Hire for Passion or Experience? Why You Need to Look at the Candidate Experience from the Other Side of the Table

It’s a candidate-driven market, which means more emphasis is being placed on the experience of the job candidate during the hiring process. A CareerBuilder survey revealed that “82 percent of employers believe there is little or no negative impact to a company when a candidate has a bad experience during the hiring process.” But this is not the case. Employees who have had a negative experience will quickly move onto a competitor and they may not ever consider your company again. Since job candidates have most of the leverage in today’s job search process, a bad experience in the hiring process will eliminate your company from consideration of the top talent you want to add to your organization.

One way to evaluate the experience of candidates is by going into their shoes and looking at it from a different angle. How can your company accomplish this?

From time to time, put yourself through the candidate application process. Does it seem complicated or too time consuming to fill out the application? Did you get an acknowledgment that you applied? How long until you actually get asked for an interview? These are all aspects that need to be evaluated on a regular basis if you want to focus on a positive candidate experience.

It’s easy to think your process works when you don’t have to go through it every day. If you don’t want to audit the process on your own and want to get a fresh perspective, ask someone in your organization who doesn’t directly work with the job candidate experience. You also could ask trusted colleagues, friends or other connections for their honest feedback.

Evaluate whether your company has had better success with hiring for passion vs. experience. In the past, there have been hires that have done outstanding based on either factor. Now is the time to see how they are doing. Are the people who were hired for passion still as enthusiastic about their jobs? Did the people who brought a lot of industry knowledge to the workplace stick around? Consider the time you or your company had to invest in getting the passionate new hires up to speed to complete the job responsibilities. With the experienced job candidates, did they meet the cultural fit of your organization or did a resume-based hire fall flat?

Interviews can be a valuable source of information too. They are often the first contact that candidates have with your company. In today’s climate, candidates are very eager to share their experience on company review websites like Glassdoor, or even on Google or Facebook. How are candidates rating their experience with interviews? Are they being challenged by the interview process or is it too predictable? Do they get an accurate image of the organization to help them make the best decision possible if they receive a job offer from your company? Or are they still confused about the job duties, culture and other factors?

From the side of the table that candidates sit behind, they are evaluating your company every step of the way. Be sure that your hiring practices meet their expectations and approval by putting yourself in their shoes once in a while.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, leaders in financial staffing in Chicago, will recruit and provide the accounting and finance staff your company needs. Contact our award-winning team of recruiters today to get started on finding the top talent your organization wants to add.

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Tips for Working with Multiple Generations in the Workforce

There have always been people from multiple generations working alongside each other in organizations. From the youthful newcomers to seasoned executives, everyone seems to find their place along the corporate ladder. However, the present workforce is made up of at least four very different generations of workers who are separated not only by age, but also by technology.

How is it possible for an employee from Generation Z (or more commonly known as the millennial generation) who spends his days text messaging and taking selfies to get along with and communicate with a Baby Boomer who values face-to-face meetings and good old-fashioned work methods?

Regardless of where you find yourself on the generational time-table, it is possible to get along with your diverse work team. The key is to understand the uniqueness of each generation’s work style and values. Here are some guidelines that will help multi-generation teams to work together.

Understand that each generation has communication preferences.

As illustrated above, each generation of workers has their way of communicating with others. Millennials and younger employees tend to focus on getting quick access to information in small snippets, and they often lean on texting and social networks to communicate. Generation X and baby boomers prefer emails and phone calls, or even in-person meetings. If you are working with other generations, try using the communication methods they like to get a better response.

Technology adaptation is different for each generation.

It can take time for all generations to adapt to certain types of technology, some longer than others. If you find that you pick things up quickly and a co-worker is struggling, take the time to work with them to bring them up to speed. Everyone in your organization will benefit if each employee can handle the basics of the latest technologies in your business. Taking it to the next level, your management team will notice if you are helping others on your own accord.

Each generation has something to learn from the others.

Respect can go a long way towards fostering a positive relationship with your multi-generational colleagues. Remember that each generation has valuable information and experience to share with others. Be open to learning from your colleagues and sharing what you know when asked. While we talked about how some co-workers are more likely to be better teachers with new technologies, other employees can be well-versed in business principles, career development or other areas.

There are strengths and weaknesses in all generations.

Every generation has something they bring to the table, whether it is leadership skills, life experience or technical knowledge. To get along with your co-workers means tapping into these strengths. It also means understanding that there may be weak areas that demand patience. Setting up conversations and meetings with your co-workers (go to an informal lunch with them), and learning about their strengths and weaknesses will make everyone better.

Work with a Leading Financial Recruiter in Chicago

An award-winning staffing agency, Casey Accounting & Finance Resources is well networked, tenured and industry-certified. Contact our great team today to get started on taking the next step in your financial career.

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5 Salary Negotiation Tips for Employers!

  1. Make sure the role is clearly defined for the future employee.  Often we hear from candidates who start looking for a new position when the current position they are in doesn’t match what they were told during their interview.  Salary may have been acceptable during the offer, but not if the actual position does not match what they were told.
  2. Due to internal equity issues, try to interview candidates who are in the salary range.  If you do have an exceptional candidate who is outstanding and outside the salary range, is there a senior role they could interview for at your organization?  These candidates are hard to locate, so look to see if there is a place for them in your company in a different role.
  3.  Ask good questions when discussing salary.  Let the candidate know you will require salary information verification.  Ask about the candidate’s true base, bonus (how much and when does the bonus pay out), incentives (cell phone, laptop, car allowance, etc), stock options, pensions, 401(k), benefit costs, paid lunches, etc.  This information will help you when determining the salary offer.
  4.  Do you have good information on what the current marketplace is paying for your job roles?  Let the candidate know you have researched the role in your efforts to be competitive in the job market.  In addition, let the candidate know why people enjoy working at your organization.  This will help the candidate in their decision making process on accepting the offer or not.
  5. Working with a recruiter helps to alleviate some of these concerns.  The recruiter will know what salary the candidate is looking for in their next opportunity, and will share this information with you to help make sure the salary offer is competitive for the candidate and the marketplace.  Sometimes clients feel confident negotiating salaries with candidates even though they are working with an agency, but they fail to realize that the recruiting firm has been working with the candidate for some time and may know the candidate on a level that the client does not. It’s almost always better to let the recruiting firm handle the negotiations to seal the deal and get a favorable response for everyone.

Your future employee will benefit going into the new role of the company knowing they were treated fairly in the salary negotiation process.  The person will feel loyal, work harder and be committed to the company.  If they feel that they were not treated fairly, then your company may be just a stop for them in their career as they keep their options open to future opportunity at other organizations.

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