Best Practice Recruiting should include an original approach, the focus on building trust with the talent, the determination to hire the best candidate and an opportunity for the employer to be favorably represented in the marketplace.

We all work in a community under change. Success includes adopting new trends while embracing change. And so, with the new year almost upon us, let’s identify some recruiting-related activities that we wish to be left in the past and others we would like to take into 2013...

• Leave it: Employers who want to “hire someone” but are not able to first define their business problem.

• Take it: Employers who ask the difficult questions: “Do I have the right senior level talent for our needs today? Will the leaders who got our company to this point be able to grow our company to the next level?”

• Leave it: Poor preparation. Employers need to first make sure they define their business problem but also need to invest time in preparing a description of what they want the talent to do in their job in order to solve the business problem.

• Take it: Employers with passion and focus who are determined to drive growth and profit through strong leadership and the empowerment of their critical talent. Their style drives higher employee retention and makes the acquisition of new talent an easier process.

• Leave it: Employers who measure the success of a recruitment effort by the large number of résumés. It is not about the number of résumés. It is about the quality of the qualified candidates who are both a technical fit and also a cultural fit.

• Take it: Employers who recognize changes and trends in the marketplace including the trend that good recruiting is an active process, not a passive process, which requires an investment of personal interaction with business professionals in the business community.

• Leave it: Employers who want to check references before they spend any time getting to know the candidate. What benefit can be gained by hearing comments about a candidate who you have never met? Shouldn’t the employer first invest time in developing a relationship with the candidate so when they conduct reference checking, the employer has a baseline of familiarity to work with?

• Take it: Employers who have abandoned standard interview questions and adopted a discussion approach.  The interview effort must be more creative and include original dialogue with the candidate.

• Leave it: Employers who still focus on a résumé and formal degrees while not focusing on critical talent’s capability to solve the current problem.

• Leave it: Hiring managers who take a direct role in interviewing. If they are going to report to you, make sure you take a direct role in the interview process. It is critical to get it right. Taking a direct role shows strong leadership, commitment and increases the overall success of the recruitment.

• Leave it: Employers who use search words to identify top candidates. While candidates can insert specific words into their résumés so their résumé will reach the top of the pile, ask yourself how including the “right words” into a résumé correlates to a candidate’s true fit and qualifications.

• Leave it: Employers who are driven by making a hiring and having a hiring quota. Best practices recruiting should be less about the hire (or the wedding day) and more about the value the candidate can deliver (or the marriage)

• Take it: Employers who first reach a verbal agreement and then send a written offer for formal acceptance. The ping-pong of a negotiation is mitigated or eliminated this way. Negotiations should not occur as you are “walking-up the aisle” to an employment marriage.

• Leave it: Employers who invest time and effort in recruiting critical talent and then provide little to no support once the candidate starts the new job. A six month on-boarding program is vital to integrate the new talent into your organization. You want the most from the newly hired talent. It requires continuing to invest after they have agreed to join your company.

Here’s wishing that great recruiting practices will become the standard in 2013.

About Boxwood Search

There is a battle  for senior level talent. A great hire can make a long term positive impact and a failed hire can prove to be very expensive. How does a company recruit and hire the right talent? It is more than just networking within the community of friends and business associates. It requires focusing on results through a process oriented approach. We are committed to reaching a successful outcome. Our recruitment method has repeatedly proven to deliver very qualified senior talent.

We exclusively represent employers in the marketplace as a dedicated resource and discrete trusted advisor. Through original research and industry contacts, we will target qualified candidates and motivate them to consider the opportunity.

We will screen candidates against key criteria, analyze technical fit along with cultural fit, interview, contact references and present our recommendations. Upon making the offer, we are the employer’s advocate and an active participant in communicating with the candidate until offer acceptance has been secured. Results are guaranteed.