FAQ
Can I not refrain from obtaining references for a candidate for a position?
I often find that many companies either fail to obtain references or only do so late in the process, after the decision has actually been made. And that is – with all due respect – one of the stupidest mistakes you can make.
Hiring is a big decision. Every employee in a company is important, and it is therefore essential that you hire the most suitable candidates. When you read through the stack of CVs, you will get the candidates' own interpretation of their strengths and weaknesses, and you may also get a statement from one or more previous employers. But remember that the exact employer(s) is/are selected by the candidate themselves, and also remember that a statement (of course) does not paint the full picture of a person.
Therefore, I can only encourage you to read the application and CV carefully, compare them with the job interview and pay attention to areas where the match does not quite match. And then you should contact one or more previous managers and engage the candidate in an open and curious dialogue, so that you get a picture of the things that may be hiding between the lines.
Should LindbergHR help you obtain references for applicants?
Contact Carsten Lindberg Hartvigsen on Tel. 41 81 34 00 or carsten@lindberghr.dk
Should I sell the job – or should the candidate buy it?
A deal is actually quite simple: There's a seller and there's a buyer. And the same applies when you post a job – you highlight all the good things about the job, and then it just so happens that the right candidate accepts the terms. Or what?
I would suggest that you think differently and that you constantly remind yourself that the collaboration must be sustainable over time. It is expensive and difficult to hire new people, so you need to get the right one, and they need to stay with you for a long time. Therefore, it is crucial that you do not sell the dream of the perfect package, only for the candidate to discover that the back of the package has just as many dents and scratches.
Therefore: You must decide that you are not selling the position, but that you are presenting reality as it is – with all the positive and not least less positive aspects. In this way, the candidate will have to consider whether the less attractive aspects are acceptable and whether he or she actually wants to buy the package. And you both have the opportunity to discuss, through an open and honest dialogue, what the candidate thinks about the job and the pitfalls that may lie in the employment.
Should LindbergHR help you prepare for an honest job interview? Contact Carsten Lindberg Hartvigsen on Tel. 41 81 34 00 or carsten@lindberghr.dk
Get started on salary negotiations and save resources
It's the eternal elephant in the room. It's over in the corner, and it's both noisy and smelly, but no one dares to talk about it.
In Denmark, we are not very good at talking about money – and certainly not about salary. This also applies in connection with recruitment. I am regularly used for the final second opinion assessment of 2-3 candidates, who must be weighed against each other. The company itself has advertised the position, received applications, selected and interviewed candidates. I am then connected to the process for a final test of the candidates to ensure that the right one is hired. It often turns out that no one has asked about the salary level or salary expectations. It often turns out that one or more of the candidates that the company has spent several hours interviewing are not interested in the package that the company can offer.
There are some cultural camels to swallow, but I would strongly recommend that salary expectations are revealed already in the initial phone screening, so that both the candidate and the company at least have an idea of where the other party stands and whether there is a basis for further dialogue. Maybe there is something to talk about further, and maybe there is just too much distance. Regardless, both parties have gained knowledge that can either lead to collaboration or save resources on both sides of the table. And who hasn't really won from that?
Which of the candidates who have applied should we contact?
Even seasoned recruiters can become completely lost when the pile of applications for a position starts to grow. There is a lot of ”dead time” in carefully studying the endless series of applications, and the work seems even harder when the selected candidates have been interviewed and the right one still hasn’t shown up.
One of the classic mistakes in the hiring phase is that too much time is spent simultaneously screening applications and not screening well enough. The problem is that the candidate may seem like the right person on paper, but in addition to the CV part, the application primarily tells something about how a candidate expresses themselves in writing. But oral communication skills do not come into play, and this is often where things go wrong in an interview – it is ”the right person” and not a piece of paper that shows up, and it is not the paper that should be part of a collegial community in everyday life.
Even a short phone conversation contributes to a much better picture of the candidate, making it easier to select the right ones to invite for an interview.
Should LindbergHR help you select and screen relevant candidates? Contact Carsten Lindberg Hartvigsen on Tel. 41 81 34 00 or carsten@lindberghr.dk
Errors in the application can be ok!
Let's just state the obvious: People are different, and the requirements for different positions in a company are different. And just as it typically won't work very well to let a colorblind person sell paint, it usually won't be optimal to hire someone with dyslexia for a secretarial job, where many tasks require good writing skills.
But conversely, there are many positions – including key positions – where careless mistakes and slightly messy language should far from disqualify a candidate.
