The fall of outdated behavioral interview questions and the rise of New Hiring

If you’re an HR leader, you’ve likely heard the term purple squirrel. According to Wikipedia, “purple squirrel is a term used by employment recruiters to describe a job candidate with precisely the right education, set of experience, and range of qualifications that perfectly fits the job requirements. The implication is that over-specification of the requirements makes a perfect candidate as hard to find as a purple squirrel.”

The pursuit of hiring the perfect candidate has been a long-time quest for leaders. Hiring practices have changed over the years so leaders could find candidates who perfectly matched their expectations.

Many years ago, the main hiring medium was a simple sign in front of a factory. In the mid-90s, the first online job sites were launched, and hiring became electronic. HR leaders had to advertise jobs online, and the first contact with the candidate was usually via email, followed by a phone call.

In the 2000s, hiring methods changed fast as the internet offered many ways for HR leaders to find the perfect candidate through online job sites and career websites. HR specialists even started using professional social media sites (LinkedIn) and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to find the best talent.

Two decades later, hiring concepts are still changing to match the marketplace competition.

Articles about today’s talent shortage seem to be popping up everywhere. The talent shortage is real, but is an outdated approach to hiring talent the root cause of the misalignment between available jobs and candidates with the skills to fill them?

Some might argue that the pay was the only reason a potential candidate would want to consider accepting a job with the organization and staying with the organization. But while it is a valid motivator, today’s candidates are looking for more. These include benefits, flexible work hours, support when caring for young children and/or aging family members, opportunities for advancement, learning and development programs, and ultimately the work culture itself.

New Hiring includes recruiting, leading, and retaining prospective and high-performing employees. The New Hiring process starts from the pre-recruitment phase, wherein HR leaders start by fixing the current New Work culture and pivot to making sure the culture shines through in everything they do.

Consider the following tips for implementing New Hiring and improving your organization’s culture through recruiting, leading, and retaining employees.

Regardless of the organization’s age, it’s important to have a clearly defined recruitment process, as this can lead to significant growth. By doing so, hiring a talented workforce becomes an essential in the master plan, as it is one of the main, if not the main, drivers of organizational success. Let’s look at new and important aspects of the recruitment process that HR leaders must pay extra attention to.

Knowing where to look for top talent is one thing, but learning how to use a particular recruiting channel to increase the quality of your hires is an equally important skill. Master it and watch your hiring decisions benefit your organization.

Here are some of the best channels to help you find your next great hire:

• Online job boards or websites
• Employee referrals
• Apps
• Staffing agencies or recruitment firms
• College and university partnerships and career fairs
• Social media platforms
• Your company’s website

A UK Monster survey of 2,030 job seekers revealed that:

• 64% of respondents said they would not respond to an ad with a poorly written or confusing job title
• 60% found jargon in job ads annoying

Looking at the example below, we can conclude that 100% of job seekers laugh at poorly written job descriptions:

To help you efficiently attract top talent, ensure your job description has a clear title and includes keywords relevant to the position, the industry, the necessary qualifications, and the nature of expected responsibilities. Complete the job description by providing details of available positions and attracting candidates by describing the benefits of each position and showcasing the company’s unique advantages.

A recruitment communication strategy maps out how you communicate with candidates throughout the recruitment process. Without a clear strategy, you run the risk that communication with candidates will be unstructured, unorganized, and unprofessional, making you look sloppy and respond slowly. An effective communication strategy can significantly enhance your hiring process.

“People work for people – they do not work for businesses.” – Donn Carr

When HR leaders guide the workforce with the right methods and practices, it has a positive impact on the organization’s brand image as well as on employee retention. Here are tips on how HR leaders can lead in the New Hiring process.

A survey by Quantum Workplace identified the most and least engaged age groups in the workplace. The most engaged were young Millennials under the age of 25 and Baby Boomers who are 65+. The least engaged were older Millennials between the ages of 26 and 35.

A deeper look into what drives each age group brings an interesting perspective. You can’t engage all employees with one all-encompassing approach. Engaging employees requires an understanding of what motivates each individual employee and what influences their engagement in and out of the office.

That said, grouping motivations by age group is a great place to start. Here’s a look into what motivates and engages each age group in the workplace:

How can leaders inspire and nurture a sense of purpose in their employees and help them become happier by climbing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? The answer may be more straightforward than you think. You can help employees find meaning by expressing appreciation and gratitude for their efforts.

If you want to know how engaged your employees are, you need accurate data.

Here are five KPIs that HR teams and leaders can track to extract accurate insights into the employee experience:

Net Promoter Score. The employee net promoter score systematically tracks employee loyalty and how likely it is that an employee will continue being productive and contribute to the company’s success.

Absenteeism and attrition rates. Review your company’s absenteeism and attrition rates and compare the numbers against your desired levels. If you come across certain departments with a higher absenteeism and attrition rate, focus on identifying and addressing the underlying problems.

Job satisfaction survey. An employee satisfaction survey can be conducted annually to determine how satisfied your employees are in their roles. Several online survey tools let you customize your job satisfaction survey and make it anonymous so you can extract valuable information.

Pulse surveys. Employee pulse surveys harness the power of real-time feedback to give you an accurate picture of your employees’ well-being. You can use a pulse survey tool to determine which areas of your business impact employee engagement for better or worse.

Retention is critical to keep the best employees committed to the company and reduce the chance of their quitting or leaving. We have put together employee retention strategies here that can be part of the New Hiring process to help reduce employee turnover.

Today, prospective candidates have ample opportunities to explore. If a worker perceives benefits in terms of a positive workplace culture and career growth opportunities, they can easily leave for a new job. They may even compromise on their compensation. Therefore, applying an integrated succession planning and career planning strategy to your talent management process is vital both for attracting candidates and for retaining those who are already part of the organization.