The Part that Luck Plays
March brings to mind a lucky holiday and the return of Spring. When we apply those themes to hiring, here’s what they mean to us and to the job seekers and clients we serve:
There’s no luck involved in successful hiring
If you aren’t growing and changing every year, you won’t be around long
A survey by LinkedIn reports that 85% of employees are thinking about changing jobs this year but in a noticeable turnaround from one year ago, job seekers on that site now outnumber posts by two to one rather than the opposite ratio. If you are a job seeker, you are part of a large population looking for trusted advice on where to turn; if you are a hiring manager, there is a large pool of uncertain talent waiting to be tapped.
Job seekers today are uncertain about finding the right company culture and navigating the often-frustrating experience of being ghosted by potential employers. Similarly, hiring managers grapple with the task of identifying the perfect candidate in a sea of applicants, all while ensuring a seamless fit with their organization's values and objectives. The SHRM 2023-2024 State of the Workplace Report indicates that 35% of employers have access to pre-employment assessments to identify qualified candidates for their opening – meaning that 65% of hires are happening based on judgment calls.
To navigate the job market successfully this spring requires so much more than luck. Let’s go back to our themes for March to give you a look at how the team at Personnel Partners applies them to our work:
Springtime. Some plants faithfully bloom year after year. Some business practices are so foundational that they should faithfully be kept no matter what happens in the world around us. The value of personal interaction will never diminish regardless of how far technology advances. We know that our success is due in large part to our commitment to live interviews, phone conversations, and true relationships with clients and candidates.
On the other hand, springtime brings newness every year, and we look different than we did last year or the year before that one. We rewrite, update, reinvest in technology, reread, retrain, and recharge our daily operations every year – and sometimes every month!
Not Luck. Here’s what it looks like to not be lucky making a placement for a client.
On the first search for a new job order’s parameters, 600 potential candidate files come up in the database. (Why would we think they might be available? Because our state-of-the-art messaging technology has continuously communicated with every candidate in the database from the moment we created an Active file for someone we met and approved, so that even if they were only passively seeking work in the future, we kept an ongoing connection.)
The placement team member working on the opening applies a series of additional searches to that database to consider secondary “wish list” experience factors named by the client; tighter pay rate ranges; geographic considerations, or other optional factors.
From the narrowed list, individual files are reviewed to see our interview notes, where consideration can be given to potential culture fit with the client.
From that narrowed list, references and test scores are reviewed to eliminate any non-qualifying results.
The final list is prioritized before beginning calls to check candidate interest, so that the best potential matches are reached and referred first.
While applying skill in the search process, our team is applying knowledge gained by achieving seniority – far above the average in the staffing industry - and the expertise of a Certified Staffing Professional employment law certification requiring continuous education (there’s the annual renewal theme again).
Yet, how lucky we are to be doing what we love. In this season of newness, we wish the same for every job seeker who is brave enough to make a change, and every hiring manager feeling overwhelmed.
May your troubles be less, and your blessings be more
May nothing but happiness come through your door