Square Peg; Round Hole.

How do you approach hiring into your team? Do you map out your role, identify the key skill set required, brief agencies/direct source and start interviewing suitable candidates? Fairly standard process I would imagine, and it is getting harder and harder as it becomes more and more a candidate driven market within professional requirements.

Why not add another step into the process? After you have identified your role, stop and think …why would someone want this role? Put yourself in the job seekers shoes, what is interesting, different, value add within the position which will make someone want it? How is it different to the same role that your competitors are recruiting? How is it different to the job your ideal candidate is already in? Why would someone put their time and effort into applying for this job?

If you can’t think of exciting reasons to differentiate this role beyond “our culture is the best”, “our clients are the best”, “we have the most open partners to work with” then you need to dig a little deeper. Every firm will claim that they offer the above, some won’t even take the time to think of the above, but most will, so put something meaningful to those statements to make the difference.

When you are considering these things try and put pre-conceptions on the shape of the role out your head. By this I mean things like; where it needs to be based, how many days a week/hours per day and just consider the outcomes you want and why someone would want to join you to deliver them. Your candidate pool will broaden dramatically if you start thinking about letting people do the content writing part of the role from the peace and quiet of their own home – might improve the outcome to allow this focus, improve the quality, the originality? If you need a given number of bids run per week/month then does it matter in how many days they get it done? Could a more experienced person do in 3 or 4 days what a junior could do in 5? And maybe to a higher standard?

Allow yourself the room to attract as many quality individuals as possible so that you can hire the best person for the job rather than constricting yourself to the person who has done this job, in this environment and sector before. Doesn’t mean you won’t get that, just that you will know you have the best person for the job.