Nutshell: How to bring the right talent into our organisations

Without crafting an accurate job description that encapsulates our talent needs we won't be able to interview or shortlist effectively. 

In 2017, to source candidates with a flair for problem-solving, Apple created a hidden job advert for a tech engineer in its website source code. Although it was actually discovered by a cybersecurity journalist (who wasn’t looking for a job), it gives us an insight into the unusual ways some organisations are sourcing top talent in a competitive market.

IKEA, for example, inserted a set of ‘career instructions’ into its flat-pack furniture, written in the style of its assembly instructions – attracting 4,200 applicants (of whom it hired 280). In a more targeted approach, gaming company Red 5 Studios drew up a ‘dream team’ of 100 people it longed to hire, contacting them directly with customised messaging (and considerable success).

The moral of these stories is that when competition is fierce, even household names have to think creatively about how to win the seemingly never-ending ‘war for talent’.

Understanding the hiring process

While many of us might work in organisations where HR teams lay out a process and protocols for recruitment, it’s important that, as leaders, we don’t leave it entirely to our colleagues.

To hire the right people to balance and grow our teams, we need to engage with the hiring process ourselves. This means understanding what it looks like and how to use it effectively to hire the people we need.

Recruitment comprises three stages:

1. Attraction

Sourcing and attracting candidates to fill a particular vacancy within our organisation.

2. Selection

Using a variety of methods to assess and compare candidates, in order to find the person with the most relevant traits, skills and experience for the role.

3. Induction

Onboarding our new team member, supporting them to settle in quickly, and equipping them with the practical knowledge to perform their new role to a high standard.

Getting all three right enables us to bring vital skills into our organisations, helping us to meet strategic goals, round our teams, retain staff and enhance the perception of our brand by giving candidates a positive experience.

Conversely, making a hash of it can lead to poor experiences for applicants and a mismatch between the successful candidate’s skills and the reality of the job. Recruitment can be an expensive and time-consuming process when the wrong person is hired, disrupting projects and team dynamics, and leading to higher staff turnover.

In the worst cases, contravention of employment legislation can result in tribunals and bad feeling – causing long-term damage to our reputation. It is therefore well worth putting in some thought and effort at the outset and managing the whole process with care.

Attraction: who are we looking for (and why)?

To bring the right people into our teams, it’s insightful first to explore the general characteristics, skills and experience that make up our ideal candidates and the selection criteria we intend to use.

Asking ourselves why a new employee is needed, the duties and responsibilities they will have, the skills and abilities they will need to succeed, and where this role fits into the wider business is a good starting point.

We should look at this in the context of what will best serve our team in the short and long term. For example, if we need an immediate shot of specific expertise, might it be better to bring in a gig worker or consultant on a temporary contract? Where we’re looking for someone able to adapt to an evolving role, we are probably looking for potential over immediate proficiency.

Hiring for foundational traits – such as integrity, curiosity, courage and self-awareness ­– that will always be of value and determine new skill and knowledge acquisition can help us to round out our teams and future-proof our organisations. Learnability quotient (LQ) and adaptability are arguably more important than previous technical experience and expertise in a world in which 65% of today’s jobs may not be around in 15 years.  

Ideally, as experts suggest, leaders should be focusing their efforts on hiring people with the skills, abilities and expertise they will need to move forward within their teams and organisations.

In a world in which creativity and innovation are key to organisational success, hiring for ‘culture add’ rather than ‘culture fit’ is another important consideration. When seeking culture fit, we’re looking for people who will blend into our team straight away because they share our company values and ways of working.

While this can boost happiness and team cohesion, it can also lead to groupthink and bias against difference, stifling new ideas and creating ‘personality silos’.

Recruiting for ‘culture add’ doesn’t mean bringing in people likely to cause discord or conflict; it means introducing individuals who share our values but have something new to offer in terms of their skills, perspective or experience. It may be harder to integrate these people into our teams but the diversity of thought that they bring can be particularly valuable.

In marketing, executives draw up ‘audience personas’ to profile typical customer groups, so that they can target them more effectively. These personas help them to understand their customers’ drivers and motivators, and how best to reach them.

In a similar vein, developing candidate personas for particular roles (in the form of semi-fictional representations of our perfect hire) can help us to gain a clear idea of who we are looking for and inform our sourcing and recruitment strategy.

Simultaneously, we must understand our unique offer as an organisation. A firm’s employee value proposition (EVP) represents the total value to the employee of working for the company, encompassing five key components: financial rewards, benefits, career development, work environment and company culture.  

