You asked about: Recruiting to rural communities

Question: How do I attract amazing candidates who want to try teaching in a rural community?

Attracting teachers to smaller communities has always been a challenge and it hasn’t become any easier as Canada appears to be experiencing a teacher shortage. What you face reminds me of my first experience recruiting teachers to Fort McMurray Public Schools. 

There was no Canada-wide shortage of teachers, but there was a shortage of teachers in Alberta who wanted to move to what was perceived as an isolated northern community with few amenities and a “harsh climate.”

Over that spring and summer, we succeeded in attracting a sufficient number of applications and interviewing enough candidates to fill more than 100 vacancies. The pursuit of teachers took me across the country, to provinces where shortages of teaching positions produced an abundance of recent graduates anxious to start their teaching careers and willing to go anywhere to do so.

Since that summer of anxiety, I have become an observer of recruitment practices. What works and what doesn’t?

Success seems to depend on the creativity you use to make your organization stand out from the crowd. This should be easy, because in education as in other fields, many organizations rely on a strategy I cynically refer to as, “We’re-Just-as-Boring-As-The-Next-Guy.”

Employers’ advertising state that they are looking for candidates who are dedicated, hardworking, career-oriented team players who enjoy a high-energy environment—which is exactly what every other employer is seeking.

In exchange for an employee’s time, potential employers promise an “attractive remuneration and an excellent benefits package”—just like the other guys are offering.

It’s easy for potential applicants to compare these similar requirements and benefits because everyone advertises where everyone else advertises.

Nothing distinguishes one organization from similar organizations that are hiring. Nothing captures the excitement of their workplaces. “Come work for us. We’re just like every other organization in our field. We’re just as boring.”

Success in attracting applications demands different approaches that will capture the attention of potential applicants.

Humour can be the key. Back in the 1960s, Northlands School Division advertised in the United Kingdom and Ireland for teachers for remote northern communities by warning that, “No Weaklings Need Apply.”

Other organizations combine a mix of humour and vanity to attract applications.

On a screen at the Las Vegas airport a few years, Clark County invited “All Heroes” to apply to teach in its schools—“Cape Included.”  

A recruitment poster in Edmonton’s Block 1912 coffee shop consisted of just a few words—“Qualifications: must be awesome. If this describes you, come prove it.” 

Of course, people applied. Who doesn’t consider themselves “awesome?”

Another factor that may have contributed to the success of those campaigns? They appeared where likely applicants would see them. On the “Fish Where the Fish Are” episode of the CBC radio series Under the Influence, advertising guru Terry O’Reilly describes recruitment campaigns that succeeded because they were creative and were placed where potential applicants would see them.

For example, when recruiting for a new store in Australia, Ikea slipped an extra instruction sheet into every box of furniture sold there. Titled, “Career Instructions: Assemble your future,” the insert advised people who were already customers that they were hiring and provided instructions on how to apply. 

Costs were minimal and the campaign attracted more than 4,000 applications for 280 positions.

My most successful advertisement, as measured by the number of responses,  appeared in the ATA (Alberta Teachers’ Association) News and announced our intent “to hire the 10 best teachers in Alberta.” Anyone who felt they were one of the 10 best was invited  to apply.

Hundreds did!

Another way to “advertise” vacancies is to let parents or customers know you are hiring.

Returning a rental car a few years ago, I was surprised when the person behind the counter announced that, “We are hiring.” I said I wasn’t interested. He was undeterred. Did I know someone who might be interested?

Another potentially productive approach is to ask existing staff, particularly those early in their careers, “Do you know someone who is about to graduate who will be looking for a job?” They just might.

In 2019, McDonald’s restaurants tackled their recruitment challenges with a campaign that invited friends to apply together. “Friends wanted. Be more than friends. Be co-workers.” The US Army has used a similar approach, inviting applications from two friends, married couples and groups of up to five buddies.

I am going to wrap up this article by describing a marketing campaign that we designed for a client that had nothing to doing with recruiting staff but which might be a template that can be applied to attract more applications for jobs in smaller communities.