When it comes to salespeople, I have seen the absolute worst applications from the absolute best salespeople. Those kinds of people are sought after, and the good ones are typically already in a good job, so applications are something that is done on the couch after a long day. Probably with the television running in the background while working a little on an offer that needs to be sent out as soon as possible. It's all a little more "loose", and the process is characterized by the candidate being relaxed and believing in their own abilities. If these are the character traits you are looking for, then look through the mistakes. You can use that approach when the candidate has landed in your company and is selling from there.
Should LindbergHR help you assess incoming applications? Contact Carsten Lindberg Hartvigsen on Tel. 41 81 34 00 or carsten@lindberghr.dk
Is it a good idea to write that a job advertisement is a repost?
We've all seen it in job advertisements, and several of us have thought: "Repost - that job smells like a fuser.".
Because if the job hasn't been offered in the first place, it's probably because it's not particularly attractive?
Maybe – or maybe it's about sending some signals.
Let's first look at the negative signals it sends. Because yes – a position is naturally only posted again if the right candidate was not found in the first place. And yes – it can indicate that the job is not interesting to apply for. It can be about the job description, about salary and conditions, about working hours, place of work or something completely different.
But it could also be that the job is actually exciting, demanding and professionally challenging, and that the applicants just weren't quite good enough. A re-advertisement could also be because there was an internal candidate in the running who turned out not to be the right one or who chose to decline. In the latter case, the re-advertisement sends a signal that the position has not already been de facto "promised away" to an internal candidate, and that the workplace is genuinely interested in getting good candidates from outside.
So it is not ”forbidden” to write reposts, but consider what signals you want to send.
Should LindbergHR help you create a good job description? Contact Carsten Lindberg Hartvigsen on Tel. 41 81 34 00 or carsten@lindberghr.dk
Should a job advertisement have an expiration date?
It can be tempting to set a deadline when posting a job. This way, candidates know when to submit their applications, and you, as an advertiser, know when you have the applications in-house.
But what if the right candidate shows up the day after you post the job, and the deadline is a month away? Then you have to wait a month before hiring them or maybe interview a few more people who also have potential. Or what if the right candidate doesn't show up by the deadline, and the ad is then removed on the expiration date? Then you have to post the position again, and during that time, your ad is not visible, wasting valuable time.
My advice would therefore be that you generally create job advertisements without an expiration date, so that you can continuously review applications and only remove the advertisement from the web when you have found the right candidate.
How should the company describe the position in the advertisement?
The company often describes a position based on area of responsibility. I often experience that companies try to describe specific work tasks, but instead end up describing general areas of responsibility. This typically results in standard formulations such as "Your work tasks will include...", and then the company then describes an overall area of responsibility instead. For example, the description for a laboratory manager will typically state that the person must "ensure that the laboratory meets the set goals". This is very general, and a description of specific work tasks is missing. Therefore, it becomes almost impossible for a candidate to guess how the person must "ensure that the laboratory meets the set goals". What is the task - and how is it expected to be solved?
Instead, the company can use the space to describe the very specific tasks involved in the job. What tasks are on the manager's desk, and what might a typical working day look like? Keep it concrete and down-to-earth, so that the candidate can see themselves in the work situation. This provides the best match and the best alignment of expectations.
Should LindbergHR help you create a good job description? Contact Carsten Lindberg Hartvigsen on Tel. 41 81 34 00 or carsten@lindberghr.dk
Should technical terms be included in job advertisements?
One day I came across a job advertisement from a federation in a sport that I have played as both a player and a coach. The federation was looking for a talent manager, but the advertisement included three technical terms that I had never heard of. I contacted a friend of mine who is a former youth national coach in the same sport, and he didn't know the terms either.
When I contacted the association to ask about the job posting, the message was that the candidates they were looking for needed to know the language to be considered for the job. I asked if a former youth national coach might be interesting to them, and of course he did. The association was told that he didn't know the language either – and going forward, their job postings have been cleaned of technical terms. Of course, as an employer, you can expect a candidate to know their profession and field thoroughly. But the challenge is that we can't always see our own blind spots, and technical terms and the way they are used are also linked to culture – and this varies greatly from company to company. My experience is that technical terms tend to take on the color and flavor of the company, and therefore there is a risk that the best candidate for the job will refrain from applying – simply because the person in question attributes a different meaning to the word than the company does, or simply doesn't know the meaning of the word.
Should LindbergHR help you create the right job advertisement? Contact Carsten Lindberg Hartvigsen on Tel. 41 81 34 00 or carsten@lindberghr.dk