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17th May 2008

Careers Blog

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It takes two to tango

04.03.08

By David Thew, joint managing director of Intelligent Resources.

The last 24 months have seen an unprecedented rise in employer demand for good candidates – this has been at all levels and across all disciplines, or certainly the commercial ones we focus on at Intelligent Resources, but with a particular emphasis on experienced people with market knowledge.

This has inevitably led to candidate bottlenecks, with skilled candidates often having several options on the go simultaneously – including staying put, of course.

In this climate, it is imperative employers remember recruitment is a two-way process. Candidates need to be well-prepared, committed and focused, but so do the employers if they are not to lose good potential hires.

Cardinal sins which will lose you good people include:

• Tardiness in arranging interviews
• Cancelling interviews at short notice with no real excuse
• Lack of feedback
• One-way interviews – employers must remember to sell the job and the company – good candidates have choice!
• Brand arrogance – don’t assume the whole market wants to work for you and don’t allow this attitude to prevail at interview
• Paying below the market rate – candidates have a strong sense of their market worth and they do their homework
• Inflexibility on salary when faced with a candidate shortfall – the longer a post remains unfilled, the higher the hidden costs in management time, opportunity cost, etc, and these soon outweigh the cost of raising the bar to get the better people through the door.

Above all, don’t recruit in a box – remember the outside world, including your competitors, who are probably talking to the same candidate pool.

 

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