Category: Recruiting

Hiring Over the Holidays: Five Steps to Take NOW

In the bustle of the holidays, it’s easy to let hiring fall to the back burner. But now is not the time to let visions of sugar plums crowd out the reality of landing the perfect candidate for the open senior and executive roles in your organization.

It’s a common misconception that you can’t fill a vacancy or make progress toward hiring between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Whether you’re already in the middle of a search, or looking to make a move in Q1, there are simple, critical steps you can take now to challenge that old-school thinking, move your company forward, and avoid being left out in the cold.

Five actions to take in December to keep your hiring on track

1. Connect with a recruiter.

If you want to hire in January, you should be on the phone with me today. At Broadreach, a huge part of our work with clients is helping them shape the role they’re hiring for and advising them on ways to be a more compelling option for candidates to say “yes” to, and that is work you can start now.

2. Get your ducks in a row.

We can work fast when you know what you need and you’re ready to go. You’ll want to have your hiring processes and your team prepared well in advance of planning interviews. Every step of preparation may take longer during December, but candidates often make movement during the breathing room they have at the holidays, and you need to be ready to take advantage.

3. Compress your interview process.

If you regularly fill roles quickly in this hiring environment, you may not have much work to do here. But if you’ve lost out on top candidates because your process is too long, or asks too much of them, this is the time to refine how your team approaches things.

As a general rule, entry-level positions should be filled in no more than two rounds of interviews. For senior positions, there may be a need for 3–4 rounds of interviews. For C-suite positions the number of interviews may vary but even in these cases, each interview should have a distinct purpose and not feel redundant.

4. Know your salary range.

Standard salaries have changed drastically in the last year. If you’re hiring using comp data that is 18-24 months old, especially in high-growth fields, you’re going to let top talent slip through your fingers. December is a great month to reset your salary benchmarks and ensure you stay competitive. It’s our job to have a pulse on this information and we can help you here.

5. Prepare your team to make time interviewing.

The best way to make sure your hiring remains on track during the holidays is to stay nimble and encourage your teams to pitch in. A short investment of time on an “off” day, to make time for an interview, share feedback, or rank candidates could make their job a lot easier in the new year if your company nabs the right candidate before someone else does. Thanks to Covid, this has actually become much easier on everyone with the ubiquity of remote interviews.

A partner for every day of the year

In today’s hiring environment, you need an always-on partner. If you call us on Christmas Eve, we’ll pick the phone up. We get it done—that’s who we are.

This holiday season, give yourself the gift of the perfect employee. With your hard work, and our help, the holidays can be a productive time for sealing the deal and paving the way for movement in the new year. Call us today at 781-312-7272 to get started.

Why Choose Retained Search?

You know that a recruiter’s role is to help you fill an open position in your organization. But did you know there are different ways to use a recruiter to your advantage?

We’re here to explain how a retained search creates a true partnership with your recruiter, smooths the process, and improves your chances of getting the best person for the job.

How is retained search different from other recruiting services?

Before we outline what a retained search is, let’s review what it’s not.

In a commission-based contingent search, multiple recruiters work rapidly to fill your open position as they vie for a commission. From a business’s perspective, this can feel somewhat like a feeding frenzy—leaving you unsure if you’re going to lose an arm trying to catch that fish.

Some unscrupulous contingent recruiters will take shortcuts in hopes of making a fast placement and cashing your check. By nature, they have very little investment in whether their placement lasts. (Does this mean all contingent search is bad? No. You just need to be aware of the risks and ensure you’re working with reputable recruiters.)

In a retained search, you will contract with a single recruiter and pay a portion of the recruiter’s fee upfront. Once retained, the recruiter dedicates resources to filling the position and works on it exclusively until it’s filled. With some skin in the game, a retained recruiter is invested in making sure that they find candidates who will knock your socks off and take your organization to the next level.

What are the benefits of retained search?

Retained search forges a quick partnership between the organization and the recruiter.

For every retained search we contract for, we’re motivated to start by building a solid relationship with our client that leads to a highly customized approach. Not only do we focus on gaining a full understanding of the role and the skills, requirements, and characteristics needed in a candidate—we also gain insight into your business and its culture.

Throughout the process, we help you shape the role. There may be changes in spec during interviews (ours and yours) and based on feedback from candidates. At Broadreach we use this feedback, along with our expertise—in both staffing and business—to tune the search to produce candidates with an extremely high chance of a successful placement.

