Developing a successful talent acquisition strategy for hiring in New Mexico requires a fine balance: shooting for the stars and trying to attract the best candidates possible, while also not self-sabotaging by focusing on finding a “unicorn” prospect who fits 100% of your wish list of qualifications.
The ideal candidate could certainly be out there – but if you are overly fixated on that notion, you could lose out on the opportunity to snatch up a quality employee who would grow and flourish within your organization for years to come.
How should hiring managers best navigate the job market and remain competitive?
Look ahead to the future of recruitment: skills-based hiring. Rather than narrowly focusing on credentials, like job titles, specific degrees or exact years of experience, prioritize a candidate’s capabilities and overall potential. Nowadays candidates can develop their professional skills in non-traditional ways, like professional bootcamps, online self-learning courses, or freelance gig work, which can make the traditional ways of assessing qualifications outdated.
These benefits make skills-based hiring the future of recruitment:
- Timely hiring – if you are not set on finding candidates with specific credentials, you can instead evaluate their ability to perform the most high priority tasks and significantly streamline the hiring process.
- Reduced bias – by focusing on credentials, such as preferring candidates who attended a particular university, it can often inadvertently result in biased decision-making; therefore, skills-based hiring can naturally encourage more inclusive hiring practices overall.
- Better performances – an impressive resume doesn’t necessarily translate to a successful work performance, so prioritizing skills above all increases the chances of landing top performers who are a fit.
- Improved retention – bad hires are costly and disruptive, so if you make decisions based on skills and not professional background, you are more likely to find candidates who are able to do the job well and stay in the role.
Follow these steps for effective skills-based hiring:
- Expand Your Candidate Pool
Don’t limit your recruitment strategy – you never know where you could meet your next top performer. Broaden your sources for finding prospective applicants to organically diversify your pool of candidates. Try out a variety of channels for marketing your open positions, such as general job sites, social media, industry-specific forums, networking events, or working with a staffing agency.
- Tweak Your Job Postings
Review your job postings and adjust the wording to ensure you are not overly emphasizing credentials over skills. Highlight the key responsibilities of the role prominently in the description of your posts and avoid being overly specific for qualifications in order to encourage the right candidates to apply.
- Focus Your Interviews
It is crucial to interview with intention with skills-based hiring so you can feel confident in candidates’ abilities. Develop interview questions that uncover their aptitude in essential skills. This includes asking behavioral questions, in which you request specific examples of how they performed relevant situations in the past, or having them demonstrate their skills with a mock task related to the job duties.
Attract Top Talent in New Mexico
Put your skills-based hiring into practice and successfully build a team of qualified employees by partnering with The Hire Firm for your staffing needs. The Hire Firm is a leading New Mexico area job placement agency serving employers across industries. Contact us today to learn more about our employer services.