I have been with Gentle Giant since 2002 and have been working in HR and Recruiting for the past 13 years. 

I have found that following up with applicants within 24 hours of them applying is the best way to keep a candidate’s interest.  What doesn’t work is waiting on a good applicant for a week before following up with them. I always tell my team that a strong applicant will be gone in two days whereas a subpar one will still be around in a week.

Keep the meeting formal even though most are now conducted by video. If they are late to the meeting, driving, or trying to multitask during the interview, I will either ask them for their complete attention or end the interview. For your part, as the interviewer, be sure you understand your company’s best selling points and make sure they are discussed during the interview.

While interviewing, prioritize the skills specific to the position; for instance, they must be physically able to do the job. Pre-covid, it was easier to identify the right people when you could meet with them face-to-face. Online interviews make it more difficult to judge someone’s physical abilities. I ask questions about their work history and if they played sports growing up to get a sense of their background with physical work.

Beyond that, I am looking for people who are motivated, humble, and sincere. I always start interviews with some questions or a conversation on topics that I have found in their application. If the person tells me they are into basketball I will start by asking what their favorite team is, etc. I find this helps them to open up, feel comfortable, and let their guard down a little bit to allow me to get a sense of what this person will be like to work with when they are out on the job.

Overall, recent technological advancements have provided measurable advantages in our recruitment efforts. We use an ATS as well as a behavioral assessment tool to streamline our hiring process. Having the ATS has been extremely helpful and allows us to have the same recruiting and onboarding process in place for all applicants across the country.  

Retaining great employees is every bit as important as hiring the right ones. To build employee engagement and morale, we maintain consistent communication through monthly company meetings and emails from team leaders. We also ensure all employees have a manager who they can speak with to keep communication lines open. Providing information about the different trainings we offer as well as opportunities for advancement within the organization demonstrates that the company is invested in its employees’ future.