New HRMorning podcast: Strategies for onboarding top talent while still recruiting them

“Onboarding Begins at the Job Post: Getting Strategic with Recruiting” is the debut episode of HRMorning’s “Voices of HR” podcast. But how is it possible to onboard someone you haven’t even talked to?

Voices of HR host Berta Aldrich explored this concept with Chrisanne Bowden, a senior HR consultant with iHire, a platform that brings job candidates and employers across 57 industries together.

To entice the talented, high-performing job seekers you want to stop what they’re doing and engage with an online post for a key job opening at your company, Bowden said the first step is to resist the temptation to advertise the opening as quickly as possible.

Onboarding with a job post

Collaborating with your marketing department on writing a job post that also tells a compelling story about your organization, and why people would want to work for you, is like onboarding someone even before letting them know that you’re interested in an interview.

For instance, you’ll mention the top-tier benefits you provide, but you also want to let applicants know about your company culture; diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and/or what causes the organization supports.

“We do see people, I think, focusing more and more on ‘What’s this organization like that I’m going to? What are their values?’ … Do we do community events? Are we really hands on, or do we just (write) big checks to big nonprofits?” Bowden said.

She also recommended reviewing your job post template every three to five months to see if it needs an update.

Onboarding of qualified candidates

Bowden said that when she gets the field of candidates for a position narrowed down to the final 8% to 10% that she notifies about employer interest, she leaves space in the email template to personalize the message to say something like, “I saw on your resume you’ve previously worked for an organization that does ‘XYZ.'”

“When a person gets something like that, they know you read their resume. And it does stand out to them,” she said.

Next on Voices of HR

Three episodes of Voices of HR are now available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify and Stitcher.

Voices of HR will feature conversations with an eclectic group of HR practitioners, thought leaders and C-suite executives about what works – and what doesn’t – in human resources, corporate culture and more.

The next two episodes offer perspectives on culture and performance management that we think will inspire you to strengthen your people strategy.