The IQ PARTNERS Blog

Key 10 in my blog series, Hire Wisdom: The 12 Keys to Successful Hiring, is Perform Reference Checks. When I started writing this blog post, all I kept thinking was…“How can I get people to care about reference checks?” That’s because conducting reference checks have become one of the least meaningful parts of the hiring process. People have started to think of them as a final box to check, a task to “get out of the way” when the candidate has all but signed on the dotted line… but they’re wrong! Thinking of reference checks this way is a missed opportunity. Remember, a bad hire is costly, both in time and money – the cost of attrition is one to three times an employee’s salary!

As a headhunter, you recognize them almost as soon as you meet them. That rock star candidate who will stand out from the rest and be much more likely to be offered the job. Why? Because the top notch candidates, the ones with passion as well as prowess, share a number of common characteristics.

It just makes sense that the best talent in the marketplace want to work with the best companies… and they are never short on offers. This is, of course, because top performing groups of talent are really what drive positive business growth, and continue the cycle of attracting the best people, which leads to ongoing success in business.
As a company in a competitive market you want to make sure top candidates are drawn to you as a destination employer. How?

With so many search firms of all shapes and sizes out there (global or independent; retained or contingent) selecting a partner to help fill a critical vacancy can be challenging. However, there are simple questions you can ask a potential recruitment partner to help ensure a successful search.

Presenting a low ball offer to a candidate to save a few dollars on their salary is just bad business.
If you want a good employee who will spring out of bed in the morning to come and work for you, and stay for the long run, then pay them what they’re worth. A rookie mistake is to assume the salary you gave the last person in the role is good enough for a future employee. Salaries are dependent on the candidate and the market; how much could they get elsewhere? Remember that last year’s market prices or what you feel the market prices should be are irrelevant. Do some research to ensure the salary you offer is competitive.

Most often a meaningful job with a lower salary will be chosen over a less meaningful job with a higher salary.
But what makes a job meaningful? Opportunities for advancement, feeling challenged, and making a real impact are some of the common factors. Outline how the candidate can progress through the company and how they will be challenged. How does the company as a whole, and that role in particular, make a difference in the world?

As a headhunter, I screen and interview candidates regularly, so I know first-hand about putting candidates on the spot with difficult questions… and how stressful it can be! The only way to handle tough questions is to be as prepared as possible. In this post I’ve outlined the 13 toughest questions interviewers almost always ask, and provided guidance on how to answer them.

As a headhunter I give interview advice every day, and over four years in the business I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Here are my top interview prep tips, with some very specific advice on how to set yourself up for success in an interview. Better yet, the advice is valid for any discipline and any level of seniority. Here we go…

As a headhunter, I often have A+ candidates who have gone all the way through the interview process with a client, only to have to turn them down toward the final stages – an often heartbreaking but necessary evil in the hiring process. My message to hiring managers and HR professionals is this: the way you go about letting someone down matters!

For anyone who has ever been turned down for an opportunity with a vague explanation like, “we’re going in another direction”, it can absolutely leave a sour taste in a candidate’s mouth, and jeopardize the opportunity to build a strong, ongoing relationship…