Developing a Strong Recruiting Pipeline
Any way we slice it, recruiting great candidates to join our team comes with a price tag! When we're forced to recruit constantly because the business is growing, it's hard enough-especially in a world where those great candidates are hard to come by. But suppose our voluntary turnover is an issue, and we haven't provided the best team members we did have with a solid reason to stay. In that case, we can expect those recruiting costs to turn into real profitability killers. While leadership involvement can significantly impact our recruiting process, there's never a shortage of demands on a leader's time, so we must be highly intentional about being involved where it can help the most.
Not so long ago, a friend who does high-end video production for a national healthcare system asked for my feedback on streamlining that organization's orientation process. He told me that each executive team member had a direct role with all new employees. They had approached him about the potential of creating video orientation to replace what they were doing to free up some of that time. He explained that this would also ensure consistency in the message and provide coverage whenever one of those executives wasn't available. I replied that it certainly would be possible and that both of the things he mentioned could be achieved. But then I shared the comparison of the two management teams I described before-and, more importantly, the feeling I still have about their different levels of involvement all these years later...
Here's the thing: just showing up and rambling through a canned speech isn't the secret sauce. The managers who never participated in the weekly orientation sessions I held with new employees from March 2013 until I moved on in October 2014 likely improved retention by NOT interacting with those team members right away! The impact the plant manager made on me in 1996 wasn't simply because he popped in and talked to us; it was abundantly clear that he meant what he said, and he backed his words up with his actions for as long as I knew him.
I emphasized to my friend that how and when the executives he was working with interacted with their new team members was far less critical than it was for them to be completely genuine in every interaction they had with their teams-and that would never just happen! They need to be very proactive in their approach. While doing that seems far too rare in organizations today, I'm convinced it's not complicated. I also don't believe that the majority of executives and owners who aren't involved in the recruiting process have ill will toward their teams; I think it's usually a matter of being pulled in all directions, and initiating involvement in the recruiting process or engagement with the folks at all levels of their organization isn't necessarily the fire that seems to demand their attention the most.
Regardless of what pulls a leader away from engaging their team, developing a solid recruiting pipeline isn't very likely to happen otherwise. I found an article about "The Negative Impact of a High (Turnover) Rate" that detailed some undesired and often unrecognized challenges from constant recruiting that high turnover forces. It shared,
When you're constantly having to recruit new employees, there is an increased risk of making poor hiring decisions. When there is a constant outflow of employees, you may be tempted to hire someone quickly, without taking the time to properly vet them and assess whether they're a good fit for the company.
The article also referenced how this can spill over into the overall customer experience and, ultimately, the company's reputation with those customers! If, as leaders, we have an awareness of how this can impact our customers (and kill our profitability), being proactive about how and when we engage our teams may just be the fire that demands our attention the most-and I believe that goes a long way toward earning the kind of candidate referrals that keep our recruiting pipeline full.
None of this happens immediately, and I'm convinced we should never shut that pipeline off entirely once we have it flowing. Still, it will happen, and it will produce results. To make sure we have a steady flow of potential candidates for every part of our organization, now and into the future, we need to use that time when we're engaged with our team members to keep the vision in front of them and to make sure they have a clear picture of how they fit into that vision!
Casting a Vision for the Future
Even when we're highly proactive in our leadership roles about being engaged with our teams, there's more we can do to develop a strong recruiting pipeline. Being directly involved in the recruiting process certainly helps, as does having a consistent presence on our teams. Still, I've never advocated getting in a bidding war to reel a candidate in because I believe it's inevitable that some other organization will-sooner or later-throw some crazy money at the someone we're talking with about joining our team. So, if making endless counter offers isn't our play, how can we attract the best candidates?
In all those years I worked in manufacturing, our company consistently offered one of the best entry-level pay ranges and some of the best benefits in the area, and none of the ones that offered higher wages hired full-time employees straight off the street at the time. The other few that paid more typically offered temporary positions to start, then a shot at a full-time role later on. While the lack of leadership engagement impacted our recruiting process over the last few years I was there, the dollar signs alone still attracted some attention from the younger crowd, who were typically just getting started in their careers.
