Why top talent is not applying to your jobs

Do you ever get that nagging feeling that the applicants that you are interviewing for your open positions are not ” Top Talent “? Do you ever think that maybe it’s your hiring process? If you answered yes you are not alone.

I recently came across a very timely blog piece entitled “The Real Reason Employers Treat Job-Seeker Like Dirt” written by Liz Ryan. Liz is a former Fortune 500 Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Maybe things were simpler 25 years ago when I started in the recruiting industry. We did not have the internet. Sending a resume required an envelope and a postage stamp. Interviewing a candidate involved 2 (or more) people meeting in person. Applying for a job was an “in-person” process where you almost always met with another human being. Oh, how things have changed. And not necessarily for the better.

The other change that has occurred is that job-seekers today have more options. Company’s seeking top talent must understand this critical point: highly qualified and talented job-seekers don’t need your job. So, stop making top talent go through an obstacle course to interview with your company. Seriously you can run them through your “obstacle course” of tests after you have engaged them and they are interested in working for your company.

Bottom line, if you are a company looking to interview and hire the top talent you have to be focused on attracting people, not discouraging them from applying for your opportunity.

If you would like to find out more about how to improve your hiring process and attract top talent to your company please email me at paul@workrocket.com. I’d be happy to share with you what I have learned from working with thousands of companies over the past 25 years.