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Dear
Holly,
Spring is here, the economy is brightening,
and people are hiring again! We decided to come out of hibernation and greet
you. We asked attendees at a recent presentation about their biggest
challenges in recruiting and heard, "newspaper ads haven't been
working," "we're inundated with resumes," and "we have a terrible
pool of candidates for lower level hires." We've had the same experience
- it's kind of like cable TV - lots more channels than before but still
nothing to watch. The trick, as always, is to create a small pool of
qualified candidates - and it is more challenging than ever. Here are some
tips:
Filling
the Job
- Figure out
what you need first! Gather together the whole
group of interviewers (don't try this alone) and carefully pick (only) 5
competencies other than education and experience that describe precisely
what you are looking for. Although this is tempting to skip, DON'T. For
example, a Buyer may need financial aptitude, negotiation skills,
mathematical ability, and ability to work under pressure. But you may be
looking for something else in a Project Manager: leadership skills, the
ability to convince and persuade, be able to "see the big
picture" and communicate well with those outside the organization.
- Describe
what you offer in the ad. Advertise so that you
emphasize what you have to offer more than job requirements. So,
"flexible schedule, growing company, creative compensation
package" will draw more qualified applicants than a long list of
"must haves." To narrow the field, it sometimes pays to
describe even the negative aspects of the work environment and culture -
we recently ran an ad that stated, "Must be able to meet inflexible
and unreasonable deadlines and work with frequent interruptions".
We got great responses from people to whom that seemed like a reasonable
challenge!
- Ask questions
designed to allow people to talk about their strengths - what they do
BEST. For example, ask them to "describe a
time when you were working at your peak." Why? For one thing, it's
more difficult to fake or even figure out the "correct"
answer. But when you ask a candidate to describe what they love to do,
they give surprisingly candid responses. And you can better determine if
your job is a match for them.
- Make the
offer now! There are as few high
quality candidates as ever, and as the market rebounds, they are more
highly sought-after than ever. Get that offer OUT.
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Job Posting Tips
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We have had great
success recently with a subscription to the Monster database. We decided to
ask the audience for their ideas on great recruiting websites. In addition
to Monster and the Pittsburgh Technology Council site (www.pghtech.org),
Lee Hecht Harrison (www.lhh.com), Drake Beam Morin (www.dbm.com) and
Society of Women Engineers (www.swe.org ) were mentioned as free sites with
a number of qualified candidates.
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Words of Wisdom
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If
you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
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News at HMK:
Presentations/Consulting Work/Family History
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We've been busy
the past few months with our usual array of recruiting, salary structure
design, outplacement, sexual harassment training and policy development
work for a diverse mix of clients: the National Robotics Engineering
Consortium, Webmedx, MindMatters Technologies, Compunetix, Lake Region
Medical, Frontiers Travel, Family Resources of Erie, Big Brothers Big
Sisters of Western Pennsylvania, DGI-Menard, the Society for Protective
Coatings . . .
Holly also made several presentations over
the past few months - for ProArts on "HR in Non-Profits," for the
Pittsburgh Technology Council on "New Ways to Hire and Inspire,"
(with John Porcari from Five Star Development) and for the CL Fund on
"HR Basics for Management" (with Tom May from Dickie McCamey and
Chilcote). If you would like copies of any of these PowerPoint
presentations, let us know; we're happy to forward.
Thanks for your continued
business. Enjoy the warm weather!
PS - On a personal note, in July, I
discovered the joys of geneological research and have spent my leisure time
in libraries and on the Internet, finding out about my long lost ancestors.
Please ask me about it; I'm anxious to share some tips. . . . .and my
children and husband are really sick of hearing about it! You wouldn't
believe what you can find out on the Internet . . . .
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About Us
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HMK Associates,
Inc. was founded in 1993 with the goal of helping business leaders
effectively and efficiently resolve their human resources issues. We are
committed to helping your company thrive by embracing the challenges of
growth and change.
If you would like more information, feel
free to email us and please forward this newsletter to a friend.
More About Us . . .
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