Thanksgiving dinner is over, but there is plenty of food left. Personally, in my opinion, the leftovers are the best part about Thanksgiving, or any meal, for that matter. As I sat Sunday night over an extra-large helping of stuffing, I reflected over my past hiring experiences, and I found a connection between Thanksgiving leftovers and hiring (yes, ok, maybe a stretch, but here you go).
When interviewing and hiring, I think it is important to save the leftovers, those candidates you didn’t hire, but are qualified. You can’t hire everyone, right? This pool of qualified, yet unselected, candidates may prove to be the very source from which you do your next hiring, but only if you save them for the future. And, who knows, maybe the person you hired turns out to be a loon and you need to hire sooner than you anticipated? But, that never happens, right?
In the sector of technology, especially software development, finding qualified (and interested) candidates is a very difficult task. There are more jobs than there are qualified candidates, and hiring can be a tough, drawn-out process! Also, unfortunate, but true, there are flakes out there that quit after a month or less. Saving those candidates you passed on the first time, and hopefully maintaining contact with them, will help you hire quickly, should your needs change in the future.
This may sound like very simple advice, but it is surprising to me how companies churn through candidates, only to quickly lose track of good candidates once an initial decision has been reached. This is unfortunate to both the candidate, and the hiring company. Just because you passed on them the first time doesn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t make a good addition to the team, and maybe it is worth reconsidering their candidacy.
However, I think the main reason that great candidates slip through the cracks is tracking. I think most companies lack the sophistication to track candidates and “save them for later,” and a stack of resumes in a drawer somewhere is not a good tracking system! Luckily, technology provides many great tracking and storage options, and Ninja Gig has worked to make this a very simple process. When an applicant applies on Ninja Gig, their application is saved indefinitely, and we give you, the hiring manager, the tools you need to categorize and comment on received applications. True, some candidates will never work out, and you can easily “archive” them, but our tools give you simple functionalities that make your life much easier. There is no quicker way to save your pool of candidates for the future than a digital tracking system, and with our sophisticated and simple-to-use software, you can rest easy knowing where your future pool of candidates is.
Sign-up today for our 14-day free trial, and see just how easy we can make hiring experiences for your organization.