The result is a smoother, more efficient recruitment process that truly saves you time and money, and nets you the right person for the job.

When does a retained search make the most sense?

While retained search is an option for any job placement, it’s especially helpful when:

You need to fill a niche role, with specialized qualifications or uncommon skills
Time is of the essence, and you have other big fish to fry
Corporate HR needs to be investing their energy in bigger-picture strategic development (rather than wide-net candidate searches)
You want to reach “passive” candidates, who aren’t currently seeking a new job but might be attracted to your position
You need help shaping the role and the compensation so that it supports company goals and initiatives while also appealing to top candidates
You need to place an entire team that can hit the ground running from the start
You need to hire talent that feels out of your league

In practice, a retained search attracts immediate attention from potential candidates, and elevates the cachet of the role for small companies who want to be talking with candidates in a league above. Top candidates will know immediately that you take this role seriously and are committed to devoting resources to support it.

Why makes Broadreach great at retained search?

If we may toot our own horns for a moment, Broadreach is successful because we’re experienced, and we’re connected.

Our recruiters come from roles within business and industry and have a deep understanding of what can make or break a fit for an executive, specialized, or team placement. We know what questions to ask, what red flags to look for, and which rocks to look under to hunt out and whittle down your candidates. Then we save you time by sending you fewer candidates to interview—giving you time back for core priorities and strategic initiatives.

Filling critical roles, with the right people, faster

Every search request that we perform is as unique as the partnership we form with our clients. And that makes our jobs fun. We value the trust you place in us, and we work hard to keep it.

Imagine for your next job search that instead of waiting for resumes to trickle in, you contract with us for a retained search and get work done while we bring you the best candidates for your company

Save Time with Smart Recruiting–How Broadreach Helps Fill a Position in Fewer Interviews

Want to save time—and money—filling a critical executive position at your company? Try recruiting smarter, not harder.

On average, companies interview around seven candidates to fill an executive position. Each candidate may require multiple hours-long interviews and internal discussion, not just for hiring managers, but for all stakeholders. This is time and focus taken away from their core tasks.

Smart recruiting can trim that number way down. At Broadreach, our clients only interview an average of four candidates per position before finding the right fit. We reduce the overall interview burden by half.

On your own, you may find that filling a vacancy feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks. By working to truly understand your needs, and tapping into our network and our expertise, Broadreach will send you candidates whose skills, experience, raw talent, culture, and vision are a much better fit for your company than you could find on your own.

How does Broadreach recruit smarter?

No, we don’t have a magic wand. In short, we put in the work. Here are a few ways we use our experience and expertise to quickly fill a critical position.

1. We help shape and define the role.

Before we even begin searching for the best-fit candidates, we help our clients define and refine the position and outline the details they’ll need to find a good match quickly.

That might mean that a client expands or reorganizes job descriptions to hire one solid candidate for a $200,000 annual salary instead of searching for two separate candidates at a cost of $150,000 and $100,000.

This type of consultation on organizational charts, compensation packages, and business strategy isn’t an upsell: It’s just what we do as part of making sure that the candidate you chose doesn’t just quickly fill a role, but also propels your business forward.

2. We build relationships to truly understand your needs.

Your company’s culture and DNA are just as important in the search equation as a candidate’s skills, experience, and education. So we put in the time and care to build a true partnership and we ask a lot of questions that help us better understand your business.

Among many other things, we ask about

the big-picture scope of the role and the in-depth details
the culture and structure of the team and the organization
who the hiring decision makers are
reasons the previous employee left

And then we listen carefully to what you say.

3. Industry experience gives us a leg up.

Our team’s broad and deep industry experience gives us insight into the nuanced details of what it takes to make a successful placement. We draw from our time spent in IT, financial services, executive management, and sales leadership to present the best candidates to spend your valuable time interviewing.

We also rely heavily on our experience and industry connections to go beyond public databases for a deeper network of contacts and passive candidates who may be just the right person for the job.

If you couldn’t tell, recruiting is a passion for each of us at Broadreach. We do it as a job because making these connections is as natural to us as the air we breathe. Every search request from a client is unique, and that makes the job even more fun.

We know you’re already aware how time consuming it is to fill a position. From whittling down resumes, to candidate research, checking references, post-interview discussion and follow up—not to mention the time spent scheduling and conducting rounds of interviews with multiple stakeholders. We know you’d rather be spending your time on other critical tasks.

