What’s Wrong With Your Recruitment Process?
If your recruitment process needs some work, you’re not alone. Many cybersecurity startups are in a similar situation. The key to overcoming recruitment challenges is usually a shift in mindset.
The first step to fixing an inefficient recruitment process is understanding the difference between hiring and recruitment. You’re “hiring” when robust training programs are available for new employees or if the role you’re seeking to fill requires limited-to-no experience in the field. When hiring, hiring managers post job descriptions, interview an array of motivated applicants and select the individuals that seem to be the best fit. Under these circumstances, the pool of available human resources is relatively substantial.
That is not the scenario in cybersecurity. Since the security industry is in the infancy phase of its life cycle, it is dominated by startups and a limited talent pool of experienced professionals. Of course, this is a brutal combination. By nature, startups don’t have the time or resources to train people to do the job. Instead, to keep ahead of the curve—and meet investor expectations—startups need special-ops-caliber professionals to parachute in and make an impact on day one. These professionals are in high demand and short supply.
In this context, employers don’t have the luxury of the hiring mindset outlined above. Instead, the approach needs to shift from “I’m hiring” to “I’m recruiting.” When executives engage recruitment resources, they must understand what they’re asking for. And to be clear, the ask is to poach the most valuable resource from their competitors—top talent.
It’s important to note that talent acquisition efforts aren’t limited to presenting a resume to hiring managers. To do talent acquisition correctly, a command of the three primary elements of recruitment is critical.
Identify
Identifying talent in cybersecurity can be daunting, given there are an estimated 2,500-3,000 security vendors. Filtering vendors by segment and talent by function and location is an excellent way to reduce the sprawl of prospective talent for specific recruitment initiatives. This mapping process is time-consuming and costly, so you must ensure you don’t waste your effort with substandard messaging to identified prospects. Before reaching out to a curated list of individuals, review your company’s employment value proposition. Does it speak to potential employees? It should not be the same messaging sent to customers.
Attract
With a pool of target prospects identified and messaging ready, it’s time to begin the attract phase. This is where you double down on engagement with your recruitment team. As the campaign unfolds and candidates enter the interview process, the situation becomes dynamic. On the employer side, conditions associated with investors, the product or customers can impact the role. For candidates, new projects, promotions, raises and competing opportunities may influence their decision-making. Navigating and addressing these items are a massive part of recruitment and attracting suitable candidates, which is why a “liaison” is necessary.
A liaison can be an internal recruitment professional or an agency headhunter. This person is joined-at-the-hip of candidates and hiring managers throughout the engagement and facilitates every step of the process. This enables the liaison to take the mantle of a trusted advisor whose task is to inquire into changing circumstances and set agendas for interviews based on questions that arise from both parties. With this program in place, feedback loops are seamless and expectations are constantly being set, ensuring that both employer and candidate are appropriately qualifying the fit.
Land
Ultimately this liaison is positioned to broker the final and most critical juncture: The offer (landing) stage. This shouldn’t be a nail-biter if the liaison has delivered (i.e., questions by both parties have been continuously addressed in real-time, the role and responsibilities of the position have been defined in detail and compensation expectations have been set). Securing a verbal agreement, followed up by a signed offer, should essentially be a formality. And as a trusted advisor, after the offer has been signed, the liaison should be able to navigate candidates through the dreaded resignation and counteroffer period.
Shifting the executive mindset from hiring to recruiting and deploying a capable liaison will ensure your company isn’t losing the war for talent. This applies not only to landing your preferred candidates but also contributes to reduced employee churn as you’re constantly qualifying the match throughout the interview process.
