Recruiting new staff

I was on an interview planel at work recently. I'm in IT and had problem with how the HR person was defining IT skills for candidates. They refused to look at the section on the CV listing these skills. They expected the candidate to mention their IT skills in the interview. But HR have no clear requirement defined.

It was BS basically. I said why have a section on IT skills on the application form if you ignore it.
 
Seems I spent two days researching, creating completely bespoke cover letter and CV only to find at the final submission step 5.. there's no submit button. Expiry date 31st, linkedin and other sides including the bank's own system show the role available yet clicking the "save job" does it say the position has been cancelled! The benefit from working in the company in the past is you understand how it works.. or doesn't. I suspect that given the world 'issues' that the budget submitted in September, approved for Jan has been subject to the haircut and pulled..

Applied to a FinTech pre-series B today using a derivative of the CV. Pity that previous role had a great title "Chief Technical Product Innovation Officer"..
 
I'd definitely not spend that long on this sort of thing, just have a good CV and cover letter ready and maybe a separate doc with a big CV that you've overfilled with bits you might remove as appropriate for a specific job. It's nice to tailor things a bit but it shouldn't need to be a completely from scratch CV/cover letter nor should it really take long at all to add/delete some bits or write a few things for a specific application.

Ideally, you have your CV/cover letter already written, see an application/see the hard requirements + desirable stuff and how well you'd fit it, quick bit of reading about the company/check glassdoor.co.uk etc.. (obvs you can't always do this initially if going via a recruiter who has kept the company name/details confidential), then just do a few adjustments to the CV/letter accordingly and send. No reason why you couldn't look up say a handful of roles on linkedin, indeed etc.. and apply to each of them in a single evening.
 
ThundyCat said:
Biggest problem now is you sift through the CV's, call people and confirm an interview. Then they don't show.
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I did that once - when the recruiter sent me the meeting invite through some system so it came from a different email address to all their other communication and ended up in my spam folder. I found it about a month later.
 
We had a guy last week. Text my cover driver during the day to ask if they were still on for that night. Arranged to meet him at 18:30. 19:00 my cover driver calls me to say no show and the other guy isn't answering.... Still not heard anything...
 
ThundyCat said:
Hi all, I work for a food wholesaler. And getting staff is near on impossible!

Anyone else running a business having the same issues?

The CV's come in, they either don't answer the phone/email, or they don't turn up for an interview.

It's like people don't want to work, or they want top dollar, but don't want to put the effort in.

:(
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Yes we're looking for new sales executives and we're barely getting any cv's come in and of the few that do it's people that aren't suited to to job at all.

We recruited two in desperation (which is never good), one left after a week and the other has been off sick countless times.

I think our lack of interest is down to the location, when I worked in Hertfordshire overnight we had 80 applicants. Currently we're lucky if we get 3 a week.
 
ChocAndGray said:
Yes we're looking for new sales executives and we're barely getting any cv's come in and of the few that do it's people that aren't suited to to job at all
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How are you trying to hire them, are you able to share a job spec and the type of person you think would be a good candidate? If you're only getting unsuitable applications it could be you need to revisit how you are positioning the role.
 
HangTime said:
How are you trying to hire them, are you able to share a job spec and the type of person you think would be a good candidate? If you're only getting unsuitable applications it could be you need to revisit how you are positioning the role.
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The jobs are only advertised on the company website, they don't use agencies or third party websites which of course dramatically reduces the number of potential applicants as the vacancies are less visible.
 
I think in general people are just sick of poor wages, crap hours and bosses that expect the world from you for nmw or close to that..then they still struggle end of the month to pay bill's, of course this has got even worse start of April.
Not to mention also as someone myself who is full time employed but still looks occasionally on job sites for opportunities etc that even the most basic jobs are expecting stupid requirements these days (ie certian gcses grade c or above) which isn't a lot to ask for obviously but not everyone has that which is fine they should still be given the opportunity but often don't.
Then you got companies that have gotten lazy and won't do 1 to 1 interviews now they want either group interview's or live video calls. .people with anxiety that will instantly be a nono, so they won't apply.

Plus companies kind of diserve people not bothering to let them know they're no longer interested in the job if they get called because 9/10 they don't even have the curtesy to let you know you were unsuccessful.. Its a 2 min email!
 
Not surprising then. Surely the cost of having to hire and train people who then either leave after a week or go off sick all the time outweighs the cost of trialling third party services? I guess advertising on Job Centre Plus is free as well, maybe some sort of minor campaign on LinkedIn? I mean unless it happens to be a prestigious local employer you probably don't get many people explicitly looking on the company website for jobs. Obviously you may get more unsuitable applicants via broader advertising but presumably if you only get 3 applications a week opening the flood gates might not be a bad idea.
 
ThundyCat said:
or they want top dollar, but don't want to put the effort in.
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That's just a symptom of a candidate's market. Why put the effort in when there are so many companies hiring? If you won't pay top dollar, they know someone else will, so they don't need to bust a gut.

I would flip it round and say companies need to try harder. Make your recruitment processes more streamlined (I recently dropped out of a process after 5 weeks and 4 interviews - just dragging on forever). Make it a pitch for your company being a great place to work, not a detailed cross-examination of the witness.