We’re proud of our ability to save you time and money by reducing the number of candidates you interview to fill open positions—including pivotal executive roles. Reach out for help finding just the right candidate today.

Three Secrets to Landing the Perfect Candidate

When you have a critical position open, you may be dreaming of the candidate who will fulfill it. Perhaps you imagine someone creative, skilled, and driven—yet flexible—with the savvy to take your company to the next level.

Then you take a step back and notice there are 20 other companies salivating for your “perfect candidate” too.

With lots of competition for senior- and executive-level employees in this market, you’ll need to be strategic and go the extra mile to attract the right candidate—or team. From years of experience matching top-tier candidates to the right company, even in a tight market, we know exactly what goes into the secret sauce.

Why candidates have the upper hand in today’s job market

Why is it a tight labor market for companies right now? Simple supply and demand for white collar talent—stirred further by current events.

To start, there aren’t enough educated candidates for the open roles in technology, sales, and customer service across hot fields including data science, machine learning, software engineering, business intelligence, and many more.

In addition, the trend toward remote work was already warming up when Covid protocols broke it wide open. As remote work becomes mainstream, candidates who commanded a premium salary in expensive cities are relocating to areas with a lower cost of living—but bringing their salary histories with them. This brings up average salaries nationwide. While Midwestern companies used to be able to get a “deal” on talent, that advantage is disappearing as “location” is no longer a factor in many job searches.

And finally, the pandemic shook up the market even further as more than 700,000 workers in professional and business services left their jobs. White collar workers—flush with cash from a year of living lightly and lots of time to think about what means most to them—aren’t interested in grinding it out somewhere that doesn’t offer a compelling package of challenging, meaningful work, with room to grow, and perks.

With even more companies now striving to fill these roles, a stellar candidate isn’t going to accept work for less than an exciting position with career opportunities at a buzz-worthy company.

But we know how to find, attract, and sign on standout candidates—it boils down to three proven tactics.

Three crucial ingredients for landing the candidate you want

Move quickly.

Be prepared to act fast once you start receiving resumes or matches from a staffing firm. Schedule interviews, make offers, and move the process along without gaps. This may mean doing more work to streamline HR policies and time your search when all stakeholding parties are prepared to communicate in real time (for example, when no one has vacation scheduled).

Expect that the best candidates are getting 4–5 offers at a time, so larger companies need to be able to move as fast as a startup to nab top candidates before they accept another opportunity. How fast is fast? In some cases, we are seeing offers within a few days of applications opening.

Sell your company.

Know your “elevator pitch” for why your company is an outstanding place to work—then back it up by demonstrating it throughout the interview and offer process. Outline tangible perks and ensure that positive elements of your company’s buzz and culture are on display—whether it’s a friendly, approachable team, craft-beer-and-pizza parties, exciting new patents, an influx of funding, or other evidence that your company is worth serious consideration.

Sell the career.

Don’t just sell the job you’re hiring for: paint a big-picture view of where top candidates can go with your company, and beyond. What other positions and titles might signing on lead to? Share examples from other employees of how saying yes now will lead to a richer, fuller career for them. Clarifying the variety of opportunities to advance also communicates that you don’t view them as disposable, and are open to supporting their career trajectory.

It’s a challenging market for businesses seeking senior- and executive-level talent, but with preparation and planning, you’ll be ready to attract—and sign—amazing candidates to fill critical roles and keep your company on track to meet its goals.

Need a trusted partner to tackle this process? Broadreach Staffing is here when you need us.

Importance of the Feedback Loop When Recruiting in a Competitive Job Market

Here at Broadreach Staffing we work hard to build close client relationships that include tight feedback loops when recruiting for them. In today’s job market it is not unheard of for a strong candidate to be to be “on the market” for less than a week, which means unless you are prepared to move quickly, top talent will go to the company that is out to “win”. This article is meant to help you “win”!

If you think about the evolution of recruitment for a moment, we start up conversations with potential candidates that up until this point may or may not have been looking for a new job. Once that happens, the candidates’ ears are typically open to other recruiters and opportunities and boy can things change in a hurry. Phone interviews are scheduled, feedback is sought, live interviews scheduled, feedback sought, second round of interviews and yet again more feedback sought. What happens next depends on the pipeline of qualified candidates a company is fielding. This process can take many weeks to complete before offers are in the works.

