than the hiring manager. Some also use psychometric and personality assessment tools to figure out where the person sits in comparison to the other team members.
Take away for job seekers: Job seekers should actively try to find out more about the culture of the company to avoid disappointment later. With company reviewing websites like Glassdoor, they can get insights of working in a company from current or ex-employees. While these reviews should be taken with a pinch of salt, a recurring theme in the reviews can shed some light on the working environment and could be a point of discussion during the interviews. Speaking to current team members is another excellent way of finding out the dynamics of the team.
3. Ability to be productive fast: How fast a new hire is productive for the business is an important metric for performance evaluation. Technical interviews and in some cases technical tests are used to understand the skill sets of candidates. Most companies have a competency based approach for assessing suitability of a candidate for the role.
Take away for job seekers: While this directly takes into account your ability and skills to do a job and be up to speed almost immediately, there are also factors around your depth of the industry and company knowledge, your understanding of what is critical for the business and the expectations from hiring manager. This requires doing a thorough research about the company, its competitors, industry as well as understanding the business pain of the local business.
Hiring decisions are based on a lot of intangibles. Just bench-marking your experience against the requirements of job description is not enough to stand out from the other applicants. The softer aspects of assessment play an equally, if not more, crucial role in the outcome. It is therefore, essential to work on them to be able to get better results in your job search.
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