I appreciate based on the OP, in some cases it's just people dropping out at the first stage, so you never even get the chance to sell the company/job. That's kind of what I mean about it being a candidate's market, they've probably applied for multiple jobs and are moving through the process in other areas so your job is no longer relevant to them. So try and be quick - don't wait to 'get around' to reviewing those CVs (I've been in those shoes myself, sitting on applications for a few days), make it a priority. Review all applications within 1 working day and if you like the look of them, get the interviews booked in, don't hang around waiting for more CVs to land so you can make a shortlist. Your shortlist will shorten itself if you do.

Basically it's like the GPU market last year - you snooze, you lose.
 
Nevakonaza said:
I think in general people are just sick of poor wages, crap hours and bosses that expect the world from you for nmw or close to that..then they still struggle end of the month to pay bill's, of course this has got even worse start of April.
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This is what it has come down to now. After so long employers taking the pee, people are starting to wake up. Thanks pandemic! :D

As mentioned before, employers asking for such high requirements for basic jobs. Thinking they can always get away with it for crap pay. I saw this so many times when job hunting last year.

I left my last job back in January. I handed in my notice in October, so they had all this time to find someone to replace me and they still haven't as of today. When I looked at the JD (which was completely different from when I applied for the same role two years ago) the requirements were too high. I told my old boss and HR they were going to struggle to find someone because they wanted someone with a high level of VMware experience. Which they are not going to find in our country because no one hardily uses it. When I was job hunting, I only saw two places asking for VMware experience. One was a major bank and the other was VMware themselves.........Good luck trying to get someone from one of those places!
 
HangTime said:
That's just a symptom of a candidate's market. Why put the effort in when there are so many companies hiring? If you won't pay top dollar, they know someone else will, so they don't need to bust a gut.

I would flip it round and say companies need to try harder. Make your recruitment processes more streamlined (I recently dropped out of a process after 5 weeks and 4 interviews - just dragging on forever). Make it a pitch for your company being a great place to work, not a detailed cross-examination of the witness.

I appreciate based on the OP, in some cases it's just people dropping out at the first stage, so you never even get the chance to sell the company/job. That's kind of what I mean about it being a candidate's market, they've probably applied for multiple jobs and are moving through the process in other areas so your job is no longer relevant to them. So try and be quick - don't wait to 'get around' to reviewing those CVs (I've been in those shoes myself, sitting on applications for a few days), make it a priority. Review all applications within 1 working day and if you like the look of them, get the interviews booked in, don't hang around waiting for more CVs to land so you can make a shortlist. Your shortlist will shorten itself if you do.

Basically it's like the GPU market last year - you snooze, you lose.
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Streamlining the process is a must. I think the worst was - apply november, offer in may, started 3 weeks later. 8 interviews, with HR dropping the application when the HR bod left, and 3 weeks of due pre-start diligence.
 
This is what we did to simplify the process. Find a candidate get them to complete a very basic form, if they tick the boxes for this a simple phone interview to review their answers and probe a little more then if they appear competent on the phone a face to face interview. Day after they are told yes or no. We don't bother waiting to interview all the candidates anymore if we find someone suitable, A quick phone call to tell them the roll has been filled and can we keep you on file for future reference for all the data protection nonsense :)

8 interviews is just ridiculous.
 
I've talked of my struggles to find work in another thread so I'm not going to go into that.

At my last company I was one of the people doing the interviews but not one of the decision makers as to who we hired.

The company is a big name within it's industry but outside of that it's a nothing company. I'd never heard of it myself until a recruitment agency contacted me about a job there.

Anyway there were several positions going which were all data roles of varying levels but education wise a PhD was required. Once I was involved the candidate had at least one interview and a ridiculously long task to do. In the part I was involved with they would spend the whole morning or afternoon being interviewed.

The expectation of candidates was ridiculous. They were asked for example who their data science hero was, what data science podcasts they listen to in their spare time. Most candidates were rejected at this point because it became apparent that on a Sunday morning they would do something other than work or listen to a data science podcast. There was another stage after this which was more of a formality because so few candidates got beyond it.

They wanted the absolute cream of the crop but it was a terrible place to work and the money wasn't great.

The first one to finally get over the line left after a week. The second one lasted almost a year and was actively looking for another job the whole time they were there. The third one was a more experienced hire and handed in his 3 months notice before he'd been there for 3 months. The fourth one did last longer than a year but not that much longer. He's now a friend of mine and he told me he took a less than ideal job to leave because he hated working there so much. They were the only ones deemed good enough.

Most of us are average at the end of the day, that's why there's such a thing as average. The idea we should all be game changers just to keep a roof over our heads is ridiculous.
 
Generally it's not, but degrees are so commonplace nowadays that some employers perhaps use it as a simple filter to exclude the bottom of the intellect barrel [note: I'm not saying people without degrees are stupid, I'm saying people with degrees probably meet some sort of minimum level to have achieved that].

One thing I've noticed is a tendency for job adverts to say something along the lines of "2:1 degree, or equivalent experience in industry". But I have no idea what "equivalent experience" actually means. I've been working for 20 years after graduating and I wouldn't describe much I've done in the workplace as being equivalent to what I learned/did at university. I guess it is basically saying, we don't want graduates unless you have a good degree, but it doesn't really sit right with me. If you need someone who is a high academic achiever than workplace experience isn't necessarily going to compensate for that. Working somewhere for five years doesn't magically make me more academically gifted.
 
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