When I left that large manufacturing facility and started recruiting for smaller, locally owned businesses, many entry-level roles were geared at the same candidate pool but offered several dollars less on the hour to start. However, those roles with the smaller companies could pay substantially more in just a few years once the individual developed experience in the specific trade. If I had attempted to compete with the factory positions on starting pay alone, I would have been left holding an empty sack! What I did pretty effectively was paint a very clear picture of a solid candidate's options for growth moving forward, as well as the tools we had in place to help them take advantage of those options.
If a candidate was fishing for the most they could make each week immediately, that approach didn't typically reel them in. But if the primary thing they were looking for was money, it wouldn't have been long until someone else flashed something shinier in front of them to pull them away. By painting a solid picture of what they could achieve over time, and outlining specific career pathways and potential succession plans within the organization, I was able to bring some great people into each of the companies I supported during that time.
My role for each of those organizations was to help attract great folks who had the potential to become excellent team members. Casting a vision for their future as part of those organizations played a crucial role in developing and capitalizing on a solid recruiting pipeline. That said, we all know that talk can be cheap! Without actions backing the message I shared, casting a vision would have only worked briefly. Let's tie this all together with one critical step that has to be in place for anything we've looked at to address this profitability killer to yield long-term results!
The Proof Is in the Pudding...
Suppose we hope to capture the profit that's so often killed in the recruiting process and build a solid recruiting pipeline. In that case, we'll definitely need intentional involvement from leadership at all levels of our organizations to cast a clear vision of where great candidates can see themselves in the future. But we better be prepared to back our talk with action! Far too often, I've seen organizations tout catchy phrases or throw around the latest buzzwords in the recruiting process but never make good on it once someone accepts a position. The promises usually come from the best intentions. Still, the urgency in the day-to-day takes precedence over the importance of following through on those commitments. Occasionally, though, the time spent telling a candidate how much will be invested into their growth and development is more than the time that company will ever allow for moving forward-and the person making the promises up front knows it! Either way, the actions that follow will tell the real story. The proof really is in the pudding!
An article on Recruiter.com called "Where Do You See Me in Five Years': Job Seekers Are Turning the Tables on Professional Development" shared this, emphasizing that developing our team members is a NECESSITY:
Increasingly, candidates are weighing professional development opportunities in the same way they would benefits like health insurance and 401(k)s. A Gallup study found that today's job seekers care deeply about development opportunities when looking for jobs, and 87 percent of millennials say career growth is an essential factor in the job search.
Employers need to provide these opportunities in a real, actionable way; they can't just pay lip service to the idea. As the economy recovers post-pandemic, employers can look to professional development as a way to differentiate their companies and improve recruitment efforts.
An article from the Society for Human Resource Management called "Employees Want Additional Opportunities for Career, Skills Development" quoted Joe Dusing, senior director of learning and development for Paylocity:
You shouldn't be doing anything about the Great Resignation. You should be doing something about employee experience. Every potential employee wants to know two things: "What are the skills that I need?" and "What are the programs that you have in place to support me?" If you don't have answers, they likely won't want to work for your company.
When we cast a vision for the potential a candidate has for growth within our organization, we certainly can attract some great people-but we'd better be prepared to provide them with the tools they'll need to move into bigger and better roles, or all that time we've put into bringing them onto the team will soon be repeated to get someone else on the team. And sooner or later (usually sooner), the reputation we've earned for providing (or not providing) those developmental opportunities will play a key role in our overall recruiting process.
Make no mistake here; I'm not suggesting that we throw money blindly at any kind of training we see or hear about. We need to be just as intentional about that as we would be with any other investment we make with our business capital-and EXPECT that investment to produce a measurable return. Otherwise, that training could turn into just as big of a profitability killer as an ongoing recruiting process! We'll look at that more specifically soon enough. For now, consider how you can implement something we've covered here to capture the profit so many companies lose in the recruiting process.
