Recruiting and hiring is a full time grind. Our company is experiencing some very healthy growth nationwide now and my individual contracts are expanding. It takes a tremendous drive to just field all the resumes, screen and interview candidates, not to mention background checks and drug screens. I try very much to hire hard now to manage easy later. Learning as much about the candidate and their future expectations and aspirations all while giving them the most useful information about the position. The biggest limiting factor for me is getting applicants. There are tons of competing outlets as mentioned before. Many times, such as now, time itself is an additional limiting factor from the clients, we just need staff now. But that is part of my job, so I try to carve out the time or make time when necessary. Not everyone has that luxury. Those LimFac's make hiring a tough climb.
Planning and following a process is what helps me the most. Then there is always what Mike Tyson once said, "plans are great until you get punched in the face." Sometime the right person falls into place and it is hard not to pull the trigger without due diligence.
Developing relationships with universities, colleges, and the industry in general is time consuming but pays huge dividends. This really helped me meet and hire some quality people under a tight schedule. In the area I was unable to expend that time, I did not get the same pool of candidates. I have tried to keep hiring, building the brand and the team first and foremost. I worked pretty hard this fall to actually get some handshakes to students on campus, beyond posting on the job boards and job fairs. Some of the above mentioned institutes of higher learning are in business to make money and not rainbows (aren't we all?) so they will refer you to the job fairs. I say damn the torpedo's and try my very best to get in front of students, alumni, clubs and classes.
An emerging limiting factor, for me anyway, is gaining a better understanding of age demographics and the varying needs. I'm not a millennial, but have many who work for me. Their expectations are far different than what mine were as an entry level operator. And to their credit, times have changed, inflation and healthcare aren't what they were 20 years ago. Plus, it seems many times that candidates are coming to interviews better prepared to ask solid questions, which I take as a good sign. Trying to understand all aspects of age demographics is tough.
Y'all take this with the usual grain of salt, I'm hiring for consulting positions and do get many climbers but generally speaking, the entire process from creating the opening to closing the deal is as hard as it is important.
