A sneak peek into, "Eight Creative Solutions to Overcome Hiring Challenges."

Leaders and recruiters are experiencing more difficulties hiring than ever before. 

That’s why I revised my ebook addressing these new hiring challenges, including…

➡️ finding the kind of talent that can become a superstar in your organization

➡️ conducting more effective interviews

➡️ running the kind of company people actually want to be a part of

➡️ and much, much more.

It’s free to download, but here's a sneak peek of what's inside: 

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Introduction

Of no surprise to anyone with a pulse, the most common refrain I continue to hear from clients is some version of, "We continue to be very short staffed and it's nearly impossible to find good talent right now." From Fortune 500s to startups to hospitals to restaurants and cruise ships, the inability to fill open positions is nothing short of frustrating for HR and hiring managers. Not to mention the resultant burnout for staff at all levels.

Whenever we hire, it goes without saying that we want the best talent we can find. The typical process involves drafting job descriptions, iterating communication with HR, and announcing the open roles on websites, job boards, and social media. After screening and narrowing down resumes, we compare viable candidates against each other as if evaluating a horse race. Oftentimes, top contenders meet preconceived, cookie-cutter criteria and/or happen to be masterful at crafting resumes, cover letters, and glowing self-narratives but often turn out to be more show than go.

Of course, some of those people may work out well. But hiring based on these traditional and rigid parameters alone often means selecting from a small pool of candidates who may be overqualified for the job (and thus highly likely to leave for the next better opportunity) or prove to be disappointing when it comes to actual performance. Recruiting and retaining the right talent is not like baseball; nobody is satisfied with a batting average of .250! For non-sports fans, that is the average percentage of hits to at-bats in Major League Baseball, with the highest ever being .296 in 1930.

I spent many years in financial services before shifting my career to the broadcasting industry because a decision-maker decided I was "good clay," a phrase I coined years ago to describe high potential yet less obvious talent (I'll elaborate in a minute). I'm grateful he saw my potential, but many capable candidates today are still getting rejected due to "lack of relevant industry experience," unusual or no college degree, and/or not meeting virtually every single job criteria. The sad truth is that most people involved in hiring decisions want to cover their a$$ by selecting a "safe" candidate. Thus, many talented jobseekers are not even getting past the application process. In addition, the pendulum has swung too far in using AI to screen candidates. Bots are rigid black boxes, and they certainly don’t have vision and imagination.

The way we hire for jobs today is broken. We've outsourced too much of our most important function - hiring the best talent - to machines. So I'm calling on recruiters and hiring managers to trade some of that artificial intelligence for old-fashioned human intelligence and willingness to color outside the lines!

"But Shani," you might ask, "how do I find new ways to source great talent with such headwinds in this historically tight labor market?"

I'll start you off with this – look for that “good clay” I alluded to above. These are people who have values aligned with those of your organization, grit, common sense, and passion for your products and services… someone who can be easily “shaped” to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the role.

I mean, really, the “right” skills are fluid in this VUCA day and age, changing all the time and necessitating constant updates. A whopping eighty-five percent of the jobs that today’s college students will do in 2030 don’t exist yet, predicted the Institute for the Future.

"The war for talent is not over, but it has changed. In today's market, companies need to be more strategic and creative in their hiring efforts." - Laszlo Bock, former Google CHRO

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Download "Eight Creative Solutions to Overcome Hiring Challenges" for the full experience (not to mention over 40+ detailed pages, bonus tips, and exclusive insights from recruiting experts).