When a post-secondary institute asked us to develop a smoking cessation campaign targeted at its students, we suggested something that was likely completely different than what they’d expected. We proposed a tongue-in-cheek campaign that focused on what smokers would miss if they stopped smoking.

To their credit, the client took a risk and worked with us to develop posters and bookmarks that focused on the “benefits” of smoking, such as:

• Opportunities to go outside, no matter the weather (illustrated with a picture of a smoker drenched by rain).
• Opportunities to assemble a complete collection of warning labels from cigarette packages.

Based on this experience, I believe that a recruitment campaign that highlights what people would miss if they abandoned urban centres in favour of a job—and a life—in a smaller community, could mention:

• Spending an hour commuting to work every morning and another hour in the afternoon rush-hour traffic.
• Spending most of your paycheque on rent
• Having to drive every time you needed to go shopping for anything
• Being anonymous to senior leadership, who they never meet and seldom see

It’s always going to be a challenge to attract suitable applicants to smaller communities, but creative approaches may make your efforts more successful.

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Interested in spending a few minutes brainstorming solutions to your unique recruitment challenges? Click here to schedule a free, no-obligation conversation with Nelson.

Banish yes and no questions from interviews and reference checks

Could you carry on a conversation for three minutes without using Yes or No?

Responding to this challenge was the essence of the Yes/No Game played by cruise passengers on the Diamond Princess, this past fall.

The game was also a reminder to anyone who is hiring to avoid asking questions during interviews or reference checks that could be answered with a single word.

The cruise director who hosted the game in one of the ship’s lounges invited participants to engage in a three-minute conversation with her, without uttering either word.

The prize: a bottle of wine. And for competitors who failed: an origami crane. Most left the lounge with a paper crane in hand.

Participants tried to avoid the two prohibited words but most fell short. A typical conversation went something like this:

Host: Where are you from?

Participant: Toronto.

Host: Is that a nice place to live?

Participant: Yes. 

Game over! In less than five seconds.

Interviews can go wrong when interviewers ask questions that can be answered with just one word:

“Do you feel teamwork is important?”

“Was ABC Corporation a good place to work?”

“If we were to hire you, how long would you stay?”

And during reference checks: 

“Would you describe Andy as well-organized?”

“Did Anita work well with her colleagues?”

“Would you hire Joe again?”

There are two reasons the above questions don’t work.

First, where do you go next if the candidate replies, “Yes”? 

Even respected media interviewers can fall into the Yes/No question trap, as occurred when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow was interviewing U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. 

Warren simply answered, “Yes” when asked if she would accept an invitation to be Joe Biden’s 2020 running mate, followed by silence when the senator didn’t add to her response.

Finally, Maddow was able to escape this awkward moment in a way not available during hiring interviews. She went to a commercial.

The second problem is that all these questions ask for the candidate or reference’s opinion, when you should be using interviews and reference checks to gather evidence. Specifically, you’re looking for evidence about the candidate’s past performance that will enable you to form an opinion about whether the candidate is the right person to hire, or not.

Some of those questions can be fixed, but others are not worth asking in any form.

Asked if teamwork is important, most candidates will assume that if you are asking, teamwork must be important to you. Hence, the “correct” answer is “Yes.” Teamwork is important to them.

Better to ask candidates to “describe a time when you were a member of a work team” or to ask references to “provide an example of a time when Anita collaborated with a colleague or colleagues.”

 By asking candidates for their assessment of their previous employers or how long they would commit to stay if hired, you’ll get answers unlikely to yield any information that will be useful to you when deciding which candidate is the right person to hire.

Finally, there is that question about whether the reference would rehire this individual. There is no reason to ask that question.

References are strangers to you, carefully selected and coached by candidates to portray them in the best light. Even if references provide their honest assessment of the individual’s performance, you don’t know the criteria they use to judge employees. Hiring decisions should not be based on the opinion of strangers.

These is a question that requires only a one-word response to keep in mind when making hiring decisions:

Whose is the only opinion that matters when hiring for your organization?

Answer: YOURS!

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How to ask questions during interviews and reference checks is one of the topics covered during Interview Right to Hire Right workshops. Please contact Nelson (nmscott@telus.net or 780-232-3828) to schedule an Interview Right to Hire Right workshop for your leadership team or to learn more about this training.