While we may not have direct influence over some of these aspects, comprehending our EVP (in the context of current talent trends) will help us to design compelling job descriptions and to tailor messaging.

For example, a parent or caregiver might value flexible working as highly as generous compensation, while a young graduate may be looking for professional development opportunities, or a sociable workplace, above a competitive pension scheme.

A small business could win out over a better-known competitor by promising a less corporate environment, personalised training and a chance to help work towards B Corp status. An international company might emphasise opportunities to work in its offices around the world, and a famous name might reference high-profile projects or products.

Highlighting the aspects of the role and organisation that are likely to appeal to our target demographic will help us to stand out from the crowd.

The artful, equitable job description

Drawing on these insights to write a coherent and attractive job description is the first stage in the recruitment process and can underpin overall success. Not only do job descriptions advertise vacancies and attract candidates, but they also set out what we expect from people and help us to manage their performance once they take up the job.

They enable us to align roles with team goals and our organisation’s vision – and to attract people with similar values.

A job description generally comprises:

• The position identifier, including job title, department, location and level of seniority.
  
  
• An outline of the purpose of the role and how it fits within the organisation.
  
  
• Details of the duties and hours, describing essential activities and responsibilities.
  
  
• Details of essential and preferred qualifications, skills and experience.
  
  
• A ‘person specification’, describing the type of person the role would suit, covering broad personality traits, values and professional background. (Sometimes this sits outside of the job description as a separate entity.)
  
  
• The salary range, benefits and any other unique selling points.
  
  

Rather than simply recycling an old description when a staff member leaves (or automatically listing the credentials of the previous incumbent), we should seize the opportunity to analyse current and future needs. Acquiring this data may involve conducting an exit interview with the outgoing staff member, talking to their colleagues and re-evaluating the purpose of the role.

Take care not to narrow the field unnecessarily with irrelevant or unrealistic requirements. The more conditions we specify, the fewer applications we will receive, so it’s advisable to leave out the ‘nice-to-haves’ and stick with the essentials.

For example...

‘Tech company seeks exceptional IT admin fluent in Python and at least two languages. Minimum of five years’ experience. PhDs preferred. Salary: £26K per annum’ 

...demands skills and experience that are completely unnecessary at this level and pay grade – and would deter many good candidates from applying, particularly women. Research shows that women are unlikely to apply for a position unless they meet 100% of the stated requirements, while men will apply if they meet 60% of the demands.

We should also think twice about parroting general requirements such as “strong communication skills” or “proven team player” if they are not actually essential to the role at hand, since these descriptions can discourage neurodiverse applicants (with conditions such as dyslexia and autism).

Even the word ‘experienced’ may put off entry-level applicants, while asking for ‘enthusiastic young people’ will turn off older candidates. Think: do we really need to make this stipulation or are we able to remain open-minded about who would be best for this role?

Minding our language

Getting the wording right in a job description is therefore fundamental: details should be clear and accessible, we should spell out acronyms, and steer clear of industry jargon or perceived language bias on the grounds of age, gender or any other protected characteristic, using inclusive terms.

As well as making job titles gender neutral (for example, chair/chairperson, not chairman), we should be aware of the impact of gendered wording, which can perpetuate inequalities.

Research shows that job descriptions containing more ‘masculine wording’ (such as ‘lead’, ‘ambitious’ and ‘confident’) are less likely to resonate with female applicants; however, adverts using more feminine words (‘support’, ‘interpersonal’, ‘commit’) have only a small adverse effect on applications from men). Superlatives (best; world-class) also appeal more to men than women. Fortunately, free tools such as Gender Decoder can help us avoid such unintended bias.

To avoid binary pronoun definitions, it may be best to address ‘candidates’ or use ‘you/your’ rather than ‘he/she’ (for example, ‘The successful applicant will be self-motivated and creative’). Meanwhile, stipulating hours may deter parents or caregivers (still more likely to be women than men) so it can be more equitable to define performance requirements instead.

On top of general proofreading, asking colleagues from under-represented groups to read through job descriptions before we use them may help to surface any unconscious bias or stereotyping that has gone under the radar. Bear in mind, too, that claims under discrimination legislation (such as The Equality Act in the UK) can be made by candidates who feel discriminated against at any stage in the recruitment process.

Where we are genuinely committed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and want to encourage applications from diverse talent, we should explicitly state this commitment in job descriptions, being sure to reflect and align these values in the candidate journey, employee experience and external brand. This includes commitments to accommodating neurodivergence or disabilities, and to initiatives around issues such as wellbeing and sustainability.

