Transcript #67. Why recruitment takes so long? The step-by-step process from advertising a job to starting a new role.

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Job hunting usually takes longer than you think.

I know you don’t like the sound of that. However, I did not start this podcast to sweeten the pill for you. I started this podcast to tell you like it is. And in this episode, the first episode of our 2021 series, I’m going to take you behind the scenes into my Job Hunting Made Simple online course and group coaching program. 

This lesson teaches lesson 1 of the Recruitment and Selection Module, which is Module 4 of the program. I explain how job positions are typically designed, approved, and advertised by organizations. 

Being aware and understanding the whole recruitment and selection process is an essential aspect of successful job hunting. If you want to play the game to win, you need to understand the rules of the game, right? 

It’s also important to understand the process, or game, from the other players’ points of view. Why was this role advertised? How? What is the organization trying to achieve? What does it mean for the organization to invest time, money, and resources to advertise this role?

In the Job Hunting Made Simple Online Course and Coaching Program, we start each module by raising awareness for the problem at hand. In this case, the recruitment and selection process. So what you’re about to hear is the first lesson in that module. Then, we focus on how to play the very best game to win. How do you become the best candidate going through the recruitment and selection process? 

Usually, each module has 3 to 5 lessons so that we can really dig deep and ensure that by the end of that module, the candidate is ready, feels confident, and can activate a great game, pitch, and in this case, nail the recruitment and selection process in the weeks ahead so they can get that great job.

Ok, now that you know what this episode is all about, I hope you are curious to hear about it. So let me tell you what it really takes to find a job through a recruitment and selection process, start to finish. Here is Lesson 1, Module 4 of The Job Hunting Made Simple program:

Hello, let's start lesson one of week four recruitment and selection. So today, we're going to go through a whole series of rules of twos. We will very simply understand the selection process in a very complete and accurate way, not just from the point of view of the candidate, but really thinking holistically, comprehensively, and what's going on behind the scenes on the other side of the wall when you're sort of thinking about your application so much. Still, you know, I want you to have the confidence and the sense of control that, you know, what's going on. On the other side of
The field. 

In This lesson, you will learn all the steps companies go through in order to advertise a role, how hiring decisions are made and how the selection process unfolds. Two ways Rules let's break the entire process down to very simple actions and go through it in detail.

So the two Ways that job vacancy is created, there is a vacancy that can take up to three to four months to be approved, or there is a neat, completely new role that can take up to a year or more to be approved. Okay. So a vacancy is when somebody resigned, somebody is very sick and unwell. Somebody is structured out of the position, let go, because they're not performing well, fired, underperformed, or there was some very challenging situation the person had to leave even then,  depending on how bureaucratic the organization is, it can take a long time for that role to be,  advertised again. If it's a new role,  the budget approval for that can be quite time-consuming if the organization is complex and big, and bureaucratic. So as you can imagine, there is a lot at stake, both when there is a vacancy of an existing role, or if it is a new role, the two ways a job vacancy is filled is through a promotion internally, a position filled by an internal candidate.

So as a position is made vacant or a job, a new role is being designed. There's a lot of people already sort of being considered for that role. Succession planning is a big part of team development, human resources, and professional development. And there could be people that are keen to apply for that role or are being considered for that role by their managers. However, many times either there isn't somebody internally, or there is also a need to advertise externally either because policies and procedures, protocols,  require the position to be advertised or because they want to make sure that the very best candidate for that role is the one that gets the position. So they want to compare and contrast the internal candidate with whoever advertised from an external environment. And they see who the best candidate is.

So it is advertised internally or externally. Sometimes organizations are so large and complex that even an internal advertisement can bring in lots of interesting candidates and,  made to be filled by an internal or external candidate, as I said. So those are two ways a position can be filled, two ways a job vacancy is promoted. So if it's decided that a job will be advertised externally, it can be done So in-house, so the manager and or HR handles the process. They develop the job ad, they develop the position, or the position description is possibly already developed and approved by them. But the job ad is done. They will then go to platforms like LinkedIn or Seek or indeed or other platforms that we will soon address in this presentation. And they will buy space on those platforms, sometimes pay for specific ads and advertise, or they made the side to hire a recruitment agency to support the manager and the HR team with initial recruitment stages because that can be very time-consuming or if it's a senior role, they may also, or they not also, but they may instead,  have to,  outsource this to a search company.

