Yes, I think the economy is improving. My openings are increasing and the hiring is starting to happen. I suggest you read Gerry Crispin’s latest study about the upcoming year. If you are among the lucky ones to be hiring, the suggestions below should help you find top talent and help our economy grow again.
- Take the time to correctly identify what you “must have” and what would be “nice to have” before you begin.
- Be reasonable with your requirements.
- There is no such thing as a perfect candidate. Interviewing 10 or 20 people will not improve the odds. Preparation and good interviewing will.
- Set a deadline to fill the position, rather than affecting your reputation for slow decisions. You don’t want to affect your company’s reputation negatively with your process.
- Unemployed and employed candidates should be considered.
- If you don’t have time to spend interviewing, don’t open the requisition.
- Pre-screening a candidate who doesn’t quite fit based on the resume may help you discover the candidate more than meets what you want and need.
- Candidates are often very different in person than on the phone.
- The team members who will interview the candidates must be prepared and not ask the same questions.
- Using an outside recruiter can save you time and money as agencies have resources to reduce your time to hire, keeping you on track with your regular responsibilities.
Is the economy improving? Although I see some improvement, we will not see much better cash flow until we hire more people. With one out of ten people still unemployed, that prevents anyone from great hope. You can help by increasing your hiring.
Please feel free to contact me directly with comments or suggestions for this blog.
Current urgent openings: Color Scientist, Field Application Engineer (3). Details are available at www.hotcareers.com on the JOB tab.