Lateral Hiring: The Challenging Easy Step
Among the many hiring techniques that exist in the HR and staffing industry, lateral hiring is perhaps the most commonly used one. It’s basically a lifesaver for companies of all sizes across different sectors. The technique surely has a lot of benefits and even the potential to assemble an entire team. However, when using a hiring solution like this, you need to be smart and know the basics.
Here’s a look at lateral hiring
Lateral hiring helps organisations hire professionals employed in the same role in other organisations. Mostly, this hiring process targets candidates that are deemed passive. The HRs have to find such employees and bring them to their organisation. Getting a passive employee to leave their current organisation, requires an extra pull. Offering them a substantial hike or a senior position works like a charm.
Candidates hired through this technique offer better results. Their extensive expertise, network, and soft and hard skills can add great value to your organisation.
What are the benefits of lateral hiring?
Beneficial for both the long and short term, lateral hiring, gets you a trained professional who can start working with minimal training. It’s a smart solution if you’re looking to close key positions.
While this is just the beginning, let us take a look at the other benefits of lateral hiring.
Innovation Boost:
Organisations that have lateral hiring as their core process, emphasize this part. When looking to hire candidates, they connect with employees working in companies that are industry leaders.
This enables organisations to get insights into how these mega-corporations manage their operations and scale their business targets.
Zero Down Time:
Trained candidates come with experience which enables them to take over with minimal guidance. Doing so helps you save on time and training resources.
Higher Motivation:
When a candidate switches companies through lateral hiring, the thrill of getting a higher pay or a much-deserved position pumps their morale high. Its common for lateral hire to be a literal ball of energy.
When should you consider lateral recruiting?
Industries where knowledge and expertise help to get the job done, are perfect for lateral hiring. Although, other industries and business types can adopt this approach too. In some cases, lateral hiring comes handy for businesses that are expanding, transitioning or merging with another company.
Organizations often feel the need to hire field experts who can navigate through different processes and help them achieve their business goals.
Other instances of lateral hiring include hiring for a position that has been vacated. To grow, you can hire a candidate with better expertise than the previous employee.
7 Steps to Lateral Hiring
A combination of networking, expertise, and sound knowledge defines the lateral hiring process. Here’s how it works.
1. Define what your organisation needs:
Try defining the roles as clearly as possible by listing down all the skills and expertise required. Candidates selected for these roles should have extensive knowledge of the industry along with analytical and problem-solving skills.
2. Look for candidates:
Good candidates with a proven track record, without advertising, will not be easy to find. Therefore, you need to broaden your search horizon and if required look for candidates living in other cities or states. To see if a candidate is good for your company, you can ask yourself the following questions
- Which candidate has the higher number of achievements?
- Which candidate has been participating in the active growth of the industry?
- How well known is the candidate?
These questions can be a great way to filter candidates and find your perfect match. Once you have a final list of candidates, investigate thoroughly about them.
3. Create a shining image of your company:
Executive-level hirings are the most common in lateral hiring and their remuneration is similar across the industry. So, you need to understand that money is not the only motivating factor. Therefore, highlighting things that make your company look like a better choice can give you a major advantage.
4. Contact Candidates:
Start connecting with the candidates when you have an offer. Start your conversations casually and then pitch the opportunity you have for them. Once you feel that they are interested in your offer you can schedule a meeting. When doing all this, you need to be extra careful. Your prospective candidates are already employed and you wouldn’t want your organisation to be tagged as a poacher. Keep in mind that when you’re in the introduction stage, don’t ask for CVs or any other details.
5. Negotiation:
This is the most important step. Everything you do at this point can make or break the deal. Your prospective candidate already has a compelling package and might not be interested in switching companies. Therefore, you need to understand their needs and aspirations to create an enticing offer.
6. Putting The Right Numbers:
Once you have got the attention of the candidate, make them an offer that suits their demands and your requirements and capacity. Some candidates might accept the offer right away, whereas, others may need time to consider.
7. Welcoming Aboard:
The onboarding process for candidates hired through lateral hiring includes providing them with information about the company’s goals, culture, and management hierarchy.
The end goal of lateral hiring is to find the right candidate for the job. Therefore, you need to take a systematic approach to achieve this goal.
Challenges faced in lateral hiring
Confidentiality Critical
Lateral hiring targets candidates who are already working with another organisation. They could get in trouble if their current employer finds out about their migration plans.
As an HR, you have to be cautious while implementing this process. A mistake in the implementation of this process can damage your organization’s image and make you look weak in front of the competition.
Takes time
From finding the right candidates to convincing and onboarding them takes time. However, this time can be reduced by a lot if you hire an agency or use your contacts.
Higher Expectations, Low Output
In most cases, candidates hired through this process underperform due to multiple reasons. The best solution for such a situation is to give the candidate some time or check for responsibilities overlap.
Conclusion
Lateral hiring can land you good talents, but you need to consider the time it takes ‘costs’ money. Unless you have access to an extensive talent pool of thoroughly vetted candidates, your strategy might not work as expected. To make hiring easier for your organisation, you can connect with Anzy Global.