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š¤æ Deepening the Pool š¤æ
One of the common themes around here is that āHiring is Sales Now,ā but another, less explicit theme, is āYour hiring process is a product.āĀ
In this post, Iāll discuss a real-life situation where a client and I used a basic product development framework to identify a problem, determine which metrics to focus on, test ideas, and track our progress. As a result, we increased the candidate pool for every job we posted.Ā
The Appeal of a Job Description
Iāve written about job descriptions before. Specifically, Iāve argued that we should think of job descriptions as marketing copy.Ā Ā
But how do you know if you are writing an appealing job description?Ā
One of my clients had this problem. This client is an agency representing high-end, technically skilled software engineers. Essentially this company matches technical engineers with organizations that need them.Ā
One day, the head of the developer relations team, letās call him āDavidā and I were catching up. He was concerned because many of the jobs posted on the platform werenāt getting as many applicants as he needed. Specifically, 30% of the posted jobs werenāt getting five or more candidates 24 hours after posting. This meant that David and his team had to work with a shallower candidate pool to find the right fit.
A Simple Product Process
Nowās a good time to point out that David and I were already in a product development conversation.Ā
He had already:
Defined a problem - āSome of our job posts arenāt getting many interested applicants, which means that we donāt have a large pool of talented candidates to represent for these jobs.ā And,
Quantified the problem (and a solution) - āPercentage of job posts with five or fewer applicants 24 hours after postingā seemed to work pretty well.
All that was left was for us to:
Test possible solutions, learn, and iterate.Ā
Determine if we were solving the problem by paying attention to our metrics and tracking our progress.
The Outcome
Iām happy to report that weeks later, we have significantly moved our āPercentage of job posts with five or fewer applicants 24 hours after postingā metric from 30% to less than 10%. This wonāt surprise regular readers, but we did this by keeping descriptions brief and ensuring we answered āWhy would a talented person want to work on this project?ā in every job post.
David is happier because he always has a deep candidate pool for almost every post, and Iām pleased because, as a result of having more talent, the sales team is closing more deals.
Even the basics can take you far
One of the frustrating aspects of āThe Great Resignationā is that it has normalized a victim-like, reactive attitude towards the labor market amongst hiring managers (better known as the āPeople donāt want to work anymoreā crowd).
It would have been easy for David to say that 30% of the jobs we post wonāt have enough candidates. But he didnāt. He took thoughtful action.Ā The most significant benefit of applying a product development framework to your hiring issues is that it encourages proactive thinking. Instead of complaining, you now actively solve your problems.
Will all your ideas be right? No. Will your key metrics move? Not always. But you will eventually improve your situation by taking a discrete, objective, and data-driven approach to solving your problem rather than blaming outside forces.