Hiring Real Talent: Let Employees Participate in the Process

If your goal was to choose the next company that you would work for, would you pass up the opportunity to spend time with its employees? We think that most people would say “probably not.” There’s the human curiosity factor and there’s the desire most of us have to fit into the workplace culture. These things make sense to us, but so much of the current recruiting world focuses now on the electronic exchange of data. It’s possible to narrow recruits down to the right match with their next employer using software, which minimizes the human side of recruitment. What gets lost in the world of automated recruitment is the value of human beings conversing with other human beings. They get to exchange ideas and see if they might fit together. We wrote this piece because we want readers to explore why employees should participate in hiring activities (whether that’s having them write job postings or sit in on interviews).

We’re Hiring People, Not Robots

At the same time that we emphasize how recruitment is about hiring people not robots, we want to consider the needs of recruits. They can make a better decision about a job if employees have given input during the hiring process. Companies seek to hire people, which includes candidates who are currently working in the field and candidates who are trying to re-enter the workforce. This occurs when people seek employment post-retirement, when they’ve finished time in detention, when they’ve finished caring for a loved one, and when they’ve recovered from illness or disability. There are more scenarios that explain why people seek a job, but they come from their own background. They have different senses of urgency about accepting a job.

The Background

From reviewing job descriptions to reading resumes, the employees of a specific department should get involved in recruitment. What’s more, serious candidates should have the opportunity to tour a facility and to meet the people who will interact with them on a daily basis. Both employees and recruits must be able to see if they are going to fit (at least on the surface). This human dimension also helps the recruit to choose between this company and another one that doesn’t offer that same level of interaction during the recruitment process. Everyone wants to find a niche where they will be able to earn a living.

Opening Up Hiring to More Candidates

Some companies will introduce more human dimensions to their recruitment processes that are increasingly automated in order to keep up with staffing trends. For example, there are laws being passed in many states called “ban-the-box,” which would mean that private employers can’t ask recruits about their criminal background until after they have received a provisional job offer. This makes it easier for people who have served their time for a crime to re-enter the workforce without having private employers violate their civil rights during the hiring process.

While the issue of opening up job searches to more candidates with criminal backgrounds only applies to a portion of the population, the general need for humans to drive recruitment instead of making decisions in reactions to software-generated reports is widespread. We have ideas about how to help employers find the right candidates and how to help recruits feel that they are a good match for a workplace culture. We have found through the years that the best hiring practices are going to be ones like these that respond to human needs and desires. This is mainly because no amount of automation is going to turn people into robots.

For more details on the best hiring practices, please contact us today.