Setting Realistic Hiring Expectations

If you're a company that's hiring you often think that there is a plethora of candidates to choose from and think that you're one of the few companies that are hiring “in this economy”. I follow up with you a month later and you still have that need available. You end up having to reshuffle your wish list to align with what's really out there. Why not start off with a wish list that reflects realty.

Here's our reality right now:

• Yes, we’ve been in a recession.
• Yes, there have been a lot of layoffs from large companies.
• Yes, those companies are hiring again.
• Yes, you need to be competitive on how you find, interview and hire talent.
• Yes, you need to this now.

The current state of the technology job market is high demand/low supply. Yet your list of must have skills reflects that of an economy that's low demand/high supply. You’re confused.

In other words, the amount of good talent available in technology is decreasing, the amount of job openings is increasing, but you think you have the pick of the litter. You have the perfect poker hand and no one else has anything better than a pair of two’s, so your wish list is almost impossible to find.

Unless you want your job to be open for 2 – 3 months (maybe more), you have to be realistic about your expectations. Ask yourself before you write up your job description: 

• The skills I’m asking for, are they Must Have skills or Nice to Have Skills?
• For the skills I’m asking for, am I paying market rate for them?
• How can I find this out?

You will never know the answer to these questions unless you actually interview people that fall outside your wish list. Do you really need this technology? If so, maybe you should interview the guy that’s 10K above your salary bracket – then ask yourself the same question: Do I really need this technology? Is it worth it? 

Evaluate what technology you need for someone to have up front, and what you can train on. I always suggest to hiring managers to see a portfolio of what the current market has to offer and you move past a wish list and start gaining momentum on what is really available in the current market. 

Remember: when you hire someone that doesn’t have all of the skills on your wish list, they know it too, and they want to learn those skills. Often they will out-work those that have everything.

Reshuffling your wish list isn’t about settling, it’s about making sure you turn all of the cards in your deck. The more cards you turn over, the quicker you’ll find that Ace.

Comments

[Jeremy]

This article certainly rings true on the opposite side of the country, Tim. Many companies are sitting on sand right now, a shifting environment where they are struggling with compensation, benefits and if the new hire will truly be a good fit in their organization.

I've been seeing a trend of organizations that are making more of an effort to building a new workforce that will propel them out of the downturn and onto a concrete foundation moving forward. They're doing this by using assessments in the hiring process with each candidate (Lominger, 5Dynamics, Meyer-Briggs, Colbe, etc.) as well as making sure their compensation packages (salary, equity, bonus) are aligned with what the market shows today.