Hybrid hiring: Five skills every business should look for in a candidate

Workplace conversations are currently drowning in buzzwords, from ‘The Great Resignation’ to ‘The Great Alignment’ and more recently ‘anchor days’ (where a specific group of employees attend the office on specific days). These are all considerations that employers are expected to carry into the unknown, and an indication that heading back to the office may not be as straightforward as one may hope.

But while focus is fixed on the ways of working, there is a lack of focus on ways of hybrid hiring. Yes, businesses should centre on creating an environment that teams want to return… but also a place future employees gravitate to.

With the new Omicron variant lingering and fears around international borders remaining closed, the talent shortage is continuing as the cause for concern, and decision makers need to address the framework of their traditional hiring processes.

Here’s how businesses can embrace hybrid hiring.

Give the CV a time-out

The workplace is still very much virtual, and will remain this way for months to come. But now is the time to try and break this trend, while keeping all safety precautions in mind.

People have become comfortable and shielded behind screens, and there are so many things you can learn about a human that will not be found on a CV. By suggesting and implementing at least one face-to-face meeting during the interview process, you are not only positioning yourself as challenging the norm, but testing their own grit. Do they really want this role? Unless they have a legitimate reason to stay virtual, this is often a good test.

The skills shortage is real, and quite often your candidate will already have three or four offers on the table, so you need to find ways to stand out. This can be achieved with some face-to-face time which can be a little confronting, and certainly alien, during these times.

For this meeting, remove the CV as the agenda. Often interviewees will use it as a conversation prompt, but this ends here. While the details on there are important, they are not essential today. This meeting should be used to build a connection, to tell them about you, the business and to learn about them.

The CV is not totally dead, but it’s role has definitely changed in the era of hybrid hiring.

Address changing needs

There is a significant case of role reversal in today’s hybrid hiring process. The hard sell is now equal on both sides, and it is not a chance for you to make them sweat, or to sell themselves. Think of the interview as match-making. You’re looking for the perfect candidate, and they’re looking for a good culture-match, so ensure that during this time together you are putting emphasis on the businesses cultural values, and engage in general conversation to work out what makes them tick.

The cliched work-life balance is no longer something people are trying to achieve; they have had a taste of a more flexible life and it is now a necessity. As a result, city-based businesses who expect employees to be present five days per week are not going to have the same access to great talent if there is a more flexible offer on the table.

Candidates are naturally drawn to big-name, leading companies. However, it is those who may find it more difficult to implement change on a large scale. If this is you, consider some smaller changes that are easy to implement — such as an anchor day — and use this as your key proposition during interviews.

Anchor days are already proving to be effective across small, medium and large organisations, but it’s the larger ones in particular that ready need to take note. For any business, the biggest challenge you have as you grow is maintaining culture.

If this is already a challenge to maintain unity across a large team, removing this element, limiting interaction and making what they do autonomous is an office-culture death sentence.

Sell yourself appropriately

Stop making job ads a skills shopping list. When have you ever seen a real estate ad showcase the colours of the walls in the backshed? For most roles, the skills required are obvious and job ads need to focus more on what your business has to offer than what the candidate is required to do.

Tell the world what an amazing company you are and list your successes over the requirements. And try reformatting these as a ‘greatest hits’ of the role. Present the key skills required for the role as reasons why they will enjoy it — this approach will be sure to relate and connect with people who are a perfect match.

When it comes to your ads, make sure that what you say, and how you say it, is reflected on your website and within your overall online presence. Don’t forget that candidates will go straight to these pages to check you out, the same way that you or your recruitment team may do for them.

Sounds like hard work. Is hybrid forever?

The year of 2022 will be an experimental year for all businesses, from hybrid working to hybrid hiring. Ultimately, the challenge is whether businesses can make their workplaces so desirable that by 2023, staff won’t want to work from home.

Employees will be reassured to hear that more and more candidates are asking about benefits and flexibility over that eye-catching 10% salary increase, meaning that cultural changes should be top of mind — and this includes the way you seek new talent.

After all, how do you expect your business to successfully implement these new ways of working, without a new generation of employees to help you grow and achieve those goals?

Five skills every business should be looking for in a candidate:

1. Agility

   This skill has taken over as the most important competency you can possess. Today’s business world is fast moving and forever changing — you need to be adaptable, positive and swift in your response to change.

2. Customer service skills

   Whether it be with internal or external stakeholders, having exceptional customer service skills and the ability to leave a lasting impression is and always will be invaluable.

3. Results orientation

   This has always been important, but even more so now when there are flexible working scenarios and the need for employers to have trust in their people.

4. Problem solving skills

   Being able to ‘think on your feet’ and be savvy when it comes to problem solving is vital. Problem solvers can observe, judge and act quickly when difficulties arise and they inevitably do, no matter what your role is.

5. Attention to detail

   Without ‘attention to detail’ to ensure there is no requirement for re-work, employees would not be able to achieve all of their outcomes. On top of this, exceptional attention to detail allows management to trust in the quality of work, in turn offering more challenging tasks and growth opportunities.