Some Lloyd insight for employers on how we ensure the best Talent outcomes
A strong partnership with a third-party recruiter such as a staffing firm like Lloyd is often a game-changer for employers who are hiring or developing a strong talent pipeline. To ensure a seamless and successful collaboration, it’s crucial to collaborate with a professional recruiter on talent curation, engagement with passive candidates, setting realistic timeframes, and following best practices. Here are some suggestions for employers to optimize their partnership with a staffing firm as we successfully move forward into 2024.
Talent Curation
Talent curation is not just about attracting top candidates, but also nurturing and engaging them throughout the hiring process. 
It is defined as proactively building a talent pool that aligns with current and future needs. When you work with a Recruiter who understands your company’s mission and vision for hiring, you can assess skills, conduct screenings, and conduct interviews in advance, ensuring a perfect fit. This allows your staffing partner to maintain open communication channels with possible candidates to keep them engaged until the right opportunity arises.
Talent curation yields immediate value by reducing time-to-fill by 30 to 50%, improving candidate quality, and achieving a hiring ratio approximately 3 times better than average.
Lloyd recommends our clients (employers) share their forecasts for future talent and identify any recurring skills needed. We should also know your priority for hard-to-fill positions.
Engaging Passive Candidates
Passive candidates are vital to a client’s talent pipeline; they actually form the majority (65-70%) of the market. When your Lloyd Recruiter knows your hiring needs in advance, we are able to directly approach these individuals with relevant upcoming opportunities – especially critical in a candidate-driven market. By keeping these individuals “warm” through an ongoing dialogue, passive candidates become more open to considering new opportunities.
Realistic Timeframes
Whether posting an opening on your own, or using a Lloyd Recruiter it is essential to establish a realistic timeframe for the hiring process – that means all parties involved in the hiring process are working on the same calendar and expectations. Over 80% of candidates appreciate clear timelines. You should stick to the schedule as much as possible, providing effective communication in case of unanticipated delays. Don’t lose a good candidate through lack of communication. Keep your Lloyd Recruiter in the loop as well!
Acknowledge, Respond, and Provide Feedback
Respond promptly to applicants, even if they are not suitable. Lloyd will professionally release anyone whom our client deems inappropriate, but please provide feedback after each interview. We will communicate the hesitations to the candidate and this authenticity typically enhances the candidate experience and helps maintain brand integrity on your behalf. Honest and constructive feedback helps candidates improve and encourages them to reapply in the future.
Avoid the Temptation for Bargains
In a competitive market, we tell our clients to resist the urge to seek talent at a bargain price. Paying the market rate ensures attracting quality candidates. Hiring overqualified individuals as a short-term fix at a bargain salary is not good for any employer’s long-term game plan and can lead to future recruitment needs and damage your employer brand. Your Lloyd Recruiter can educate you on appropriate compensation by position, industry and region.
Our Top Tips for the Lloyd/Client Partner Relationship
• Clearly define skills and job requirements for each open search.
• Use inclusive, gender-neutral language in job descriptions.
• Explore internal talent for lateral transfers or conversions – perhaps you can promote internally and have Lloyd fill the newly vacant position – this offers your internal workforce career advancement.
• Ensure budget approval before having a staffing partner identify candidates.
• Be transparent about salary ranges and requirements.
• Ensure the position is ready to be filled with decision makers in agreement on the desired candidate’s skills and experience.
• Provide precise job requirements to save time.
• Be patient while expecting resumes.
• Communicate quickly and effectively with your Recruiter.
• Be honest and direct about candidate evaluations.
• Allow us to stay in contact once the hire is made. Feedback will help in candidate curation.
• Initiate the interview process with the hiring leader for efficient vetting. Start at the top and work backwards – it is far less frustrating and damaging to the candidate experience.
• Allow your Staffing Partner to engage with existing successful employees to better understand desired traits.
• Allow us to showcase the your benefits and culture to attract candidates.
Continuous Improvement and Adaptation
Regularly review and refine the hiring processes based on feedback, market trends, and evolving industry needs. Together we will embrace a culture of continuous improvement, adapting strategies to remain agile in the talent acquisition landscape. Allow Lloyd to keep you informed about emerging technologies and recruitment best practices to ensure your approach remains effective and aligned with the ever-changing demands of the job market.
Our Recruiters Speak Out…
Joe Davis, CSP, TPC, Managing Director, Technology & Engineering Recruitment
“The order of an interview process is important due to the influence on the decision making process. Interviews that start with the hiring leader provide the best opportunity for a candidate to be vetted out based on what that hiring leader wants and needs in the most efficient matter. It also allows for a logical flow for decision making. If a candidate passes several other interviews before getting to the hiring leader, and then fails the hiring leader’s interview, several hours of employee and candidate time have been wasted.
The hiring leader has the biggest influence (typically) and therefore can influence the rest of the process. If s/he likes the candidate, there is a much greater chance of the candidate getting through. This also typically provides the best candidate experience. Additionally higher level talent openings (leadership) should start with the hiring leader (not potential peers, outside department leaders, or HR) so that they both know if there is a proper alignment between candidate and need (no one knows better than the hiring leader) and it also allows for the hiring leader to endear him/herself to the candidate in a candidate driven market.”
“I always strive to help educate my client from my perspective. I’m happy to share insight on best hiring practices and ideas of moving the process forward. I have a big picture overview of the candidate market – I want my clients to know that a talent requisition holds different levels of complexity for me; the hot buttons I focus on include:
…Intake details with the hiring manager.
…Gathering Intel on the company’s general benefits, etc. why someone would want to join them, learning something special about the client to gain interest from the candidate.
…After presenting a qualified candidate, getting a quick response to schedule an initial interview scheduled within a one day turnaround.
…Hearing detailed feedback on a candidate’s interview or scheduling next steps within a day
…Gathering references after 2nd or 3rd round to help the process come to a successful conclusion.”
Rick Delin, CSP, Executive Director, Technology Sales & Marketing
“I encourage my clients to be open to trying new hiring strategies that I have seen be successful across several industries. Ideas they may not have considered, but I have seen work. For example, bringing on a Fractional Executive like a Chief Revenue Officer. This talent strategy provides cost-effective access to high-level expertise, flexibility in engagement, specialized knowledge, immediate impact, and a strategic focus on revenue generation. It is often particularly beneficial for businesses looking to optimize their revenue strategies without committing to a full-time executive hire.
Your Recruiter should be a sounding board whose insight and experience is to your benefit and helps you implement ideas that might be outside the box for your organization, but have proven to have immediate impact and success when it comes to hiring effective leadership.”
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