recruitment
In Pursuit of your Next Recruit
WHAT’S IN A JOB AD?
As an HR leader you are tasked with finding the people
that make up your company and ultimately help boost
the bottom line. But recruitment is a tricky part of your
role. It’s easy enough to find people who, on paper, can fit
your business needs. It’s more difficult, however, to find those people
that can work well in your corporate environment, be challenged
and give their best to their new job.
That’s why the recruitment tools of job descriptions and postings
are so important. For many applicants, this is their first impression
of the company and it is your first attempt to screen people who deserve
to be interviewed, and possibly hired.
“The first thing that I always think about is, ‘What type of person
am I looking for and what’s my ideal candidate?’” said Sarah Jane
Dowling, CHRL, CHRE and director of HR with PBL Insurance
in Windsor, Ont. Depending on the location of the country she is
recruiting for or the type of business unit that needs new hires, for
example, Dowling says she bases the job posting on many of those
needs.
Pete Kazanjy, founder of talent search engine TalentBin, agrees
and says you have to know your audience.
“The process by which job descriptions get made is a very formalized
one where a hiring manager will sit down with a recruiter and
create a laundry list of skills and potential titles that their ideal candidate
would have,” he said.
But the problem is that this is often technical and does not read
like a marketing document. Also, hiring managers sometimes fail
to understand the marketing realties of supply and demand
and so a laundry list of characteristics in a job posting
could artificially restrain the types of talent that
would actually be suitable for that position.
Beyond technical versus marketing
language, however, knowing
your demographic is
also important.
“The language that you want to use should be of interest and appealing
to whoever your target audience is,” said Trevor Shylock,
industrial organizational psychologist with Caliper.
TALK TO YOUR HIRING MANAGER
Recruitment is not a solitary endeavor. While you are dealing with
your own HR functions, you simultaneously have to “please” the
hiring managers in need of the recruit.
“I am in constant communications with the hiring manager; right
from the beginning of thinking they will need an employee, the hiring
manager is always part of the recruiting process,” said Dowling.
She, however, has final say on the posting and approvals can mean
all advertisements, descriptions and language.
That’s where the “in-take” meeting comes in, says Kazanjy. He
says the recruiter needs to act as a good “agent” to the hiring manager
and be a steward for the hiring manager. Practically
speaking, as the hiring manager places restraints
on the posting, for example, the recruiter can
show them how that changes the type
of people that might apply or are
available for the job (by using
filters such as
TalentBin or
By Joel Kranc
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JANUARY 2015 ❚ 41