Dear Professionals,

Recruiting has become one of the most critical KRAs for HR Professionals, particularly in Tech Biz Companies. The law of Demand- supply Economics is running in its top gear today in such companies. There is an acute scarcity of specialized Tech skills, while the
number of available people for getting into an entry level position in the industry is increasing incredibly, thanks to the boom-time when Engineering colleges got opened like yester-year dotcom companies. There is a great difference in the way how HR
Professionals approach their job in the Tech companies, as opposed to companies in most other sectors, courtesy the demand-supply problem. In the Tech Industry, the Human Resources are not just employees alone, but raw materials. It is their Intellectual inputs which ultimately are marketed as products or services.

Most of the biz strategies in a Tech-biz company revolve around its ability to create an USP (Unique Selling Proposition) before present and prospective employees and also the ability to retain and enhance the USP. A company's significant accomplishment in business lies in its ability to find out its own USP, market it and make it perceptible by demonstrative actions to its present and prospective employees.

In many small and medium-sized Tech companies, Recruiting Management is not a specialized activity, but part of the general HR Management. The HR Professional, who is so much engrossed in doing a 360 degree assessment, going through all the available reports about an employee or engaged in a critical HR intervention work, is pulled into the Recruitment work. Many HR Professionals find that their Top Management values their success in Recruiting efforts more than the success in HR developmental issues. Success in Recruitment plans in Tech companies depends on a lot of factors. I am sharing a few TIPS with you to increase the effort-realization in Recruiting Management. These are very simple TIPS, but nevertheless neglected in many companies.

1. Recruiting Management is a Project Management activity in HR. Draw your Recruitment Life Cycle and ensure that the stages of accomplishments are monitored with an eagle's eye.

2. A successful Recruiter thinks and acts like an astute Sales Professional. Till you buy-in the candidate's willingness to join your Company, your sales job is NOT completed. Do NOT hand out the offer of appointment without doing the buy-in interaction with the
prospective employee. Use the services of your Recruiting Consulting Company to do the buy-in work for you, if you are time-strapped. One of the important reasons for quick resignations after joining by an employee can be attributed to lacklustre or half-hearted no buy-in strategy. Buy-in interactions also provide you a good scope to observe the candidate's psychology. Thus, you continue your mind in the Recruitment decision-making stage too, while engaging the candidate's mind in the buy-in interaction.

3. Ensure that somebody, who is a part of the HR & Recruiting Team, goes out to the Reception and welcomes the candidate in person, the moment the candidate walks in for the interview. There are companies, which call a person for interview at 11 AM and call him inside at 12.40, conducts the interactions for 10-15 minutes and asks him if he could come after lunch at sharp 2 PM to close the call! This is NOT a sales approach in Recruiting in the HR era but a continuation of the Personnel Management era practised in the regulated economy or pre-Tech era. (I am not deriding the term "Personnel Management"; there are quiet a few time-held Personnel Mgt. practices which have great meaning even now).

4. Predict problems in conducting the interview. The right person, who has to do the Tech evaluation, may be on leave that particular day or not able to release himself for conducting the interview. The larger your company, the bigger is the problem of interview co- ordination. Informing a candidate about the postponement of interview at 10 AM, when the interview is fixed for 10.30 AM makes no sense. Most Tech Managers don't take an active role in Recruiting activities, as their prime job is not Recruitment, while without
their clearance, you cannot close the Recruitment call. On the other hand, it is the Tech Managers who complain to the senior and top management that projects get delayed or even not commenced due to lack of hands and problems in recruitment. Yes, employ strategies to buy-in your Tech Managers too in your Recruitment strategies! Did you say difficult? Well, success in Recruiting Mgt. depends on doing the most-difficult jobs.

5. Communicate! Communicate!! Communicate!!! When you fix an interview (phone or in person), adhere to the time. Fixing 3 O' clock evening for the interview on phone and reaching the candidate with an excuse the next day morning 10 AM doesn't make sense.

6. Where multiple interviews are held, make the candidate appreciate the need and re-assure him enough that he is there in the Recruitment activity-chain, if he has done a good job in the earlier stage of interview. Don't pull surprises by tossing him between places and people, where multiples interviews are part of the Recruitment process. If there are 3 stages of interviews, including the HR interview, make at least one stage (other than the HR interview) go on the phone.

7. Share your experience and the industry situation in availability of skills with your Tech Managers and ensure that he does not wait for getting that 1 more solid resume from you, even after finding a good and acceptable choice. Chances are that you will lose that short- listed candidate in a few days.

8. Make the HR interview and Recruitment process completion into a single activity. Just for getting the Employment Application Form alone, don't ask the candidate to come and meet you. The more niche- skilled the candidate is, the more are the chances and he will spurn the companies which don't have tightly-integrated Recruitment process.

Regards,

Lieu