Recruitment – it’s all about finding and hiring candidates for specific jobs, right? Well... the problem with that approach is you can’t (or don’t) see what else your candidates could be offering. When you focus only on the job description, and don't look any deeper than the resume, you inadvertently miss other hidden skills that could prove even more valuable to your organisation. The alternative? That's nose-to-tail hiring, where you decide to honour the whole human. Here's how.
Even if you're recruiting at volume, there's still an opportunity to start discovering everything you can about your candidates. Here are some ideas for incorporating nose-to-tail hiring tactics in the assessment phase of your recruitment process:
It’s easy for the blinders to go on when you’re in a hurry to fill positions, especially in high-volume recruitment. Using soft skills assessments to speed up your screening process will allow you to pre-qualify candidates against the traits that really matter, so you can spend more time digging deeper into what other value they could bring. We’d also highly recommend throwing away resumes. They only inject unconscious bias in the process and offer no insights into a person’s behaviours and values.
While typical interview questions have a time and place, you want to move beyond the facts on paper – and get to the heart of each candidate. In other words, values, motivations and character strengths.
The best candidates are always going to be the ones who understand what makes your culture and company tick. Vice versa, candidates who align with your values have huge potential to contribute positively to your organisation.
Weirdly’s values assessment gives candidates an interactive, fun way to learn where their values align with yours – before they invest deeply in the long recruiting process.
Set up multiple layers of assessment, automatically triggered by different responses or steps in your screening process, to discover additional skills and behaviours. Let candidates show you their true potential by working through a range of scenarios or a quiz that exposes hidden leadership capabilities – all good surprises.
Hiring the whole human has to be followed up once your new employee is onboarded – how can you let them use all their skills, rather than boxing them into a small clump of responsibilities? It's about letting employees feel like they have the freedom and trust to do their best work. While experts might argue about the most effective way to give that freedom, they can agree on the good that comes from it:
• Get more engaged, motivated employees. Employees who are responsible for their work are more engaged, more motivated and more efficient – that’s great for business.
• Breeds creativity and innovation. In today’s innovation-driven economy, that’s key to keeping any organisation moving and developing.
• Help employees feel valued as individuals. They’re likely to be more loyal and more driven to go above and beyond.
• Decrease employee turnover. When employees enjoy their jobs, they don’t want to leave. Anything that reduces employee turnover will save your organisation time, money and the energy of recruitment teams.
• Get fewer problems from micro-management. Employees in managerial positions can ultimately take more time for their work, leaving staff to choose how to prioritise their work – helping at the checkout counter, restocking shelves or putting in orders with suppliers.
• Encourage leadership qualities – independent thought, problem-solving, creative thinking and productive teamwork – just the skills you need to be a good leader.
• Enable better work/life balance. Get this balance right for your employees and they’ll be more productive, more satisfied and generally happier people.
By taking a nose-to-tail hiring approach to recruitment, you’re not only guaranteed to find the best candidates, you’ll also discover hidden skills and talents. Nurture and embrace every part of your candidates, and watch your teams flourish. They’ll be more productive, enthusiastic and motivated – it’s a win-win for everyone involved.
Amp up your high-volume recruitment with Weirdly and get the most out of your people. Book a demo now.