So those are what we call headhunters or search professionals, and they will find C-level heads of candidates to be considered for those roles. Sometimes search companies won't even advertise. They will just look within their pool of candidates and within their networks. Sometimes they will advertise those roles. It really depends on the position. And,  what's at stake two ways, a job vacancy is filled through formal application. , the applicant is an unknown applicant. Nobody knows that the applicant's deposition was advertised on LinkedIn,

Indeed Newspapers, and nobody knows that candidate until they apply, or another way a job, a job vacancy is filled is through a referral. The candidate is known to someone, to the manager, to somebody in HR, to colleagues inside that organization, the recruitment agency, or recruitment agency contexts. In fact, there are incentives for company staffing within recruitment agencies for recruiters to identify great candidates and present them for those opportunities. So I have worked for organizations where if I presented and recommended great candidates for a specific role that was advertised. That person then got the role. I would receive compensation, a bonus of a thousand dollars, $2,000. So the compensation is quite good, $5,000. I remember that times never got one, though, but yeah, they were there. If you recommend good people for four positions three steps before an ad is made public, what happens before you even get to see the job ad? Depending on the size of the organization, the job ad can be drafted, finalized and, reach the internet in a matter of hours.

So if it's a small organization or a very nimble organization that works in a very flexible way, a very start-up way, you know, a position is made vacant or upon a new position is approved a few hours later, it's advertised, or in a large organization, the position description and job ad need to go through a very thorough approval process that can be very lengthy. It takes forever for that point between the approval coming through and the job actually reaching the market. You know, that's more of my experience. Remember, I've worked in the public sector, not for profit, so it needs board approval. It needs to go through a whole internal red tape. And it could take a while three months, four months, even in a large organization, the position description, job ad, and request to advertise a new or existing role can take months.

It may need to be cross-checked to see if it is really required. If there are internal candidates that may transition into the role and or if there are formative action candidates that are minorities, not where we're presented in the company that needs to be given a first go through special channels. Now, these are very important policies and procedures that need to take place. For example, if an organization is really large and there is a strategy to reduce an existing structure. So let's say there is a subsidiary that is going through a restructure, and they are considering making people redundant. There could be some people sitting on the bench that could transition into other parts of that larger organization. If opportunities are made,  then we need to consider, are there people here sitting on the bench that could transition into those roles?

So it's an important cost-effective way to consider moving good people around, but also a way to keep your great employees keep the corporate knowledge internally, make sure that people that you want to keep you are able to keep and transition them into good roles. The other aspect is, of course, minorities that are not well-represented. There could be opportunities within specific channels that the organization works with to see if they can be identified and brought in for interviews prior to the opposite, the position being,  advertise more widely. So, you know, going through all of that, if you really want a candidate to come through quickly, it can be very time-consuming for the whole department and put a lot of things in on standby, but it needs to be done in a large organization.

When a job is given the green light, a lot of ground has been covered. Possibly 70% of the energy and resources happen even before the position is advertised externally in a small organization. Advertising for a role is a very big deal. Even if it happens quickly and fast and less complicated and bureaucratic, it's still a very big investment for smaller organizations to bring in somebody new. , there is a lot of expectations to be met, and usually, the person coming in needs to make sure that they can add value to the team in more ways than one and, and be very open to, you know, get their hands dirty do all kinds of different jobs. Even if the position description is specific in a small organization, sometimes it's all hands on deck, and it's a big deal to include a new member of the team.

It's a big-budget consideration, three types of job postings. Now let's look at how job ads reach the interweb job ads are posted in traditional channels. LinkedIn jobs see indeed and companies, websites are the traditional ways that jobs are advertised and how also candidates look for jobs traditionally. And, and the majority of candidates would quickly go into LinkedIn or seek.com. Now, indeed, this is widely used as well. But job ads are also shared on personal and company social profiles. So LinkedIn personal and company profiles, both the hiring organization.

So, for example, let's use, as an example,  Erickson, okay, big international company. They will have a LinkedIn profile. They may even have, I just pulled that out of my head, but they may even have a country-specific LinkedIn profile. They could have an Erickson Australia. They could have a Bosch, and they could have Bosch Australia.  If a position is made available, it's very, very likely that the organizations would write a job post on LinkedIn to advertise that job. It's also very likely that the individuals in that company that is close to that position, either because they work in HR or because they work within that team, that's hiring that they would write posts so that people within their network know that they're hiring and,  within their circle of influence, they can bring in good high-quality candidates.

