In this Issue:
Topic of the Month: "Desired or Required
Features That Give Your Firm a Competitive Edge
This Issue's Cartoon!
Topic of the Month: Desired or Required
Think of your perfect mate. Are you done? How many requirements go into the creation of this perfect mate: five? Ten? Twenty? (Really … twenty?) Think about your list again. Are each of those things you dreamed up (bright smile, sense of humor, blonde hair …) really required attributes your ideal mate must have? Or, are those merely desired attributes? On which items are you willing to be flexible? Does he really have to be a Lutheran, or does she really have to be 5’7”?
People make decisions every day based on these distinctions: what they desire … and what they require. There are some points on which people can compromise when making choices, and others on which they cannot.
This dichotomy hinders employers when they are trying to attract talent to apply for their open positions. I see smart companies trying to attract great candidates all the time, but instead of creating ads on job boards that invite these professionals to apply, they discourage them by listing a smothering roster of required talents. Yet, when I speak to client companies, I often discover that many of the items on their job description should fall in the desired category.
In other words, companies hold themselves back by trying to attract talent through job boards, yet they impair that campaign with what they put in their advertisements.
This disconnect is a problem that can be solved. A more measured approach when creating a job posting can make the distinctions more clear and not close off a source of great candidates that want to apply.
One candidate to whom I recently spoke talked about his perception of jobs he wanted that listed many requirements: “I look at the list of requirements in the posting, and if I don't have 100% of the background, I don't submit my resume.”
In a notoriously candidate-poor environment, this professional represents a resource that a client company wants, but, instead of enticing candidates to apply, these poorly created job postings are convincing them that they won't be considered.
When a hiring authority laments that “it just seems that we place an ad on a job board and we get few candidates to respond," it is clear that a great tool is being used improperly and blocking the union of strong company with eager candidate.
Here, then, is an example of the “requirements” section from one recent job board advertisement:
The successful candidate must have:
- BA/BS with a focus on business or life science
- An MBA from a well-respected institution
- 10 years sales management experience/
- 10+ years business to business sales experience to the Fortune 1000
- Broad knowledge of principles and methods in a recognized professional field, or working knowledge of multiple fields
- Well-versed in using CRM tools
- Experience selling in disciplined, formal sales methodology is essential
- Must be good at developing and articulating ROI to C-Level Executives
- Telecommunications experience is a must
How many people meet this list of criteria? Very, very few. Would this company really not consider a candidate that met the most critical elements, but was missing this achievement or that certificate? By publishing an ad that is so restrictive, the company misses out on potential superstars.
Of course a company should formulate a profile of its ideal candidate. Yet, if that profile is so restrictive that only one person in the world matches it, how will this company ever hire anyone? Companies should not let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
I'm not suggesting that companies reduce their standards or that they hire subpar performers. No one wins in those instances. However, there are two follow-on steps of the process.
Let's say you have come up with twenty items for your ideal candidate profile. The next thing to do is to rank them in importance so that each item is ranked one through twenty: prioritize the importance of the criteria, just as a suitor does, subconsciously, when searching for a mate.
Once that is done, the next step is to categorize each as either required or desired. In the real world, the lion’s share of these items become desired while the finite few at the top become required. It is the few items that are deemed critical to one's success in the job that should be listed as required in an ad.
This is a challenging set of exercises, no doubt. That's the whole point. EngineeringDesignJobs.com can be a great means to meeting strong professionals for your company, but you need to encourage contact with these men and women rather than inhibit it. Look once more at the bullet points in the job requirements above: would a company really not hire a bright individual who lacks the MBA component of the profile? If the answer is no, they shouldn't list that in their ad as it discourages potentially strong candidates from applying. A smart job posting will ask that same question of every “requirement” – and that job posting may emerge as a much more welcoming conduit to meeting eager, talented professionals.
Attracting great talent is very difficult to do, so don’t deter the talents who are in the market and want to meet you. Make sure your effort to attract talent is formulated to truly represent what was intended. If you can make a potential employee feel desired, then his move to your company might become something that he feels is required.
Lee B. Salz
Regional Account Executive
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