Recruitment and talent acquisition strategies was the theme of our recent August Chapter meeting. We were lucky to have a knowledgeable presenter, Jenifer Lambert, Chief Revenue Officer at TERRA Staffing Group, who delivered an educational presentation at our meeting. Jenifer has over 25 years’ experience in recruiting/staffing under her belt. She fell into recruiting/staffing right out of college and has worked both in consulting roles and directly placing talent with client companies across a broad range of industries.
There were some great lessons learned at our Chapter meeting. We also used the opportunity to ask Jenifer her thoughts on few more recruiting questions, including her tips on how to avoid biases in the recruitment process and important considerations when selecting the right candidate for the job.
Can you describe what a well-coordinated recruitment process is for you?
JL: As with most things, a little planning up front followed by a lot of execution leads to success. Upfront, there should be clarity about why the role is open, what business result this role needs to deliver which then feeds into the skills, experience, and qualifications necessary to deliver that result. This informs your sourcing/talent generation strategy. In terms of selection, having clarity up front about who will be involved in making the selection and what their role will be is critical. Who will screen the candidates? Who needs to be involved in the interview(s)? Who has the authority to approve or veto the hire and why? Who needs to be involved to help sell the opportunity? The war for talent is real and we have seen that an uncoordinated process that feels clunky or confusing is a real turnoff to candidates. Just last week, we had a candidate nearly turn down a job because additional interviews kept getting added to the process. He had an offer from a competing firm with a much smoother process and that nearly made the difference. The company that hired him had to get more aggressive with compensation to overcome his concerns generated by a bad process.