March Madness and Recruiting: There Are More Similarities Than You Think
Selection Sunday is a Sunday in March where 64 collegiate basketball teams are selected to participate in the NCAA tournament. This day has evolved into major sports day in our country. In the twilight of a Sunday evening, a tournament seeding bracket is created, placing all selected teams – a process known as “Bracketology.” Beginning mid-March and over the next two weeks teams will fight for the honor of playing in the “Final Four” weekend. After the first week, the field will be narrowed to 16 teams. At the conclusion of the second week the tournament will have its final four, who then move on to the last weekend of competition. Finally on the first Monday night in April, a champion will be crowned.
Candidate selection, if executed properly, goes through a similar form of Bracketology. Candidate brackets,if you will, are created when a fully qualified job requisition is placed in a recruiting firms system. A quality staffing organization will set up a qualifying call between all stakeholders. The staffing firm will source a group of candidates from multiple recruiting sources that will include the active job seekers and the passive job seekers. In most cases, the field of candidates far exceeds the beginning field of 64 teams in the NCAA tournament, with the initial search grabbing hundreds of candidates fitting some of the initial criteria. Then over the span of a few days, a quality staffing organization will go through the recruiting and screening process that includes behavioral and skill testing, the success profile screen (which comes from the qualification), behavioral interviewing and reference checks. After that string of screening, a quality service representative will screen to present their Final Four candidates who will then be presented to the client company for review. If the process between client and staffing firm is effective, two of the four candidates that are presented will go through the interview process and then one candidate will be presented with the job offer.
A systematic and measurable recruiting process is what clients should demand from a staffing organization. If the client company receives more than four candidate presentations it should raise the question if the staffing firm is following a strategic recruiting process.
Talon employs a systematic approach to our “recruiting bracketology” called the Talon Advantage. The Talon Advantage Sourcing Model is a systematic and measurable approach, incorporating the Talon Keys to Success. This stringent process increases our client’s odds that they will be receiving the best talent (IT Rockstars) available to complete their IT projects and initiatives on time and on budget.
Work with a company that will narrow the candidate bracket to three or four precisely matched candidates rather than a dozen that are just pretty close.