Also, if the organization decides to outsource part of the recruitment and selection to a recruitment agency or an executive search company, those organizations also have LinkedIn profiles, and they will be posting on those LinkedIn profiles, and those partners or consultants that work for them will also in their personal LinkedIn profile, be promoting those opportunities because it's in their best interest to promote it as widely as possible. And they know that people that follow their company links and their personal links are people that are interested in their careers, people that are looking for jobs. So they will be posting there as well. Twitter is the same as LinkedIn in both personal and company accounts, depending on your sector.  Twitter can be quite a good way of identifying good job opportunities, Facebook, and LinkedIn groups. Now I have seen more and more positions being advertised on Facebook, private groups.

I am not yet a very big fan of LinkedIn groups. I haven't seen LinkedIn groups be as intimate, exciting social,  and community-oriented. As the Facebook professional groups. I am involved in quite a lot of Facebook professional groups. I have tried the LinkedIn professional groups. I have found them really bland, really, you know, not exciting and very static. Whereas the Facebook groups are much more interactive and add more value to me as a professional, and on those groups, I have seen more and more people placing job opportunities there, both small businesses and large businesses placing them there. Job opportunities with links to either LinkedIn or seek.com. On the Facebook posts, job ads are also shared on special boards. Now I really liked special boards for job opportunities. I think that employers that take that step further into identifying the best job boards for their positions, that they are advertising are employers, and they are looking for the very best candidates.

I also believe that if they take the time to find those special boards, that they will give higher importance to the jobs the candidates that come through those boards because they have already funneled, they kind of self-select the candidates. So if you apply through those job boards,  you will be perceived as a higher quality candidate as a former recruiter or somebody who, as a manager, used boards like that. I did that. And as a colleague and somebody who network with other recruiters,  that's the feeling that I also had from my counterparts in other organizations. So the boards I'm talking about in Australia, there is a website called pro bono. And that website is a newsletter is a think tank for the not-for-profit sector. It's a really great website to follow if you're interested in the, not for profit sector in Australia, and they have a great job board for the sector.

So that is a good one to follow ethical jobs, not just for the not-for-profit sector, but for every organization out there that is interested in identifying candidates that care about working for ethical organizations. And,  that's a good one as well, to look into alumni job boards,  especially if you're early in your careers. And by early, I mean up to six years, six-year post-graduation, I would go into the university,  alumni platforms and check those Monash and deacon and Melbourne university, I mean, Basie Melbourne. So I'm using those as examples. They have great job boards and,  I'm assuming many other universities also do professional, and industry associations also tend to have great job boards. So if you are a member of a professional association, check out your website and see the job boards that they have, if any, and if they do,  have a look at those. They tend to be of very good quality.

So in this lesson, what we went through was what's happening behind the scenes at the organizations that you are applying for, how hiring decisions are made, which means you need to be creative and resourceful in how you get noticed for promotion and job opportunities. It's not just going to seek.com and applying randomly and, and in, you know, high numbers that you will get opportunities. You will get opportunities. If you remember how the opportunities come about in the first place and all the steps that opportunities go through before they're actually advertised on seek.com. So there,  you need to be somebody who is high networked internally within your organization, so that you know that job vacancies are available, that you know, that new positions are being designed,  that internal candidates are being considered. And then you need to be ready to apply once those jobs are out there.

And remember that, if you're applying on seek.com or LinkedIn or any of those job boards, you are applying at the tail end of the process. You need to be patient and interested and have a very high-quality application to stand out because everybody's already excited and ready for whoever is the best candidate to start as soon as possible. So you've learned how the selection process unfolds, and you can then now empathize with the team, running it and understand all the different players and all of the different aspects of a great process and a very complex process happening and how you are one piece of that puzzle. 

I hope you found it useful learning about the recruitment and selection process, from start to finish. In my experience, once job hunters know the challenge and complexity of hiring new professionals, they become more mindful, empathetic, and switched on to the employers’ and recruiters’ needs.

If you are interested in learning more about The Job Made Simple Online Course and Coaching Program, I will be running it again as a group coaching program starting later this month for seven weeks. Register your interest to attend on my website: renatabernarde.com.

In a few weeks, I will also invite you to attend a free webinar, where I’m going to give insight into what it takes to have the best career you can have and introduce you to the new, updated version of The Job Hunting Made Simple, which I am re-designing and running starting in late February. SI will provide you more details about the webinar in the next episode and also in my upcoming newsletters. If you are not yet subscribed to my newsletter,  go to my website and sign up now. There’s a link in the episode show notes or google RenataBernarde.com, and you will find me.

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