Interviewing online: What hasn’t changed, what to adapt and a few benefits of interviewing virtually

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed much about how we do business, including how we conduct hiring interviews.

Gone now, and for the foreseeable future, is the practice of inviting strangers to meet with you or with an interview panel in your office or other confined space. Interviews have gone virtual.

What does that mean for leaders with a vacancy to fill? How does interviewing need to change? And what remains the same?

The good news is that the essence of good of interviewing practice has not changed. Interviewers still write and ask questions that focus on the candidates’ past performance. They create interview experiences that are fair to all candidates and maximize the quality and quantity of information gathered. Reference checks can still be conducted during telephone conversation, as they were pre-COVID.

There are even benefits derived from the transition to online interviews using platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Team and Go To Meeting:

Virtual interviews save money and time—Neither the candidate nor the interviewers need to travel. This eliminates or significantly reduces the costs associated with interviews, both financial (gas or airfare, accommodation, meals) and in terms of the time required for travel. 

Virtual interviews make scheduling easier—Because no one has to travel, either across the country or just across town, it’s easier to find times that are convenient for both candidates and members of the interview panel.

Virtual interviews can be “blind”—Biases can influence hiring decisions, in both positive and negative ways. Visual clues related to biases, particularly race and gender, can be eliminated by turning off the candidate’s video, just as orchestras audition musicians sight unseen by asking them to perform from behind a screen, so that factors such as race and gender don’t enter into decision about who gets hired.

Related article: Name-blind recruitment meant to exclude biases from hiring process

Virtual interviews might end coffee shop interviews—The inappropriate practice of interviewing candidates in public settings, such as in coffee shops, is less common since the pandemic struck. This is a good thing. Asking candidates to talk about themselves in a public space, surrounded by distractions and by others who may inadvertently overhear the conversation is interview malpractice. Even when life “gets back to normal,” online interviews will be a superior alternative to interviewing in public.

Although the core elements of interviewing and hiring haven’t changed, we need to adapt how we prepare, conduct and follow up virtual interviews:

Preparing for Interviews

How to prepare yourself:

1. The criteria for finding the right place to interview hasn’t changed. The space should be quiet, free from interruptions and free from items that could distract you. For video interviews, consider what will appear behind you that might distract candidates or other panel members. You don’t want people to spend the interview wondering why you have “that thing” on your bookshelf. A blank wall works best. And please, avoid those virtual backgrounds. The halos they create and the way they cause arms and other body parts to disappear can be distracting.
2. Check the technology you will be using to ensure that the audio and video are working properly. Check the lighting. Too much or too little light may make it difficult for others to see you.
3. There are items that you should bring to traditional interviews that you will still require during virtual interviews—the candidate’s resumé, a list of the questions you plan to ask, and paper or a note-taking form (and at least two pens, just in case).

How to prepare the interview panel:

1. Encourage panel members to find a quiet, interruption- and distraction-free space from which to join the interview.
2. Because you are not going to be together, ensure that all panel members have what they need beforehand—resumés, questions, note-taking forms.
3. Encourage panel members to pre-check the technology they will be using.
4. Design an interview plan. Who is going to ask each question? What is the process for asking followup questions?

How to prepare the candidate:

1. Encourage the candidate to find a space that is quiet and interruption-free for the interview. At the same time, be tolerant of unexpected distractions on the candidate’s end. There may be an unexpected phone call. The dog may bark. The candidate’s partner may be working from home or the kids may be off school.
2. Ask the candidate to test the technology that will be used. You might even set up a brief test call if the candidate is unfamiliar with the platform you will be using. Provide your phone number in case something goes wrong during the interview. 
3. In a traditional interview, you would provide water for the candidate. For the virtual interview, suggest the candidate have water or something else to drink on hand. 
4. I suggest that prior to traditional interviews, the person managing the process meet briefly with candidates outside the interview room to prepare them for what they will experience: let them know how many people will be on the interview panel, who will be asking questions, where the candidate will be sitting.  Answer the candidate’s questions about the interview. In the context of a virtual interview, this information could be provided when the candidate first joins the call, or better yet, provide this information in an email or during a short virtual meeting prior to the interview.

