Pharmacovigilance specialist. Certified ethical hacker. Developer specializing in more acronyms than you could ever hope to decode on your own. When niche hiring requests like these land on your desk, how do you and your team proceed?
After all, your speciality is human resources, not every one of the 821 individual occupations listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite the overwhelming number of positions out there, a full 80 percent of recruiters think they understand the roles they're recruiting for. Unfortunately, only 61 percent of hiring managers agree.
To help you bridge this divide and train your HR team on all the tools, technologies and requirements needed for every role, we compiled these three tips.
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1. go straight to the experts
When a hiring need arises in a field you or your team aren't familiar with, talk to the experts first.
what to do:
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Speak with managers in departments that have personnel specializing in similar skill sets, or if you're starting from scratch, look to contacts in your network who may have a background in the area.
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When you speak with them, ask questions about the candidate profile they likely submitted to you to get more context (tech profiles, for instance, are notorious for looking like bowls of alphabet soup to the uninitiated).
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Managers will happily volunteer what kinds of certifications, competencies and requirements they expect from an ideal candidate, but to get the full picture, you'll have to dig deeper. When you get a list of a manager's must-haves, ask them:
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what makes each requirement important to the role?
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how do these requirements fulfill the job's duties?
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why is this particular combination of skills so coveted in the field?
Getting an idea of how all the pieces fit together will help you formulate more targeted questions during an interview, and help you get a better read on how well a candidate will be able to leverage them to execute tasks.
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2. start a job shadowing program
Internal job shadowing programs are a way for employees to learn about possible career paths within a company by observing a colleague in their day-to-day work environment. But they're also a great resource for HR teams looking to better understand complex or highly technical roles. Witnessing work being done and observing how abstract resume concepts get applied on the job can be illuminative and help you and your team secure the knowledge you need to make the right hires.
what to do:
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Some work-shadow programs can last months, but keep yours to a few days at most to avoid hampering productivity.
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Have HR employees prepare questions in advance to spend their time covering the major areas they'd like to address.
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Conduct information-sharing sessions afterwards where colleagues can present what they learned to the group to spread familiarity of the function to the rest of your HR team.
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3. enlist the help of a specialist
Taking time to learn about the different roles at your company is an important exercise in staffing, and it will help you and your team make better hires in the end. However, you don't want to tip the scales too far and take away time from staying current in your own field or pursuing development opportunities that could improve your own performance. If you believe your HR resources could be better spent elsewhere, then consider partnering with a staffing agency.
When you work with a staffing agency, you'll get a specialized recruiter on your side who has expertise in the fields you're looking to fill. They'll know the right requirements and qualifications, and be able to speak the same language as your candidates. Plus, with access to pre-established talent networks, they'll be able to send you qualified candidates faster, effectively reducing all the costly downtime you experience by leaving roles open for too long.
Take your time and be selective when choosing a staffing partner, though. You want to find one that'll be a good fit for your organization and its goals.
Before partnering with a staffing agency, make sure:
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They have a team of dedicated recruiters with knowledge of the specific skill sets you're looking for.
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Your business is the right size for their services (some agencies are best set up to work with smaller businesses while others may prefer to only fulfill large-scale hiring requests).
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They have the capacity to scale up or down quickly depending on how your hiring needs fluctuate.
You can't be expected to know all the intricacies of, say, every programming language or industry regulation, but by incorporating some of these tips into your HR training program, you should be able to get a better understanding of some of the more niche roles currently being targeted by your company.
To get more staffing tips that you can use, visit the Randstad Learning Center, or if you’d like personalized help, get in touch with us to start a conversation about your hiring needs.
