Hiring and recruiting is an endless process.  And in a tight labor market, the hiring process can be longer and tougher. Relying on traditional avenues of recruiting — sifting through mountains of resumes, posting jobs on crowded job boards, and asking for referrals — may still produce results, but in this constantly shifting workplace, you need to adopt more direct and quicker methods to identify top-level candidates. 

It may be time to shake up your traditional methods and adopt some modern hiring techniques. Here are four alternatives to traditional recruitment methods to consider.

Source by Defining the Job with Key Performance Objectives (KPOs)

You can quickly narrow the candidate pool to 3 or 4 strong candidates when your hiring criteria are based on key performance objectives rather than a list of skills, experiences, and competencies.  For example, it’s better to indicate in the job posting for a Supply-Chain Manager that the person is responsible to “set up a program in the first six months to ensure 99.9% on-time delivery in 24 hours”, rather than say the person “must have 5+ years in supply chain management, be results-oriented, and have exceptional knowledge of SAP’s ERP module.”  Stating specific sales quota, budget variance, mean-time-to-repair, customer satisfaction rating are all examples of KPOs. Employing 6-8 KPOs in your job postings will allow you or your HR team to quickly identify performance qualified candidates through initial phone interviews.


Engage Passive Candidates with a Chatbot on your Career Page

Adding a chatbot to your careers page allows someone on that page to immediately connect with you. The chatbot is charged with finding out the person’s initial interest in your company even if they have not applied for a job yet. You can follow-up with the candidates by scheduling a 15-minute conversation with a member of your team.  By clicking on your careers page, they have expressed an interest in working for you, and they now have someone they can talk to find out if your company would be a good fit for them. You can also add a chatbot to your online application process. Once they submit their application, the chatbot can follow up with questions to help you decide if they are a good fit for your position. Is a chatbot right for you? Click here for some pros and cons. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/02/09/recruitment-chatbot-is-the-hype-worth-it/#52ed132a4083 

Conduct Group Interviews 

Preceding your standard one-on-one interview method with group interviews can be both time and cost-efficient. The point of a group interview is to see how candidates choose to stand out from each other, how well candidates function in a group of people they do not know and if candidates show the teamwork attributes that you need. It also allows you to evaluate the candidates’ interpersonal skills, verbal skills, leadership potential, and problem-solving abilities.  Group interviews usually take 2-4 hours and work best when there is a minimum of 4 candidates and more than one interviewer. Top candidates are then invited back to continue the process with a one-on-one interview.

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