During the interview

The candidate should remain in the waiting room until the panel is ready to begin. Emphasize the importance of all panel members being online before the candidate  arrives. When the candidate is invited into the room, begin the interview as you would begin an in-person interview—introduce the panel, explain the process. Then proceed as you would have done prior to the pandemic—ask questions and probe for additional information. For traditional interviews, I suggest printing questions on cards that you hand to the candidate as you ask each question. For virtual interviews, prepare slides and use the screen-share option.

Ending the Interview

In a traditional in-person interview, the process ends with the interviewer providing information about the organization, reviewing the decision-making timeline, offering an opportunity for the candidate to ask questions and finally, handing the candidate a business card with instructions to “contact me if you have any questions or additional information for us, prior to us letting you know our decision.” In the virtual setting, tell the candidate you will be sending information about the organization and highlight what’s included before inviting the candidate’s questions.

After the Interview

1. As occurs following traditional in-person interviews, panel members should assess the candidate, following the process agreed to prior to beginning the interview.
2. Send information to the candidate (as promised). 
3. Conduct reference checks and make sure that what you learn is one more part of the information used to hire the right person to fill your vacancy.
4. Take time to determine how to improve the virtual interview process. Ask panel members three questions: What went well? What could have been done differently? What is the key lesson we learned from these interviews? You might also ask candidates for their input, using a brief survey about their interview experience.

 When this pandemic ends, we may return to interviewing in person, but we are unlikely to totally discard virtual interviews from our hiring toolkit. What we learn now from interviewing virtually may make us better interviewers in the future, whether we are asking our questions in person or online.

If Starbucks asked, here’s what I would suggest they ask during interviews

Some recruitment posters or advertisements stand out because they are different from what we normally see. Instead of simply announcing that the organization is “Now Hiring,” this advertising conveys messages about the culture of the workplace.

It speaks to the potential applicants’ passions or their desires to work in a fun environment.

A recruitment poster in the window of a coffee shop seemed to do both.

The sign announced that Starbucks was “Recruiting Now: We are looking for coffee lovers.” This headline was followed by several questions meant to reflect the values and culture of the organization.

Below the questions, there was a call to action: “If your answer is yes, then come and join us! Apply now!” followed by instructions about how to apply.

Advertising to encourage people to apply is the first step of the recruitment process. Next, managers should search resumés for evidence that applicants who “like serving customers” and “enjoy working as a team” have done so successfully.

When evidence is found of people who have done what is expected, they should be interviewed. Interviews are an opportunity for managers to learn about the candidates’ commitment to customer service, teamwork, fun at work and embracing challenges. But this won’t happen if the managers ask the same questions as appeared on the poster.

Just because the candidate answers, “Yes, I like serving customers,” doesn’t mean the candidate has actually served customers and done so well.

While no one from the Starbucks coffee chain has asked for this advice, here are suggestions of what managers could ask, based on what appeared on the posters. These are questions that will yield evidence of the candidates’ past performance, related to what Starbucks identified as important in new employees.

Recruitment poster asked: “Do you like serving customers?”

Suggested interview question A: Describe a typical customer that you served in your current or a previous job. Take us through an encounter with this customer. 

Followup questions (if required): How did you greet the customer? What did you say to the customer? How did you ensure that the order would be correct? What else did you say or do?

Suggested interview question B: Not all our encounters with customers go as smoothly as we would like. Describe a time when you dealt with an upset customer.

Followup questions: Why was the customer upset? What did you say or do when you realized the customer was upset? How was the problem solved? By whom? What did you learn from this experience?”

Recruitment poster asked: “Do you enjoy working as a team?”

Suggested interview question: Describe a time when you were part of a work team.

Followup questions: What was your role on the team? Who else was on the team? How did you contribute to the work of the team? How did teamwork contribute to the success of the organization?

Recruitment poster asked: Do you also love having fun while working?”

Suggested interview question: We are serious about what we do here, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have fun at work. Describe a time when you had fun at work.

