Bad hiring, West Brom v West Brom and “Recruitment Hacks”. Urgh.

You’re hiring. That’s really good. It’s good that you’re creating a job for someone. It’s good that your business is growing.

So why does the process feel so hard?

Tl:dr hiring isn’t a mechanism that serves the company first. It should focus on serving the people that you want to attract.

Let’s take a step back.

When I read comments from recruiters about accessing new platforms to find talent I want to claw my eyes out.

We have an abundance of access to talent. Access is not the problem.

I don’t speak Spanish, but if I did I’d say it again in another language in the slight hope that the message reached more people.

Oh, fuck it…

That felt good.

Q: If we can find the people instantly then why does recruitment for certain roles feel so difficult?

A: Because we’re forcing candidate interactions on low/no-intent channels.

“Hacking” someone’s information on Github to slide into their emails to hit them up for a role is absolutely garbage recruitment. Gutter stuff. I know. I’ve done it! Unless you’re {insert massive company here} it doesn’t work. Numbers game.

Imagine one of the worst things you could do with your spare time. I dunno. Something like watching West Brom v West Brom. That’s where I place recruitment hacks. Rubbish.

Serve the people that you want to hire.

That sounds easy, right? It isn’t.

It takes time to craft your messaging. To understand the type of content that gets your ideal candidate excited. To understand which channels. Which platforms.

It takes time.

But this should be a huge priority for every recruitment team: find the way to tell better stories about what it’s really like to work in your business.

Be a window, don’t be a door. Don’t block the candidates route in to educate themselves. If you do a good job the candidate will unlock the door when they’re ready.

It takes brave recruitment teams to reduce their focus on outbound sourcing motions to flip some of their time to creating demand.

And I’m not advocating making a 100% switch today. Just take one step at a time.

Here’s your first task.

Understand the intersection between the candidate's biggest career challenge(s) and the things that your company can genuinely solve.

Create some content and distribute it. Ask your colleagues to add commentary. That’s it.