Hiring hasn’t been easy in a few years, but it’s really challenging right now.
“4.6 million more jobs available than people available to work”
“9 out of 10 small business owners rate recruiting and hiring as somewhat or very difficult”.
Headlines like this are popping up every week. The impacts of the pandemic are still being felt and negatively impacting Building Products manufacturers and distributors, but I’d like to highlight three other hiring practices that you’ve likely used for years that are also contributing to your lack of success recruiting in today’s market.
When it comes to entry level or hourly positions
The market has changed, in some ways dramatically, and that means the way you hire also needs to shift. When it comes to hiring hourly positions, I highly recommend you take some time to reevaluate your ideal hiring profile. In many cases that looks like someone with Building Products experience and someone who has done that exact job before. Of course, that profile may be ideal, but the reality is this is also likely setting you up for frustration. We’re in a period of time where 10,000 people are turning 65 every day for ten years in a row. You’ve likely already felt the impact of our aging workforce within your organization. When you review LinkedIn you’ll find that less than 1% of 1% of employees are in the building materials industry. Our pool of talent is extremely finite and narrow. I encourage you to take the opportunity to hire for aptitude and attitude and dedicate some time to build a robust training and development program.
When you’re unsure about a particular candidate
It’s not uncommon to interview a candidate and feel a little unsure, but taking too much time to decide about the next step – or worse yet, not communicating anything to the candidate is a huge misstep. If you have uncertainties, identify and appropriate steps to get you the answers you need to make a confident decision moving forward. Does another interview need to take place? Does the candidate need to go on a ride along? If you can’t identify a specific concern, you can’t address them. It’s worth taking the time to identify what your concerns are and mapping out the next appropriate action so that you can make an informed decision.
Consider who is involved in the interview process
I hear all too often that companies have an excessive amount of people involved in the interview process. It’s common to think that because the new employee will have daily interaction with numerous people, that everyone should also be involved in the interview process. The intentions are pure – you value the opinions of your trusted employees, but before you know it you have seven people involved in the selection process of an inside sales rep. I urge you to really consider who truly needs to be involved.
Start with a clear idea of what the business needs this role to fulfill. Include the immediate supervisor that will be able to provide insights for the daily responsibilities, culture fit and how to appropriately set them up for success.Think about the key responsibilities and interfacing in the role and bring in 1-2 subject matter experts to help assess their skills and abilities in those specific areas. But, don’t just include people because you’re trying to be inclusive (or worse – polling for opinions.). Involving too many people in the process costs you a lot of money, time and allows for differences of opinions to exponentially slow the process down – frequently resulting in you missing out on good candidates
Remember:
- Remember to hire for attitude and aptitude, not just past experience if you can train the key responsibilities. Attitude and Aptitude are great indicators of future success.
- Don’t be too slow to decide – get the clarity you need quickly to move forward.
- Don’t involve too many people – it impairs your ability to make decisions in a timely manner and creates an environment for potential internal friction.
Implementing these steps will remove unnecessary obstacles that are likely prohibiting your ability to win the war for talent in a candidate short market.
If you’re interested in learning about tailored ways our team can support you to find, hire and keep great talent get in contact with my team for a no obligation Discovery Call. Happy hiring!