Followup questions: What does “having fun while working” mean to you? How did you contribute to making the workplace fun? Was a time when an attempt to have fun while working didn’t work out? What happened?  

Recruitment poster asked: “Do you embrace challenges?”

Suggested interview question: Describe a challenge you faced at work. 

Followup questions: What was the challenge? What was the source of this challenge? How did you become aware of this situation? What did you do? What was the result?

There may be more topics which these coffee shop managers might wish to explore, but these five questions are a starting point. What’s essential  is that interviewers request information about the candidates’ past performance, in order to gather the evidence required to make hiring decisions. Avoid asking questions that require candidates to speculate on how they might deal with work situations.

Oh yes, there was one more question on the poster for which it’s difficult to find an alternative question: “Are you passionate about coffee?”

A better question may be the one asked before the interview begins: “Let me get you a drink. What would you like?”

It’s an offer that would be hard for someone who is “passionate about coffee” to decline.

Note to those who subscribe to my biweekly newsletter: Over next few issues, I plan to suggest how interviewers can assess candidates’ responses to each of these questions (one question in each newsletter) to identify those who have the potential to become top performers. Not a subscriber? Click here to be added to the distribution list.

Afterthought: I once met a former Starbucks managers, who did not like coffee. What she brought to the job was more important than a passion for coffee. She was able to lead and inspire others to do a good job.

Suggested Action: Examine both your recruitment advertising and your interview questions. Does your advertising attempt to tap into potential applicants’ passions and reflect your organization’s culture and values? Is there a link between what appears in recruitment materials and your interview questions? Do you use interviews to dig deeper into the candidate’s commitment to what’s important to your organization?

Participants in my Interview Right to Hire Right workshops have the opportunity to develop questions based on what’s important for staff to do to contribute to the success of the organization. Email nmscott@telus.net or call (780) 232-3828 to learn more, or to schedule a program for your convention or conference, or for training for your staff.

Potential applicants may not apply if the list of requirements is too long

Are we unconsciously shrinking the talent pool from which to draw new hires or to promote employees by creating job postings and job descriptions that are biased against women and other groups?

In a recent article on the forbes.com website, Lisa Rabasca Roepe suggests that women don’t apply for new positions or promotions because they feel they don’t meet all the qualifications.

“Too often, women fall into the trap of believing they can only apply for a promotion or a new position if the they meet all the requirements in the job descriptions,” she writes.

Based on advice from Kimberly Cassady, the chief talent officer at Cornerstone OnDemand, Rabasca Roepe suggests that the remedy is for would-be applicants to focus on the core competencies of the job.

“To find out more about the skills required to do the job, talk to other people in similar positions,” she writes. “Ask them what they do every day that makes them successful [and] what skills they use every day.”

Based on this research, applicants should identify their competencies in their cover letters. “Make a point to outline your core competencies and how those competencies will help you perform the job duties,” Rabasca Roepe writes.

What she suggests candidates do is what you should do before writing a job posting. What makes your top performers your top performers? The answer should be based on your observations, supplemented by conversations with these individuals.

Once you know what makes your top performers successful you can identify the core competencies necessary for others to succeed in the position, which should then become the focus when screening resumes, interviewing and checking references.

Of course, there may be other requirements, such job-specific educational qualifications. Those are non-negotiable—if applicants lack those qualifications, they will be eliminated when you screen resumes.

List these requirements, along with the core competencies, in the job posting. Certainly, there will be other skills which you would prefer applicants have, but those don’t rise to the level of being core competencies. 

When listed on a job posting, the non-essential requirements can be reasons some people, who would satisfy your core requirements, don’t apply. 

For this reason, use interviews and reference checks to find evidence of whether the candidate has demonstrated the ability to learn new skills quickly. 

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Suggested Action: Before posting a job, consider what top performers do that makes them top performers, based on both your observations and input from the top performers. Use what you learn to identify the core competencies to include in the job posting.

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Participants in Interview Right to Hire Right workshops use what they know about what makes top performers successful to develop questions for interviews and reference checks. Email nmscott@telus.net or phone (780) 232-3828 to learn more or to schedule training for leaders from your organization.