In the current highly competitive hiring market recruiting new top talent is very important to ensure quality candidates for your company. As a company you need to make some decisions up front and prepare before you begin the process of looking for candidates and then hiring them. There are some key things you can do to accomplish this and set your company apart from others.

Five tips for recruiting new talent in today’s competitive labor markets:

Organize your team to know who is ultimately responsible for the hiring decision.

We often see conflict between the hiring manager and the human resource groups in companies. It’s up to you and the decision makers in your company to resolve these issues before candidates begin to show up for interviews. It may seem overly simple, but the task of communicating with potential candidates is lost when the responsibility is not clear.

Determine who is going to participate on interview panels before you begin to schedule interviews.

Virtual interviews are now the standard for initial and sometime second phase interviews. Companies need to be disciplined in how many people are going to participate in initial phase interviews. Adding too many people to an interview panel usually assures that the candidate will be asked the same questions multiple times. It’s not a good process for a company to put candidates through because it makes the company look disorganized.  Keep your panels to three to five people. If the decision is based on matrix authority, having an odd number of participants normally breaks the ties of a locked jury.

If you are using a recruiter, they will likely bring multiple candidates to your team in a narrow time window.

It is very important to contact and begin the interview scheduling process with your potential hires. Taking a few days to assess the candidates is appropriate, but taking weeks is going to paint your company in a negative light. In a tight labor market like the one we have experienced since early 2022, delay makes talent acquisition even more challenging. Prompt communication and scheduling makes a good early impression. Delay provides your competitors an opportunity.  Using a recruiter will reduce some of these delays by bringing qualified candidates to you in a shorter time frame.

Once you have interviewed candidates, communicate your decision to interviewees as soon as possible.

Rejection can be difficult for a candidate to hear, but lack of communication is a turn off especially to top candidates. Look at the rejection communication as an opportunity to high light the professionalism of your organization. If there is delay in the decision process, its better to let people know what is going on versus letting them float in limbo. If you are considering several candidates whose skill sets overlap and the decision is not clear, letting people know you are processing through the decision is better than no communication. Candidates respect companies with prompt communication processes and they let other people know about your professionalism.

Preparing the offer is the fun part.

You have looked at numerous candidates and your ready to make your candidate an offer. Again, prompt communication is important. Be prepared with a backup “counteroffer” plan. In today’s tight labor market, companies are fighting harder to retain talent. While it’s still the exception that company’s counteroffer, its trending strongly in that direction. If you believe that your candidate is that good, then chances are the company that employs that individual has the same feelings and will fight. Contingency planning is appropriate in competitive markets for high potential employees.

Need Help Finding Top Talent?

Morris Bixby is an agriculture focused recruiting firm entering its 26th year in North America. Recruiting high performing talent has never been more challenging. Let our team of experienced agricultural recruiters assist you in your next search. Contact us today!