Hiring the Impossible made Possible in 3 strategic steps

Dear Experienced Recruiter, during your head-hunting career I bet, at some point or another, you’ve hit a brick wall: That dreaded requisition you could not fill for the life of you, the one that is causing you sleepless nights, the one that is party-pooping your otherwise excellent Time-to-Hire results. 

When the position opened, you had so many ideas where to look, how to network, who to ask, what your strategy was, how to make progress, looking forward to hearing those sweet, final words: “yes this candidate is great, let’s make an offer!”

But after a few weeks or even months of searching, something is not right: sure, you’ve managed to move a good few candidates through the funnel, made some phone screens, carried out some interviews, you may have even reached a “near-offer” phase (they are the worst, don’t you think?). But you haven’t found The Candidate. Your Hiring Manager may have lost faith in you and is considering using alternative options to fill his or her ever-long, open position.

You feel that you’ve failed.

Failure is part of the recruiter’s learning curve and it has to happen in order to improve. Like most things really. This article aims to help you Resilient Recruiters bulldoze your way through that brick wall, when you feel the candidate you are searching for doesn’t actually exist. Before we jump into the plan, take a quick moment to make a mind-switch: move away from the conclusion that the hiring manager’s need is unrealistic and move towards the concept that in these situations, a solution can be found.

Now that you believe “I can do this”, provide yourself with the answers to the below 3 questions: 

1. What have I done so far?

If you are at an end with finding a solution, this part is likely to be nice and rich with information. Tick off all the actions you have already completed. 

Have you:

• Published the job posting on various job boards?
• Explored alternative job boards that may be more effective? 
• Modified the job description to attract more or different candidates?
• Used your own professional network? 
• Used your hiring manager’s network to identify candidates? 
• Dived back into previous search pipelines to recycle candidates? 
• Experimented with fuzzy logic and various groups of key words while searching in your available databases?
• Used your best headhunting techniques? If yes, what were they? (I’d love to hear about these!)
• Given enough feedback to your hiring manager on the challenges you are facing?
• Brainstormed with your hiring manager in the search for a solution?
• Sought alternative target companies to look into?
• Considered searching outside the country?
• Reviewed and changed the job description and experimented to attract a diverse candidate set?
• Encouraged, received and reviewed Employee Referrals?
• Reached out to Subject Matter Experts inside and outside the company, to gather potential candidate names?
• Participated in relevant events?
• Considered boomerang rehires?
• Used social media to drive awareness of the opportunity?
• Asked your Hiring Manager to post the job description on his/her personal LinkedIn page?
• Explored internal solutions to have a current, talented employee take on a new challenge and grow?
• Explored alternative contract types in order to find the right candidate (eg. a freelancer)?

I hope some of the above have already started to spark the start of your new strategic plan to fill your hard-to-find roles, but before you start to cover what you have not covered so far, I suggest you dive deeper into…

2. Why have the above attempts not worked?

Here comes the debrief, or analysis phase. Why have I not been able to close this position? What have been the main blockers? So here are some more questions I would invite you to provide answers to: 

• Is the role unattractive?
• Can I do, write or say anything else to make it more attractive?
• What has been the average number of active applicants (those who apply through job boards) each week?
• What are the reasons for the above number (eg. why so few? why so many? why not good quality?)
• Have the active applicants been relevant / aligned to the role? 
• How many phone screens have you made so far?
• What were their results?
• How many in-house interviews have been done so far?
• What were their results?
• Where have most candidates slipped up? In what phase?
• Has this position been a priority search for you?
• Have you and the hiring manager been effectively communicating?
• How have previous similar searches been solved?
• Is the hiring manager fully engaged in his/her search? 

Concerning this last point on Hiring Manager’s full engagement and focus; if the answer is no, it might help if you share with them these 6 Essentials to Successfully Hiring in your Team.

3. What is my plan?

Based on the above 2 fields, I hope you are feeling energized about what you can do to finally stop that dreaded Time-to-Hire clock ticking. For any of the boxes you have not ticked in question 1 (What have I done so far?), include them as a new action you will take, and once you have completed your analysis (Why have my attempts not worked?) you are likely to come up with further actionable items that will complete your strategic plan. 

One last piece of advice: before you start: share your new plan, as a proposal, with your hiring manager. This will not only demonstrate that you are being clever and mindful about how you are approaching this tough challenge, convincing him/her that you are capable and ready to drive it to success, but (s)he may give you some useful input that will enrich your plan even further.

If you have your own creative ideas or success stories related to this topic I would love to hear about them!