Finding it hard to recruit the cyber talent you need? Are you doing any of these 4 common mistakes?
The first thing you need to realise is, you and your business are not the only people/ company looking to hire cyber talent, the talent you need is in demand across all markets at this moment, don’t make your life harder than it needs to be, avoiding these 4 common mistakes could make the process easier.
- Companies taking too Long to make a decision: The Cyber market is moving fast, we have all heard of the Dog and his reflection fable unless this is a completely new role or you are a completely new manager; I would guess you have interviewed similar people before and know what good looks like. You need to change the mindset that you need to see X amount of people before you can make a decision. If you interview someone who fits in your first interview and do not have anyone else to compare them to, then move on that first person, don’t hold back waiting for someone else to compare them to. Use your experience and compare them against what you know to be good. if you do wait, like the dog in the story you may just lose what you want.
- Why do you want to work for us: When you're in a skill shortage market you should stop asking this question at the first interview stage and definitely not as your first question of the interview. In a skill shortage market, the chances are you need their skills and experience more than they need your role, they will have other companies wanting to talk to them. Instead, use the first interview to understand them as people, their skills set and experience (making sure they have what you need for your role), understand their career plans and do these align with where you see your role going (if they want to go in a different direction to your role then are they going to be with you for the long term, is this an issue or not?), once you understand them, then explain to them what’s good about your business, where you see the role developing, why you think they should join the business, why you joined/work for the business. If they can do the job then you need to give them information to be able to decide on why they want to have this opportunity.
- Not giving feedback after the interview: If someone has committed time out of their day to speak to you, you need to let them know if they are right or wrong. If someone is wrong, then feed that information back to them and not just we have decided not to proceed with you, give them the information so they understand your decision they may not agree but at least they can cross the role off their list. A key area on feedback a lot of people miss is, if they are good and you want to progress, let them know what you liked and why you think they will be successful and more importantly, if there are any areas that they need to improve or you have a concern about, let them know, give the person a chance to address these concerns in the next conversation to help put your mind at rest. Everyone you speak to good or bad will form a perception of you and your business, treat them well and give feedback even if they don’t get the job, they will have a more positive perception about you/your company, this way if they are ever asked about the business from other people, they will give positive feedback, and in today world you need your business to have a positive perception in the market place, to help attract the best.
- Using an old/ Generic job spec, and passing it around to too many people to bolt on extra bits and forgetting the original need for the job, be realistic, What do you need! If you are looking for this person, you need to write the job spec don’t get others to do it or you will find they are asking for things that you probably don’t need. When posting a job ad, remember to be specific, if you are looking for an IAM subject matter expert and you want that person to have experience with a certain vendor, say it on the advert, don’t just say need IAM experience you will get lots of responses from people you won’t want to talk too. Also remember it’s an advert to attract people, don’t just tell people what skills they need, remember to tell people why they should be interested in this role, what will it give them? The number of days holiday and a cycle to work scheme isn’t a reason people will want to talk to you!
Finding talent in a skill shortage market isn't easy, but by avoiding the simple mistakes you will certainly make life just that little bit easier for yourself
