It's easy to forget what recruiting is really about. We get caught up in all of the glamorous stuff, like effective strategies, talent pipelines, and outdoing competitors with better branding.

Are all of these things important? Heck yes! But they are not THE goal, they are tools towards the goal.

The goal is hiring the right candidate.

Not a rock star, not top talent, and not superman!

The right candidate is the candidate that fits with your team, your company, and the position on offer.

This week's links are all about finding those candidates, the ones that actually exist in real life. They may look more like Clark than Superman, but do you really want a candidate who spends an unnerving amount of time hiding in telephone booths and shows up for work with their undies on the outside of their too-tight pants?!

We recently celebrated Remembrance Day in Canada, a day that proves all too well that our real heroes often go unnoticed and even ignored. Sadly the skill set vets bring to the table are regularly glossed over by recruiters and employers. In this article Laurie Ruettimann makes a stellar argument for hiring vets as recruiters if you want no BS, results based hiring.

Another mistake we often make when imagining our perfect candidate is valuing education over vocational skills. Well, according to this article at HRMagazine, vocational skills are often much more valuable than academic qualifications!

Sometimes you find the right candidate, but, on paper, they simply do not possess all of the skills you need them to. If you're hiring a surgeon? Deal breaker! If you're hiring a secretary? It's skill development time!

Development programs can help you bring new hires up to par, and improve upon the fantastic team you already have.

Candidates are people too, has been a huge theme of late, not only on our blog, but with recruiters and HR pros all over the internet! Especially over at Blogging4Jobs where they presented an entire week of content focused on candidate experience. Satisfaction with one's job is so important. Satisfied employees are happier, happier candidates are more productive, in better health, and are more likely to stay with your company.

Keep your employees satisfied with this advice from Jessica Miller-Merrell. And no, the occasional pizza is not enough!

Oh, and last, but not least, need an example of a job post that will attract candidates, instead of terrifying them? Check out this post by Kris Dunn over at HR Capitalist for a job post that balances telling candidates what is needed of them, with what they can expect in return :D

Happy Linking!