Following a hire purpose
WE’RE hiring.
You wouldn’t think such a simple phrase could hold such power and potentially cast such a deep shadow of fear and loathing over me as the owner of a small business.
As I read the stats, as of July 2017 there were something in the order of 726,000 unemployed people in Australia and according to recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures there are now more than a million people ‘underemployed’ across our nation.
So why, oh why, is it so hard to find just one good one?
I don’t want an army of storm trooping PR executives and leaders. Right now, I’m just looking for one, sensible, hard-working, experienced, efficient, senior account manager for my interstate office.
Someone who can spell and write, who understands the magical and clearly elusive world of grammar and who doesn’t need to go to ‘how to use an apostrophe 101 class’.
Someone who can work enthusiastically and diligently with clients, who can deliver results for said clients, who loves their work and loves to be appreciated.
The last time my business went through this exercise we ended up with a terrific team member … eventually.
In between however, I was flooded with offers from recruitment companies keen to save the day and tackle the job for me. Thanks, but as a small business I didn’t feel I could really justify the hefty investment given I felt I needed to personally get a feel for the range of talent — or lack thereof — that was out there.
We also attracted a significant number of applications from aspiring PR and commu- nications professionals who hailed from existing jobs as diverse as truck driving and computer sales. They somehow seemed to miss the line about our potential candidate needing to demonstrate ‘six to eight years of experience in public relations’. Seriously.
And much and all as I’m happy to support a broad and diverse workforce, I did have to wonder about the admirable optimism of the candidates from every part of the globe except Australia.
I have no doubt they were all committed professionals looking to make a home down under, but I wasn’t as convinced about their potential to deliver on the line in the ad which read … ‘ have a clear understanding of the Australian media landscape and have key existing media networks and contacts’.
But we ploughed on and eventually struck gold.
So this time, I’ve done what everyone does and I’ve gone to the God of Google and thought I’d share with you some of the Ten Commandments I’ve unearthed in the pursuit of the how-to of hiring.
Apparently we need to write better job descriptions.
Less focus on what you want and more focus on why you’re a terrific team to work with. What’s in it for your prospective candidate, rather than just what’s on your shopping list.
We also need to embrace digital trends to be hip and happening and we’re also advised to check out a candidate’s social media profile for a less formal CV insight.
You can teach skills but you invariably can’t remold personalities. So a focus on a candidate’s soft skills and personality rather than just technical skills is also important to get the right fit.
And improving your interviewing skills and actually asking the right questions like “who are you going to be 10 years from today?” and “what makes you get up in the morning and do what you do?” can apparently tell you a lot about a candidate’s drive.
So it’s clear that my oldfashioned ideas about work being a matter of turning up, working hard, putting in, having fun and getting paid might be a little out of date.
Wish me luck.