Why you don’t get the right Talent - A Must read for HR

Jagan had interviewed more than 30 candidates for a HR position. Either the candidates were not shortlisted or those shortlisted didn’t join the organization. Jagan was under tremendous pressure since the position has been vacant for more than 3 months.

Jagan is not the only one who goes through frustrating times in the process of identifying right talent. The war for talent is unprecedented and organizations’ today go all out to win the war. Today the opportunity cost of a critical position lying vacant is very high. However what Jagan like executives forget is that they are one of the reasons for not having quality talent in an organization.

In my 7 years of corporate experience in recruiting talent, here are few mistakes that recruiters make that I feel hinder a person from joining a company.

1.    Setting the bar toooo high

      The basic requirements listed in a job posting to perform a job have become very stringent & complex that not many people even qualify for applying a job. The requirements are of varied nature, be it qualification, experience, domain knowledge, specialized skills or all of them.

Recruiters should identify and look for 2 (or) 3 factors that would determine the success of a candidate in a role rather than expecting the candidate to meet 10 out of 10 criteria which is impossible for the majority.

2.    Intolerance to Grossly right answers

What if a candidate says, gravitational constant is 9.81 m/s instead of 9.81 m/s² ? What if a candidate says value of “Pi” is 3.2 instead of 3.14?

While the answers are wrong, I am of the opinion that these small mistakes can definitely be corrected and should not be the sole reason for rejecting the candidates. While perfect answers are great, never underestimate those who get the grossly right answers too. One more chance may get the best out of them.

3.   Keeping the candidate waiting endlessly

    This is something many candidates go through. Organizations call the candidates for the interview more than once to attend various levels of interview. After patiently attending all the rounds, candidates are left     without any feedback. Trust me this is so frustrating.

If a candidate clears all the rounds, then decision should be made as soon as possible so as to get the talent aboard. Remember, an active job seeker looks for opportunities in more than one company. Organizations need to be quick in decision making to stay competitive in Manpower Recruitment. 

     

So dear recruiters, the next time you interview someone take utmost care in identifying critical success factors that defines a roles success accept the grossly right answers and please do not make the candidate wait endlessly for the results.