The Secret to Faster and Better STEM Recruiting? Leverage the Team You Are Recruiting For

When it comes to job satisfaction, factors such as inclusivity and meaningfulness are playing an increasingly crucial role, particularly among STEM talent. Including your team – whether they are all STEM, a mix of STEM and non-STEM, or non-STEM workers looking to welcome a STEM colleague – in your recruitment process now has a two-fold benefit.

First, it lets you attract, engage, and hire a much better fit. With STEM workers found to have high levels of soft skills¹ such as empathy and partiality for generosity, equality, and emotional intelligence, seeing the team is involved in hiring its newest member will go a long way to make a positive impression. Second, team members will provide keen insight into the culture fit of your potential hires and have a clearer understanding of the skills the team needs to achieve current and future goals. Here are four steps to get the best results from team recruitment:

Write Better Job Ads

As the first ‘encounter’ job seekers have with you, your job ads sets the tone for how effectively engage the candidates you want – and if they have the STEM skills, experience and proficiencies you need. Getting team input² when writing the job ad provides valuable insights on what specific technical skills (software, apps, certain machinery or techniques, etc.) are must-haves, what preferences would be embraced (post-coding ramen?), and how to present your employer brand in the best most target-specific light.

Invite Team to Candidate Interviews

Having team members participate in the interview phase of the hiring process can be the quickest way to narrow down your choices and identify the best candidate. In STEM jobs like IT, where work is highly collaborative, team interviews are an effective way to ensure a candidate will fit into the overall dynamic and culture.³ Employees interviewing prospective hires lend first-hand insight on what specific skills to look for, and what experiences are most useful. Just as importantly, having the team participate in the interview means having general and immediate feedback on how well the candidate would function in your culture and environment.

Assign Employee Mentors

STEM professional or not, the first day on the job can be stressful. It’s hard not knowing your way around, where to go with questions, or even where to eat lunch. Some companies have adopted a ‘Work Sponsor’ or ‘Buddy System’ program, where a more tenured employee mentors the new team member. In addition to helping the new hires find their bearings more easily (and more pleasantly),³ this also has the benefit of making current employees feel valued and trusted enough to mentor newcomers.

Team Recruitment’s Bonus Benefit:

In addition to helping ensure better hires, the innately inclusive practice of incorporating the team into your recruiting process can help in the retention of current team members. ⁴ By making them active players in the growth of the team and even the company, they are likely to become more engaged from having their opinions and tenure valued and trusted.

1. The surprising thing Google learned about its employees — and what it means for today’s students, Strauss, Valerie (12/20/2017) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/12/20/the-surprising-thing-google-learned-about-its-employees-and-what-it-means-for-todays-students/

• 20 Benefits of Collaborative Recruiting, Martic, Kristina (09/27/2018) https://www.talentlyft.com/en/blog/article/209/20-benefits-of-collaborative-recruiting

• Succeed with Team Interviews, Feffer, Markhttps://www.job-hunt.org/job_interviews/handling-team-interviews.shtml

44 Reasons to Include Your Team in Your Next Hiring Process, Torres, Monica (09/29/2017)https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/4-reasons-to-include-your-team-in-your-next-hiring-process