Hiring decision makers believe recruiting informed candidates saves valuable time throughout the hiring process, reducing costs and improving the interview experience.(1) But how do you build a pipeline of informed candidates and a hiring process to identify them quickly? At Glassdoor Recruit, executives from four esteemed companies shared their strategies for attracting and hiring informed candidates, including advice for cultivating an irresistible employer brand and recommendations for enabling recruiting teams to do their best work. Here’s a link to the session moderated by J.T. O’Donnell, Founder & CEO, Work It Daily, plus a summary of each speaker’s key points.
Katie Burke, Chief People Officer, HubSpot
1. Use content as fuel. Hubspot found that recruiters were spending too much time addressing individual candidate needs such as why the company worth relocating for or is great for parents. In order to improve recruiting efficiency, it created targeted content that addresses specific concerns at each stage of the candidate funnel—whether just starting the process or at the offer stage. Content is regularly updated on social channels and the company jobs page.
2. Don’t be afraid of imperfection. Hubspot just recently launched recruiting-specific social channels in order to tell the story of life at the company. Though employee social media takeovers have resulted in some cringe-worthy moments, Hubspot finds those are far outweighed by the amount of meaningful authentic content that people can relate to. Burke shared that candidates appreciate their willingness to be human and a little bit vulnerable.
3. Sign up the entire executive team for Glassdoor updates. Glassdoor is more than a recruiting tool, it’s an opportunity for the company to see where it’s doing well and what its challenges are. The Hubspot CEO receives valuable feedback on what people like as well as what they didn’t like. Recruiters and hiring managers use Glassdoor reviews as game tape to help improve what they are doing on a daily basis. Getting the emails in your inbox means you can’t ignore it or check out reviews at your convenience.
Martin Pisciotti, VP Employee Careers, T-Mobile
1. Embed “talent scouts” into individual business units. A centralized recruiting function wasn’t efficient in meeting the individualized needs of recruiting for T-Mobile’s various business units. The company chose to embed recruiters into its individual business units so that the recruiters could more readily address the needs that specific group. Renaming recruiters “talent scouts” encouraged them to look for the best players beyond the steady inflow of applicants.
2. Embrace social media for recruiting. Social media is part of T-Mobile’s DNA, from the CEO on down. T-Mobile CEO John Legere has 4.5 million Twitter followers, and the company operates recruiting-focused Twitter and Facebook channels. In addition, the hashtag #BeMagenta enables employees to tell the story of what it’s like to work at T-Mobile. On monthly “Work for Us Wednesdays,” a part of the business does a social media takeover to show what it’s like to work in that division or location.
3. Know your weaknesses. Since no brand is perfect, it’s important to know why some of the best candidates aren’t bringing their careers to you. Once you’ve identified the problem spots, address them upfront – at a careers event or in an interview – instead of waiting for candidates to ask.
Keith Bevans, Partner, Global Head of Consultant Recruiting, Bain & Company
1. Integrate new hires with shared values. With average annual growth of 14-15% growth, Bain & Company has had to find new sources of talent. Pulling from a broader base of candidate backgrounds that includes journalism, history, economics majors as well as engineering and business school graduates means the company has to integrate employees from all these backgrounds with a shared set of core skills and values.
2. Educate recruiters on your business. As a consulting firm, Bain’s primary asset is its people. In order to ensure it can get the best people in the door, the company invested in a recruiter training program that educates them not only on how to read resumes, but on Bain’s business model and client work. Recruiters are thus more equipped to translate the client work to candidates at the crucial time in which they are looking at many options.
3. Collect feedback and act on it. Bain conducts an annual worldwide employee survey, an upward feedback survey on managers every six months, and case team surveys every two weeks. Feedback is addressed publicly, including on kitchen bulletin boards. The culture revolves around getting better as a team, and addressing problems publicly and pointing to tangible wins creates an environment of trust and acceptance.
Steven Gonzalez, SVP & Deputy General Counsel - Labor & Human Resources, Major League Baseball
1. Fight the temptation of passive recruiting. With a steady stream of applicants who are excited to work for Major League Baseball, the organization has to fight the temptation to rest on its laurels. Are those incoming candidates necessarily the best candidates, and is it a diverse group? Active recruiting means seeking out the best people from all backgrounds, including people who may have self-selected out because the may have some preconceived notions about what it’s like to work for a sports league.
2. Give candidates a real-life test. In order to make better hires, MLB talent acquisition encourages department heads to give candidates tests that mimic a task they might have to do on the job. Sometimes a candidate who interviews well verbally can miss the mark on a task such as writing a memo or conducting an investigation on a fact pattern. Conversely, a candidate who didn’t interview well verbally can perform well on a task, meriting them closer consideration.
3. Partner with Glassdoor for more informed candidates. In an effort to attract more candidates who are already familiar with the brand, MLB recently partnered with Glassdoor. Candidates who are familiar with the mission, values and important initiatives of the Office of the Commissioner come to the table more prepared, having thought about how their skillsets align with the organization. Hiring managers then have a more qualified pool of candidates to choose from.
Want to learn more about how to win with informed candidates? Download Glassdoor’s Recruit Playbook.
