Leadership as a strategic recruitment tool

This article offers our perspective on how to actively use your leadership when engaging in a recruitment process. We shed light on the important role you play as a leader and present three tangible tips on how leadership as a strategic tool in recruitment helps ensure that you both attract and hire the right talents.

There are excellent job opportunities in Finance and Legal. Unemployment is virtually non-existent, creating a job market that favours employees more than ever before. This places demands on employers – especially in recruitment situations where both parties present their expectations for the collaboration. Exactly here – when the leader and potential new employee sit across from each other – the leader has a golden opportunity to ensure, as much as possible, that the ideal candidate for the job is the one who ultimately accepts the offer. In fact, it is our clear experience that the personal match between the candidate and the immediate leader plays a crucial role both during the recruitment process and when establishing the collaboration.

It's been quite some time since it was common to stay 10, 15, 20, or even 25 years at the same workplace. Most have, however, realised that this is no longer what the job market values or believes in. Today, most people stay at the same company for about three to seven years, give their best during that period, and then seek new challenges.

Therefore, candidates and employees need to know who they will be reporting to, how this leader can develop them, and whether this is someone they can look up to both professionally and personally.

Today, focus is more on the leader than the company itself, making it important for the immediate leader to establish and maintain a good and genuine connection with the new hire from the very beginning. In practical terms, this may involve emails or calls with status updates, as well as informative material such as a welcome package with useful information about the company's systems, values, and structure.

There are, in fact, several ways in which to do this.

But the main point is: Good and continuous contact creates the best conditions for the new employee to feel part of the team from the very first day. A positive experience with the company, management, and immediate leader contributes positively to the employee's attachment to the workplace. You can probably recall the feeling of being part of a community – the feeling of being wanted and contributing with skills that make a real difference in the bigger picture.

It is possible to establish this emotional connection earlier than what might be the norm in your company. With our experience, we have repeatedly seen how a positive attachment to the workplace increases a new employee's engagement and motivation for their new role. At the same time, a steady flow of relevant information reduces any uncertainties or nervousness, as the new hire gains greater clarity and can therefore prepare as best as possible for the upcoming onboarding.

One thing is how you establish good contact with a newly hired employee early in the process. Before we even get there, we need to rewind a bit to where it all begins – i.e. the job interview.

So let's take a look at how you, as a leader, can approach the meeting with the candidate during the job interview.

Years ago, job interviews were handled quite differently than they are today.

(Mostly), the questions went only one way, focusing on the candidate's arguments why they should be hired. Now, the question "Why should I choose you as my next workplace?" also plays a significant role in the job interview.

The talk around the table is therefore not one-sided but goes both ways. It's important to create a dialogue where the demands and expectations from both sides can be aligned as much as possible.

But what approach to the job interview can be fruitful in the long term?

Finding the right candidate for a position is an art that requires both insight and empathy.

As recruiting leaders, we've emphasized throughout the article that you play a crucial role in creating a positive experience for candidates. This not only impacts your company's reputation but also its ability to attract the best talents. To inspire you on how to navigate the recruitment process and ensure you get the most out of each process and interview, we've distilled our points into three specific tips.

1. Put yourself in the candidate's shoes
   Can you remember how it felt the last time you walked into a job interview?
   
   The feelings in your stomach, the atmosphere in the room, the questions you were asked? Not really, right?
   
   In our experience, you quickly move on and forget what it's like to be sitting in the hot seat as a candidate. But there's great strength in being able to put yourself in the candidate's shoes. It might require you to pause and reflect back to when you were a candidate in a job interview. How were you treated? And how would you like to be treated if you were in the candidate's role again? Use your answers to these two questions as a guide for your own recruitment behaviour.
   
   
2. Be mindful of yourself in the role as a leader
   Be aware of yourself and be yourself. We encourage you to put your authenticity in the driver's seat when meeting candidates. If you relax and are yourself, you can create an environment where the candidate feels comfortable enough to open up and ask more questions. As a representative of the company you work for, you are also a reflection of the company's culture and values. And just like with 'word of mouth', good experiences usually foster positive stories.
   
   
3. Share the stories the candidate can't read about
   We touched upon this earlier in the article: how creating a space for openness in the job interview can pave the way for an honest relationship between the two of you.
   
   With the limited time allocated for the interview, your focus should be on sharing everything the candidate can't read in the job description or quickly find through a Google search. Tell the good stories, describe your company culture: How you collaborate, maintain a strong sense of team spirit, continue to develop your professional skills, and nurture your social bonds.