In today’s job market, which is very competitive in the software engineering world for example, I’ve seen top talent swooped up after a single interview. Meanwhile, I am waiting on and prompting for feedback from my client after the initial phone screen a couple days ago. Many times, I get extremely positive feedback and they want to move the candidate forward through their process, but due to scheduling and other delays, it might be a week or more for that next step. Unfortunately, it’s often Goodbye Jack, our highly qualified candidate has already accepted another offer. Painful for all of us.

Our jobs as recruiters are to understand where candidates are in their job search, what’s most important to them, timelines they are looking to move and assess how in demand the candidate is in so we can inform and advise our client appropriately. When we have done our jobs effectively, we will have presented a highly qualified candidate that is ready for the hiring manager to interview. We will also have established an open channel of communication to ensure feedback is complete and timely so we can manage the candidate accordingly and advise our client in the event our candidate is looking at imminent multiple offers. When feedback is slow or incomplete candidates will lose interest and focus on companies that show a strong interest in them. If you have a healthy pipeline of highly qualified candidates you might be ok, but in the long run the companies that implement a close working relationship with their recruiting teams (internally and externally) and ensure timely and complete feedback will significantly improve their overall hiring process and close the gap in the time to hire for critical openings.

At Broadreach Staffing, we understand the value of time in the search for talent. That’s why everything we do revolves around this fundamental question, “will this save our clients’ valuable time?”

Please contact me at my email as I would love to work with you on all your critical recruitment needs.

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Recruiting strategies – How do hiring managers and HR Business Partners work together? 5 tips

The HR Business Partner (HRBP) definition has dramatically changed over the years. They wear two main hats – HR and business manager. This includes the day to day HR issues of comp and benefits, guiding HR policies, etc. But also includes understanding and contributing to the overall goals of the company. They need to be business minded, be employee focused, have the people skills and have a well-rounded knowledge of the operations.

The complexity and operational differences of departments (sales, finance, marketing, R&D, IT, operations, etc. etc.) can be dramatic. Keeping up for a hiring manager and HRBP can be daunting. One important common ground and partnership for both HRBP and hiring manager’s – talent strategy/recruiting.

The main recruiting activities typically fall on the shoulder on the HR Business partner to find, hire and retain. The hiring manager typically look to them to develop the plan, tools, deliverables and then hire quickly with limited interaction or help. As a hiring manager – we have all been guilty of it at some point and need to invest time in the process and learn to work better and smarter together.

So, how can the hiring manager and HR business partner work better together and truly partner?

5 Tips for Success

1 – Planning – invest time and meet with your HRBP, strategy development. Work with your HRBP on the developing a sound recruitment process. Work together on your needs, culture and team dynamics. Review job descriptions. Make sure it covers the skills and requirements that work best for you. What is the interview process? How are you as the hiring manager going to make this easy for the candidate and the HR business partner? Is this a new position or replacement? Get buy-in from your HRBP

2 – The Recruitment Process – Work together on the process to attract a pool of job seekers. Interview techniques, screening, assessment tools. Who owns the different stages of the process? Think about how you streamline and accelerate the process and attract and hire quality candidates. Usually from department to department the process will differ some. Build some common best practices.

3 – Re-occurring meetings – weekly or bimonthly meetings to review what is working, how to pivot or adjust the strategy until the hiring process is completed. Review the process. Is phone screening working? What interview questions are important to you as the hiring manager.

4 – The offer letter – understand the offer, what is in it and what is going to be important to your future employee. How do you handle the counter? What is the process of approval and steps needed to keep it moving! As the hiring manager you need to be involved and be a consultant. Don’t take this for granted!

5 – The first day and onboarding – get involved. Work with your HRBP to be an active and visible in the employee’s onboarding. We’re talking about continuing to make the candidate/new employee feel wanted before they officially join the organization. Many a company has failed to do that, only to see their new employee never show up for their first day of work.

HRBP and the hiring manager should not be islands in recruiting which is often the case. As the hiring manager you own the process. The HRBP is there to help and do much of the heavy lifting. Bridge the gap and develop that partnership. The results will save you time, get you “A” talent and make your organization stronger.

There are more tips, details and ideas. Please comment and share your experiences, tips and observations. Any comment is welcome!

Reach Me at doug@broadreachstaffing.com