It’s important to note that candidate experience begins at this point – with the job description representing our first interaction with potential employees. The language within them gives clues to our values and helps to convey our distinct strengths and organisational purpose.

Since each person who goes through our hiring process may influence a future purchasing decision about our product or service, we must treat candidates as customers at all times, putting them at the heart of the journey.

Not only may those who have a negative experience stop using our product or service, but they may also talk to their family and friends about it, and write about it online. They are also unlikely to apply for future positions that we offer.

Our aim must therefore be to provide every applicant with a positive experience, treating them with respect from start to finish, whether they are shortlisted for the role or screened out at the earliest stage. Our job description is the foundation of this and sets the tone for the process.

Fishing the talent pool

Precisely how we source our candidates depends on the type and seniority of role for which we are recruiting, our candidate demographics and the level of competition for this type of job within the labour market (which may require us to get creative, IKEA-style). It will also vary according to the job location and, of course, our budget.

If our aim is to recruit as diversely as possible, we should advertise in a way that reaches the broadest spectrum of people – measuring success against this parameter when evaluating outcomes.

Options include advertising on our own website (requesting CVs or providing an online application form), amplifying the message via social media, and using professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn. These provide a window into our organisation, so we must ensure that we display it to our advantage.

To gain a large volume of applications, we could also turn to third-party job sites (larger companies often have ongoing subscriptions to these) and place ads in regional, national or international publications, as well as in job centres. Specialist publications such as trade journals will help us to target candidates in a particular sector. To access minority groups, we may need to target agencies and websites aimed at these demographics.

In certain cases, we may outsource some or all of the hiring process to specialist recruiters (ensuring they understand the character and values of our organisation and have the same diversity policy), or use head-hunters to find and approach candidates for senior positions. The latter method is expensive, but beneficial in sensitive circumstances where advertising an appointment might impact on an organisation’s reputation. 

At the other end of the seniority spectrum, for graduates and postgraduates, recruitment fairs are commonplace in sectors such as finance and technology; some organisations also host candidate open days for those with an interest in their offer.

Where there are no current vacancies, we should hold on to the details of the talented people we encounter, keeping in touch with them via professional networks on LinkedIn and Twitter. As leaders, networking and pipelining are good ways to bring people into our organisations, whether they are actively job hunting or simply keeping an eye out for interesting opportunities.

We can also encourage (and incentivise) employee recommendations – while bearing in mind that those from minority backgrounds may have fewer contacts and weaker connections to the labour market.

Some larger organisations go so far as to actively create roles for talented people they encounter, whether or not a current vacancy exists, so as to acquire their traits or skills for the company.

Looking within

Effective pipelining is both external and internal. While it’s always good to bring new capabilities and perspectives into our teams (and annoying to fill one gap only to create another), we should not default to external hires before ascertaining that we cannot find the skills we need within our current workforce.

Consider who could do the job with a bit of training and mentoring and who is looking for a new challenge. We can create a robust internal talent pipeline with continuous upskilling, making learning and development available at the point of need.

Not only is hiring from within less costly and time-consuming, but these candidates also understand our culture, require shorter inductions and have an existing commitment to the business. They are less likely to leave because they’ve failed to settle in. Pipelining internally also demonstrates to other staff that there is mobility within the organisation, which helps to engage and retain talented people. 

Even if we have somebody earmarked for promotion, and are not advertising externally, introducing a proper process that mirrors the one for external hires (from internal advertising via newsletters or the intranet, to applications, interviews, shortlisting and formal offers) keeps everything fair, professional and above board, and means the candidate feels they have earned their new role. Often, however, our shortlist will contain both internal and external candidates.

Shortlisting the right people

Having the right pool of candidates from whom to select is the first stage of successful recruitment. Without care at this point we will waste our own time (and those of potential employees) by shortlisting people who do not have the skills, experience or qualities that we require. However, by getting it right we are giving ourselves the best possible chance of bringing in people who will help our organisation to thrive.

“People are not your most important asset,” says US author and consultant Jim Collins. “The right people are.” 

Test your understanding

• Outline the elements a job description usually covers.

• Explain the benefits of hiring from within your organisation.

What does it mean for you?

• Scrutinise job descriptions you (or your organisation) has recently used and reflect on the wording and format – and how it was disseminated. 

• When you are next recruiting, trying drawing up candidate personas to inform your attraction strategy.