I recently had the pleasure of talking with a handful of hiring colleagues and recruiters regarding the process of how to hire digital marketing and E-Commerce virtuoso’s.
This is what I found: every single HR professional and recruiter was on a completely different page.
Is your company currently hiring for a marketing manager or Director of Marketing position?
Does your HR and hiring team know how to build a proper job description for the open E-Commerce role? Do you know what to expect from potential candidates who are applying?
Each recruiter I spoke with had completely different hiring criteria, income expectations, and direction from their respective leadership teams. All this confusion created frustration for both the hiring team and the candidates.
When HR representatives and recruiters are on such opposite pages, it hurts their credibility, negatively impacts the companies bottom line, and messes with the potential-candidates professional life.
It’s just bad for everyone.
Here are 3 things that hiring managers and recruiters need to consider when hiring marketing and E-Commerce professionals.
Don’t make the hiring description 5 pages long.
See below for an example of some terrible hiring criteria. Surprisingly it was written for a mid-level marketing and E-Commerce position. This role was with a large, multinational conglomerate corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The criteria below is attempting to pair a candidate with an impossible skill-set.
The hiring manager is looking for a rock-star, who exists on planet mamby-pamby, with purple martians.
Bottom line for companies and HR managers/recruiters: do not make the hiring criteria this long. It sucks.
[ Download my free guide on how to recruit and hire great marketing and E-Commerce professionals ]
Be bold with your recruitment and hiring plan.
HR Managers and recruiters, be bold! Do not let the C-level executive team push you around and demand that you look for Superman, when he does not exist. HR managers and recruiters KNOW what will sell. They KNOW which positions will be filled and which positions are impossible to fill.
Be realistic when hiring for digital marketing positions and E-Commerce positions. When candidates see a description like the one above, not only will it be difficult for you to do your job, but it will take many frustrating hours of interviews due to the fact that the job requisition is not realistic.
Define what it is the candidate will actually do. Many career descriptions are vague, ambiguous and do not identify whether or not the role will be strategic in nature or tactical in nature. Do businesses want a coder or programmer or do they want a project manager? (Project managers are project managers, typically not coders) Do companies want to work with a high-level business leader or a hands-on worker-bee? Define this clearly to avoid confusion.
Interview and hire based on character, not experience/education.
Here is a great blog post about how Apple hires its team members.
Apple, Google, Qualcomm and companies like this hire team members based on their value, personality, work ethic and ability to think autonomously. I know some are reading this, asking themselves how companies can use such “fruity” hiring practices, but they work. If they did not work, large multinational corporations would not embrace these hiring practices.
The above companies have low turnover, highly efficient cultures, that hire based on personality strengths, (I am an ESTJ for example), personality weaknesses and perceived value. Do not ONLY look at their background or education. A candidate with an MBA does not make a good marketer, 100% of the time.
What is the bottom line.
- Do not develop hiring criteria that is 5 miles long.
- Be bold with what is realistic and what is not.
- Interview and hire candidates based on personality and value not just education and experience.
Leave a comment below. If you are an HR manager or recruiter, tell us what struggles you have with finding awesome marketing professionals and E-Commerce candidates.
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