Blogs

I am always keeping my eyes open for Business Development and Sales professionals for firstPRO, but I recently escalated my plans to add to our growing IT Staffing and Recruiting practice, in preparation for 2021. You would think that finding talent for my team would be easy for someone like myself, given over 25 years of staffing industry and recruiting experience, but the truth is this. Hiring new talent is hard work.

Like any well-made staffing plan, when preparing to hire talent for your organization, it is important you develop a functional strategy to employ during the hiring process. While there is no one size-fits-all, cookie-cutter type approach to hiring resources for your organization, and there are many different steps in the hiring process, depending upon your organization’s composition, here are some fundamental keys to consider.

1. Know what you are after in a New Employee. It starts with an effective job description. Saying you want an experienced Sales Professional versus an experienced Sales Professional who has the skills to develop ‘Trusted Advisor’-type relationships with current and potential customers, who can bring a high level of attention and respect for detail, with a focus on fact-based and data-driven decision making to their workday, is another. Toss in a working knowledge of productivity tools and CRM systems while you are at it. Do not forget IT staffing experience. It is important candidates have that too. The point is this – Know your need and stay true toward satisfying that need. Do not compromise your needs for the role.
2. Plan your Recruiting Strategy. If you are in a role where you hire staff for your company, did you ever think you would be doing it via Zoom? With face-to-face interviews compromised for many organizations due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, companies are finding they need to be creative when it comes to interviewing new talent. Know who you want involved in the interview process and consider having resources from outside your department partake too, to get an outsider’s potentially more neutral perspective on a potential candidate’s talents and skills. Consider tracking and communicating progress to team members associated with your hiring efforts via a checklist or similar system, so they understand where the process is going and what successes (or failures) you are experiencing.
3. Ask the Right Interview Questions. Asking candidates to share relevant career experiences and how those experiences relate to your career opportunity is smart. Illustrating examples by showing tables, or charts, or graphs, to portray previous success stories and how those stories may be winners for your open position are potentially impressive too. However, in the same line, no employer should care what your favorite fruit is, what 80s or 90s rock band you liked the most growing up, or what your biggest weaknesses may be. And as an employer, be sure you confer with your HR team to ensure you clearly understand what questions are illegal to ask. Questions regarding age, religion, citizenship, disability, or gender identification are items employers should never ask candidates during the interview process.
4. Check Backgrounds and References. Performing effective background and reference checks are pivotal to ensuring you are hiring the right people for your organization. You want to ensure the experiences possessed by your target candidates are in fact legitimate. Educational credentials, criminal histories, and employment references are best to leave with outside organizations who know how to properly, and legally, manage these important processes. Start running these checks before a job offer is extended. Be sure you communicate this essential step with candidates you plan to hire. Transparency with all parties during the hiring process is critical. No surprises.
5. Extend that Job Offer. Illustrate clearly in your job offer the exact verbal terms that you discussed and agreed to during the interview life cycle. Salary and related compensation, benefits and associated company perks, and other items need to be outlined in your job offer letter. While negotiations may ensue around particulars associated with your extended offer, your offer should never be wildly off from what your original hiring plans were for the position, or for what you discussed during the interviewing process. Again, aim for transparency and no surprises.

The interview and hiring experience should be a pleasant one. It should not be stressful, or negative, or detract from your company goals and objectives. Rather, hiring the right employees for your company is an opportunity to enhance your company’s culture, bolster employee morale, and build a strong sense of company team work, with people coming together to hire people to make their companies, and themselves, better than they were before. You might even learn a little more about yourself when you are involved in the hiring process for your company. To get the most out of the time and energy associated with hiring for your company, a little planning goes a long way.

Best of luck in hiring the right people for your company and, if you happen across an experienced Business Development Manager, with experience in the IT staffing market, who would love to work with a talented, professional team in Philadelphia, kindly drop me a line. We pay referral fees at firstPRO.

Stay well. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay productive. Always.


firstPRO is proud to be the DAAs Career Center Sponsor for 2020-2021. A full-service IT, Accounting & Finance, and Supply Chain staffing and recruiting company, with offices in Philadelphia and Boston, firstPRO supports our clients and candidates alike, by providing exceptional levels of customer service.


#CareerAdvice