Reducing Cycle Time
The general rule in processing candidates is to keep cycle time to an absolute
minimum. This keeps costs down and contributes to a higher success rate. Good
candidates are hard to find, and even harder to keep. Assessing skills and
screening a candidate quickly puts them in front of your client or hiring
manager before the competition, and before the candidate gets another offer.
Make yourself available for a candidate screen at their first convenience.
If you are surfing the web and find an excellent candidate, especially if you
have reason to believe they have only recently put their resume online, call
them immediately if the hour is appropriate! If you get voicemail, leave them
a message stating that you're sending them an e-mail about a great
opportunity. When they receive your follow-up call the next day, they may have
read the job description, and if possible, you should be prepared to phone
screen them at that time.
Many firms use a scheduler to book large quantities of phone screens. However,
if a candidate expresses a willingness to conduct the phone screen on the
spot, the scheduler should transfer the call to a recruiter who can conduct
the screen immediately. This is particularly important for hard-to- find,
highly technical candidates as it can reduce a candidate's resume cycle time
by a day or more.
Maintain control of the phone interview. Even excellent candidates can
sometimes be challenging to get detailed information from (e.g., scientists
and other highly technical people.) These candidates can be reluctant to "talk
technical" with a recruiter. Learning a few key technical terms relevant to
the project, and asking open-ended questions will usually reverse the problem.
"Tell me about an experience writing Perl or Bourne shell scripts..." will get
a better response than a vague query about their programming experience.
Other types of candidates can to be too wordy (for example sales, marketing,
and project management candidates.) These candidates should ideally be very
forthcoming with information, but articulate and able to "sell themselves" to
the interviewer. In all situations, maintain control over the interview. If
necessary, politely interrupt a long-winded response, indicating you need a
little time to get all of the information down clearly. The implication that
something of quality might be missed will accomplish this task. Keep the
conversation moving, and digress into light conversation only long enough to
establish rapport and trust.
Phone screens are not just a verbal re-hashing of the candidate's resume. The
phone screen, like the face to face interview, allows you to assess qualities
in a candidate that are not fully apparent on paper. Even before the screen
occurs, this process is in play. Did the candidate miss a scheduled
appointment? If so, did they reschedule promptly and courteously? A phone
screen gives you an excellent opportunity to assess a candidate's
communication skills.
This is especially important for public relations, sales people, project
managers and those expected to have contact with clients or the public. These
candidates should be able to present themselves especially well in a phone
screen. If done well, the phone screen can help you quickly identify the key
reasons why a candidate is considering a job change. Make note of these and
periodically match the benefits, opportunities, and culture that your company
offers that might specifically address those motivations.
Think of your job as a professional recruiter in terms of being a private
investigator. You are constantly listening closely, gathering new information,
asking inquisitive and open-ended questions, and assessing information to draw
your conclusions.
When you've developed a sense of the attributes you are seeking in a
candidate, create a screening template that lists the key skills, years of
experience, certifications, etc. that are required for the position. Create
fields for important information like full contact information, salary
requirements, availability, relocation requirements and motivation for job
change. Also be prepared to assess skills that are not obvious from the resume
that may be useful in matching the candidate with more than one opening. For
example, sales experience plus a technical background could add up to a good
candidate for a presales engineering position.
When screening candidates, having a template of your most important questions
provides a standardized form to evaluate candidates and make notes. Whether
you take notes directly into the template on your computer or by hand on a
print out of the template, all the information you need will be presented in
an organized fashion. While taking notes directly into the computer may be
more efficient, unless you are prone to saving your work regularly (every 5
minutes) a single computer crash or freeze up could wipe out all your data.
The best finished document will summarize only what is necessary to convey the
quality and distinction of your candidate. Bullet point summaries are a good
way to do this. Focus on a few major skills, supplying some detail below each.
Highlight relevant recent experience, positions and projects in a concise
manner. If you discover a secondary skill set in the candidate not relevant to
the current position, include that in your personal notes. Your ultimate goal
for the screen is that it be well organized, thorough yet concise, and easy to
follow, so that the hiring manager feels he or she can make a next step
decision without having to thoroughly comb the resume.
-Carl Kutsmode
President & Founder
www.TiburonGroup.com
Tiburon is a proven leader in providing e-Recruiting consulting,
implementation and high volume staffing solutions to clients with a full-range
of hiring needs in a variety of different industries. Tiburon has
comprehensive knowledge, understanding and experience with all aspects of
web-based recruiting.