We have focused on the various best practices of Recruitment across the globe.  The inspiration for this research comes from Edwin Land – American Scientist who invented the Polaroid.  Edwin Land believed that whatever you are going to invent already exists in scientific papers and university dissertations and in the minds of practicing professionals.  Edwin Land famously invented the Polaroid by observing the urine samples of sick dogs treated with Quinine for parasites.  The microscopic crystals turned out to be the highest quality polarizers of light.  This fact was documented in a New York Public Library.  Land pored through every article on Optics and landed with this crown jewel.  Here we have attempted to summarize what we think as best practices in recruiters and field professionals’ minds.

Here is our effort to summarize studies and interviews. 

1. Employer Brands is not uniform across all locations. Messaging is absolutely important.  Unless you are the top few new-age tech companies, many companies do not have uniform branding power across locations.  For example, even a world-known beverage player in Atlanta may not have enough power to compete in certain software areas in Seattle or Portland.  There are many reasons why this is the case.  Even in this era of Digital boundaries, Geographical presence still has an impact.
2. Build Digital Communities:  The best way to manage this challenge is to build Digital Communities. These are done through Twitter and Linkedin.  Our research shows that Recruiters who have a community who share general tips such as how best to face a challenging interview have more traction.  As many of you will know, what one gives should be exponentially higher in a digital community than what one takes.  It may be helpful to give some help to recruiters around what can be shared (rather than leaving it to the Recruiter)
3. A big data approach to Comp and Ben benchmark needs to be done carefully, taking inputs from local SME or local market intelligence sources. Despite all that, once you start hiring, it should be recalibrated as most Job descriptions are a combination. Various skills and benchmark reports are based on broad roles such as ‘senior engineer’ or specific skills, e.g.,  ‘Java.’ As recruiters learn, the targets must be revised dynamically.  To a certain extent, survey houses are at a disadvantage, so you have to take a Big data approach to Comp and Ben.  (a command center approach is very much required)
4. The assessment criterion and process need to be transparent and standardized as much as possible for Recruitment to run like an oiled machine. In our research on a job role like Full Stack Developer with five recruiters, 3 of them did not know what makes Full Stack developer best in class!.  A lot of our research is aimed at solving this constraint.  But this is easier said than done.  Concentrated efforts should be devoted to this. (we are thinking about power-packed 5-minute video series to help Recruiters)
5. Somebody needs to own hiring! Companies have silos (esp. big ones). Branding and communication makes branding material without consulting the TA team or hiring managers on the kind of talent they want; TA team waits on comp and ben team to send them comp ranges, which sometimes don’t have inputs from hiring managers or leaders on vision or criticality of the team to work and hence not adequate to hire top talent. These teams need to coordinate, and someone (most preferably someone from TA) needs to fill the gaps and program manage
6. Hiring managers/engineering teams should be made equally responsible as the TA team to hire top talent.  The Engineering team is super busy and does not have enough to hire.  But if they do not, they will stay super busy.  So it is an interesting conundrum.  Hiring has to be a leadership priority
7. Talent pyramids should be built by hiring managers or leaders in consultation with the TA team.  In general, levels are not well understood in Digital Roles.  Microsoft, for example, progressive, lowered the experience requirements of whom they call Principal Engineers.  Many companies have an outdated view of who is a senior resource.  Once again, a very vast topic that I will be writing in detail about in subsequent weeks
8. Know your internal champions:  In one interview with a large industrial company, I requested the Recruiter to name the top engineer in their company and why they believe they are the best.  Surprisingly, the Recruiter good did not answer that.  Internal talent is the best marketing weapon for Recruiters.  Lunch and Learn with your own best of the best.  Bring these stories into Recruitment for better results
9. The offer roll-out process is vital. If a person in a leadership position or senior position in the engineering team rolls out the offer, there is a higher chance of acceptance
10. Handle Rejected Candidates with care:  Quite likely; the rejected candidates will become a match for other roles.  A CRM approach of treating all candidates with care proves helpful in the long run.
11. An effective process to handle Bias:  Bias reduces your pipeline.  There is no doubt that this needs to be removed, but the question is how.  We are still researching this, and we will write a dedicated email on this topic