Hiring the right resource:

India has a very dynamic business environment today. Product innovation is easier/ faster. Consumer awareness is increasing and her choices are evolving every day. Communication tools with the consumer are increasing, channels of distribution are growing and indeed evolving rapidly.

Often it feels to each of us that what we are doing today is going to be not so relevant even a year from now. The complexity in the environment is increasing and adapting to it just gets more urgent for an organisation.

Hiring in India is possibly the most risky and expensive investment your company will ever make. Building an organisation that succeeds for today and tomorrow, requires a team that adapts, thinks quickly, and can continuously learn. Such teams are never appear overnight, can seldom be acquired, but mostly have to be built. Carefully, painstakingly. Lets look at the GroCurv -9 step model for hiring and see if this is useful to your growing business..

• Define: What are the responsibilities, the tasks and the deliverables of the role. Write a brief. There is really nothing more powerful that a written brief to clarify your thoughts as a recruiter and to communicate to the candidate what is expected. We have listed a few links at the end of this note on how to write a good brief.
  
  
• Communicate consistently: Social media (definitely Linkedin) is a very powerful way candidates find employers and vice-versa. An eager/ motivated candidate typically follows leaders that he would like to engage with/ work with.
  
  Separately, keep communicating what’s happening in your industry, directions you are taking as a leader within your organisation (broad strokes only), events in your company, recognition, team stories.
  
  All of this communication allows prospective candidates to understand better the role as well as the culture/ fitment before stepping in for the first interview.
  
  
• Bring in functional experts (and train them to be recruitment specialists): Let the experts do their jobs too. A digital marketing role? Do ensure an expert in digital marketing is one of the interviewers. This allows the candidate to see clearly the level of digital capability in the organisation and equally the organisation to clearly evaluate the candidates ability to learn, grow.
  
  
• Use the right recruitment agencies: If recruitment agencies are the source of your CVs, they must be evaluated continuously terms of the quality of candidates they are introducing you to. Remember that hiring is a continuous process, set aside time every week to meet candidates who could create impact.
  
  
• Keep the questions focused on the skills you need- hire for adaptability/ learning agility/ compatibility.
  
  Its no longer sufficient to hire basis past achievements. While consistency is definitely a strong indicator of future performance, what needs to be evaluated are not only the output metrics, but also the inputs.
  
  How comfortable is the candidate talking about things he learnt. Failures. New innovative approaches to existing problems.
  
  What is his core strength? Operational excellence? innovative thinking? Resource management?
  
  

• Onboard for strengths, don’t reject for weaknesses: Fast growing companies need skills to accelerate growth. Evaluate to find those skills. If there are areas of development, reflect on whether these areas are :
  
  1. Required for immediate fulfillment of tasks
  2. Cannot be overcome with training
  3. Prevent the candidate from learning/ taking initiative/ aligning culturally with the team
  
  
• Move quickly: The clearest way to show interest and confidence in a good candidate is to take the interaction to closure. Make sure there is a balanced offer on the table:
  
  1. It values monetarily the candidate’s past experience and skills.
  2. Has clear role description and expectation
  3. Makes joining simple by focusing on the most necessary documentation/ accounts for
  relocation assistance
  4. Highlights why the candidate was accepted, and equally areas of development where the
  company will invest, along with the timelines. There is no better indicator of your
  commitment to the candidate’s future than this.
  
  
• Continue to communicate: Ensure a good mentorship and on-boarding program that allows a two way communication between the candidate and the company
  
  Remember, in the early days is when the candidate has a fresh set of eyes looking at your business.
  
  Any recalibration of the contract between candidate and employer can be done at this stage. But most important, in a new environment, being communicated to is a very good indication to the candidate of his “social” acceptance in the company.
  
  
• Reward and Retain: Rewards are a very critical part of the entire HR approach in an organisation. They come in various forms but all of them succeed in doing one fundamental thing. Validating and acknowledging the candidate’s contribution. All rewards must be given on the promised dates and definitely no later than 30 days from the conclusion of the project/ task.
  
  
• Strain: As organisations and people evolve, their needs and motivations change. It is critical to keep evaluating periodically these motivations among employees. The process allows the company to take feedback and act on it, while at the same time help an evolving employee become more closely engaged with the organisation.
  
  Honest conversations here allow both the candidate and the employee to move on respectfully and fairly. Exiting candidates must be helped with out-placement. This cannot be emphasised enough.
  
  I hope that was useful and I invite your comments on how you think the process can be made better.
  
  
  

Other links:

• https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-tips-for-hiring-the-right-employee-1918964
• https://www.robertwalters-usa.com/hiring/hiring-advice/Keys-to-hiring-in-the-bay-area.html
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2015/05/15/6-tips-for-hiring-the-right-employee/#17f128ca3894
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamvanderbloemen/2016/12/29/4-keys-to-hiring-the-right-person-at-the-right-time/#712f514452e3