In conversation with Rajkumar Balakrishnan

30 job roles to be filled in 30 days.

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That’s the goal. That is the target.

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It is not an easy target, mind you. It requires persistence and patience. There is pressure involved. An ordinary person might just crumble under this pressure.

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But not Raj.

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The big targets don’t deter Raj’s optimism.

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Raj gets up in the morning, has his morning cup of coffee, and gets to work.

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His day starts with gathering the client requirements and assigning the tasks to his team of recruiters. The recruiters start reaching out to candidates. The final evaluation is done by Raj.

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Raj started working with AMBC technology in 2012 and was quickly able to climb the ranks. AMBC INC. provides services like IT Staffing, Application Development, etc.

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Raj is currently helping three clients with all their recruitment needs. When I asked Raj about the top 3 recruitment challenges that he faces, these are the pointers that came up:

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• Too many options-The candidates who are looking for a new opportunity, have a variety of options to choose from. The candidate that a recruiter is assessing might have three more job opportunities waiting for him! Because of this, it becomes difficult for recruiters to select a candidate.
• Requirement changes-The requirement which is floated initially may change after the hiring manager reviews it again. Internal changes in the requirement also impact the speed of recruitment.
• Budget constraints-The 3rd challenge that they face is the budget constraint from the client. As compensation is one of the most significant factors which can influence the candidate, low budgets make it very difficult for the recruiter to hire quality talent.
• Long notice periods-Some organizations have a notice period of 2 months! This makes it harder for the recruiters to complete the recruitment as the client needs are always urgent.

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From the conversation with Raj, it was clear how much he believed in having top-class practices in place during the entire recruitment process.

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“Your recruitment processes need to be immaculate”, Raj said.

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It is not okay to make the candidate wait for longer hours when he/she visits the office for the interview.

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It is not okay for the technical team to be unavailable when the interview with them has already been scheduled.

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It is not okay to change the order of assessments.

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If the interview was scheduled at 11.00 am followed by the written test, it is not cool if you swap the two steps.

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One of my personal learnings:

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Recruitment is certainly getting competitive. Attracting the right talent is getting harder than ever. And in such a competitive phase, rather than trying to run behind talent, it would help organizations to build a brand. It would help the organizations attract the right kind of talent.

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Not all the talent… but the right talent.

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Create a story that your brand believes in. Create a compelling story that the right type of talent will believe in. A compelling story that touches the right chords is enough to attract the right kind of candidates.

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Competition becomes meaningless because employees emotionally connect with the brand.

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