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The Most Read Talent Management Articles (Dr. Sullivan highlights 6 simple recruiting tools)

Descriptors – recruiting/tools – how to – 3 m. read

During tough times, a recruiter’s knowledge of best practices is the key to job security.

As the most prolific author in the field of recruiting tools (I have written over 700 articles and a book on recruiting tools). To me, the beginning of the new year is the ideal time to update your current recruiting practices and add a few new simple tools that require little training and no budget. To support the updating effort of recruiters and hiring managers, below, you will find my top five recruiting tools articles from last year. Each of the ranked articles has a short summary covering why you should use it and a hyperlink to the complete article.

Dr. Sullivan’s Must-Read Recruiting Tool Articles From 2023

Of the more than 50 articles that I published last year, here are the top five most often read recruiting tools articles (ranked by LinkedIn impressions). 

  1. The 5 worst candidate assessment tools that you should stop using – this powerful article lists and describes the five worst candidate screening tools that are still commonly used. It utilizes data to question common screening approaches like Myers-Briggs and candidate fit. So, if you want to stop the premature screening out of top candidates and improve your overall recruiting results. Click on this link to learn more about the worst screening tools that you should no longer be using.
  1. Shift to “professional conversations” to reduce the stress that occurs in traditional interviews – this article highlights how excessive stress can dramatically reduce the interview performance of even the best candidates. And it suggests you should instead shift to professional conversations. These are less threatening because they strive to reduce it by turning an interview into a more informal conversation between two professionals. So, if you want to see more of the “real candidate” during your interviews. Click here to learn more about these proven professional conversations.
  1. Documenting your interviews will improve your recruiting results – few realize how this simple effort to more completely document your interviews can dramatically improve your hiring. This easy-to-scan article highlights how simple actions (like documenting each interviewer’s numerical score) can help you identify your strongest interviewers. And how, over time, this documentation will help you to continually improve your hiring results. Click here to learn more about the value of better interview documentation.
  1. Encourage interview screeners to stop initially searching for weaknesses in candidate resumes – this article highlights how many resume screeners overly focus on finding candidate weaknesses so that they can quickly reduce their intimidating stack of resumes. However, that search for weaknesses can be delayed or moderated. You will find that most excellent candidates and all innovators have made missteps along the way in their careers. This means that it is better to first focus on finding “points of excellence” in a resume. In order to avoid hiring only vanilla candidates who have avoided mistakes by doing little. Click here to learn more about the problem of overly focusing on weaknesses in resumes.
  1. Why “how will you solve this real problem” is the most revealing interview question – it seems like everyone is constantly searching for the one “magic interview question.” Well, if there is one. Fortunately, the data and my own experience reveal that the single most effective assessment tool is to put the candidate “in the job.” Unfortunately, that is difficult to do prior to hiring. However, you can come very close to “putting them in the job” during their interview by verbally giving the candidate “a real problem that they will face in their job” to solve during the interview. Fortunately, by asking them “to walk you through the steps” on how they will solve this problem.” You can better determine if they will take the right steps and which important ones they will omit when they actually face this real problem. These “real problem-solving type of questions” will by far give the interviewer the most insight into whether the candidate can actually do this job. Click here to learn more about the value of giving the interviewee “a real problem.”

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My Personal Selection… The Most Impactful Recruiting Tool For 2023

Among the dozens of articles on recruiting tools that I published in 2023, I have selected the one article that I consider to be the most impactful. Therefore, in my view, this is the most important article that all progressive hiring managers and recruiters should both read and follow. It is:

Time your hiring when the competition is low – my research has revealed that the most ignored but highest impact area in recruiting is timing. Because almost everyone begins recruiting immediately after a job comes open, that can be a major mistake. Obviously, you have a better chance of recruiting top candidates when you recruit during the times of year when the hiring competition is extremely low. For example, few major talent competitors actively recruit during Christmas or August when their hiring managers are mostly distracted or are on vacation. So this article highlights how to identify the times during the year when even companies with tiny recruiting budgets and a weak employer brand can successfully recruit top talent during times when this talent has fewer choices. Simply because the major recruiting companies were doing little or no recruiting during that time. Click here to learn more about the importance of timing your hiring when the competition is low.

My Editor’s Selection… The Most Impactful Recruiting Tool For 2023

Among the dozens of articles on recruiting tools that I published during 2023, my wickedly smart editor, Michael Cox, selected this article as the most impactful. 

  • A simple “what worked survey” quickly improves sourcing – this article highlights the importance of applying a “what worked survey” of applicants and candidates. In order to learn the most effective job posting channels, the most powerful attraction factors and the strongest employer brand factors. Once you have applicant feedback data revealing these factors, you can quickly and easily improve your candidate sourcing. Click here to learn more about this simple survey for identifying what worked and what didn’t work during sourcing

Final Thoughts

In a fast-changing world, where AI and Quantum Computing will literally change everything that we do in business and recruiting. Continuous, self-directed, rapid learning will be the key to survival in almost every professional job. So rather than fight it, prepare for it by developing a plan for continuously learning about emerging recruiting tools and best practices.

The remainder of my fifty-plus 2023 articles and over 1,300 additional articles covering strategic talent management and aggressive recruiting 155’s tools can be found at www.drjohnsullivan.com. In addition, if you are not among the thousands of current readers, you can subscribe to Dr. Sullivan’s weekly Aggressive Talent Newsletter here.

Author’s Note 

Please spread these ideas by sharing this article with your team/network and by posting it on your favorite media.

Also, join the well over 20,000+ that follow or have connected with Dr. Sullivan’s community on LinkedIn.

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